// BBC HEALTH NEWS — SALUTE
Does your partner's snoring keep you up? It could be impacting your health
Have you ever slept next to a snoring partner and woken up feeling stressed, unfocused or forgetful the next day?
As snoring is relatively common, it is often left untreated and dismissed as a harmless irritation. But according to experts, sleeping next to a snorer could be impacting your health.
Snoring is caused by the vibration of the soft tissues in our upper airways during sleep, explains Dr Clare Simon, a dentist with a special interest in dental sleep medicine.
About 40% of the UK adult population snores, with the issue affecting more men than women, says the British Snoring and Sleep Apnoea Association (BSSAA).
And 75% of people with a snoring partner say they have had their sleep impacted, according to a US survey by the Sleep Foundation.
Here's what you need to know about the impact on partners - and what you can do about it.
Prof Ama Johal, a consultant orthodontist and sleep expert at Aerox Health, explains that the partner of a snorer can become "so impacted upon that it's almost a last-ditch effort on their part to get up and go sleep in a separate room because they have to sleep".
He adds: "As humans we physically can't function without that necessity."
Prof Ama Johal says many couples put up with the negative effects snoring for too long
During the night, we cycle through different stages of sleep in repeating patterns, usually every 90 minutes.