Snores can Burn Calories

A new study has elevated the 'nuisance' called snoring to a healthy habit. The study suggests that heavy snores can actually help burn calories. According to the study, heavy snorers burn more fat than light counterparts, even while they are awake and resting. The study has been published in the December issue of Archives of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. 

Sleep-related breathing disorders include snoring, pauses in breathing (sleep apnea) and other conditions in which airways are partially or completely obstructed during sleep. "Obesity is a major risk factor for the development of sleep-disordered breathing, and changes in body weight are associated with changes in sleep-disordered breathing severity," the researchers write as background information in the article. 

"It is unclear whether weight gain is simply a cause of sleep-disordered breathing or whether sleep-disordered breathing may be associated with alterations in energy metabolism that, in turn, lead to weight gain and complicate the treatment of these two disorders that often coexist," they added. 

Body weight is based on the balance between energy or calorie intake and expenditure, the authors note. Resting energy expenditure, or the number of calories burned while resting, is one component of total daily energy expenditure. 

To reach the conclusion, Eric J. Kezirian, M.D., M.P.H., of the University of California, San Francisco, and colleagues assessed the resting energy expenditure in 212 adults with signs or symptoms of sleep-related breathing disorders.