Women snore as loud as men, but do not report the problem because of "social stigma" that could be a sign of sleep apnea.

NEW YORK: According to a new study, women are more likely to underestimate their snoring problem than men.

In the study published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, researchers found that women snored as loudly as men. However, the "social stigma" prevented them from reporting on the problem, which contributed to the under-diagnosis or misdiagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea, a serious sleep disorder.

"We found that although no difference in snoring intensity was found between the bades, women tended to underestimate snoring and underestimate the intensity of their snoring. snoring, "said Nimrod Maimon, a professor at the Soroka University Medical Center in Israel.

"Women said they snore less often and called it softer," Maimon added.

For the study, the researchers included 1,913 participants in the sleep badessment.

The results of the study revealed that 88% of women (591 out of 675) had objectively measured snoring, but only 72% reported snoring (496 out of 675). For men, objective snoring (92.6%) and self-reported snoring (93.1%) were similar.

The study also found that women snored as loud as men, with a humming intensity of 50 decibels and 51.7 decibels in men. About 49% of women had severe or very severe snoring (329 out of 675), but only 40% of women rated their snoring as severe (269 out of 675).

"The fact that women reported snoring less often and described it as milder could be one of the barriers preventing women from accessing sleep clinics for a sleep study," she said. said Maimon.

The researchers said that women with sleep apnea are more likely to report symptoms, including daytime fatigue.