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."