The air way tends to collapse with continuous use of sedatives, such as sleeping pills, and certain narcotic medicines that act as pain relievers. These factors contribute to the causes of snoring.

Sometimes, people complain of snoring when they sleep on their back. There may be an attempt to shift elbows to the other side while asleep. The weight of the elbows causes the airway to collapse. The pressure on the throat is reduced when the body is shifted to the other side. REM sleep is associated with dreaming, but it is also a period of heavy snoring. During this time in the sleep cycle, the airway muscles are extremely relaxed, letting the soft palate and uvula vibrate against the back of your throat.

Craniofacial malformations or a mid-face abnormality are some of the factors contributing towards the decreasing size of the airway. Snoring in children may be due to the enlarged tonsils or adenoids. In rare conditions, snoring is influenced by a recessed jaw or a large tongue.

Gestational diabetes or sleep apnea can be the cause for snoring in a woman during her third trimester of pregnancy. In this case, both the mother and the baby are deprived of oxygen.

Snoring is commonly observed in older people. With the passage of time, the muscles of the throat tend to relax, losing their muscle tone. When you are asleep, these relaxed muscles cause an obstruction. High blood pressure, diabetes, stroke and sudden death are the complicated issues associated with snoring in older people.

The part of the brain that handles the breathing functions is depressed by these activities. They result in over-relaxation of the throat and the tongue muscles. The movement of air into the nasal passage is interrupted, which can cause snoring.

A thin cartilage bone that separates the two nostrils is termed as nasal septum. An injury or surgery of the nose can result in the deviation of this septum. The symptoms associated with this deviation may be a runny nose, crooked nose or problems in breathing, such as snoring.

Infections due to cold and allergy cause nasal congestion. In this condition, the inflamed blood vessels cause the swelling of the tissues in the nose. This in turn blocks the nasal passage and causes snoring when you are asleep.

The nasal passage may get blocked due to infection in the upper respiratory tract. Sometimes an allergy or nasal polyps can block the nasal passage. In this condition it becomes difficult to breathe. This creates a pressure to pull the tissues together to breathe, thus affecting the tissues of the throat.

Snoring is influenced by your body weight. The extra fat gets accumulated in the nasal passage and the other regions in the body. The region in the throat narrows, causing an obstruction during your resting period. Sometimes the extra fat tends to exert an external pressure on your breathing process, thus interrupting your breathing. People with large necks experience direct pressure resulting in snoring.