THE DIFFERENTIATION OF SNORING MECHANISMS USING SOUND ANALYSIS

Ten subjects known to suffer from heavy snoring but not obstructive sl eep apnoea were studied using the technique of sleep nasendoscopy. The mechanism of snoring was noted for each and sound recordings of the s noring noise were made. Six subjects were observed to snore using thei r soft palate only, three snored using only their tongue base and one snored using a combination of palate and tongue base. The sound record ings were subjected to computer analysis of waveform and frequency. Pa latal flutter snoring and tongue base snoring appear to have distinct waveform and frequency patterns which allows them to be differentiated from each other.