SEPTEMBER / NEXT 123
I
never knew that 40-something-year-
old women snore until I went on a
tramping trip with seven girlfriends.
After the lights went out in the DOC
hut, ve of my seven friends began snoring.
I reached for my ear plugs to block out the
cacophony of sounds coming from the
mattresses lined up in the hut.
As a child, I heard my grandmother
snore from her bedroom down the hallway
when I stayed in her small at. Once my
mother hit her 60s, she too started to
occasionally snore. However, I ignorantly
believed that snorers were most commonly
like my father: overweight, elderly men.
It’s a stereotype that makes Frances
Anderson nod. Frances is a petite woman
who spent much of her life snoring.
The Hamilton-based entrepeneur didn’t
know she snored until she was 13 and at
boarding school. She groans, recalling the
shame of being moved to a bed down one
end of the dormitory after her schoolmates
complained she was keeping them awake.
It’s something that could be down to her
genetic makeup. “I spent years listening to
my parents snore,” she says.
But what else causes snoring? Normally
the muscles in the throat are rm but
when we sleep they relax. In some people,
they relax so much that the structuresthey support collapse and partially block
the airway. As air is inhaled and exhaled
during sleep, these structures can vibrate,
producing distinctive snoring sounds.
In today’s culture, snoring doesn’t seem
feminine, and it can be embarrassing
for women. For years, Frances’ husband
pretended he was the one snoring when
they stayed with friends, taking the ak
for his wife.
Frances found her snoring so
problematic that she stopped staying
with friends. She also had minor surgery
to remove the ap of soft tissue at the
back of her throat, which failed to stop
the problem. Last year, she launched
a scienti cally tested sleep pillow on
International Sleep Day.
Patented in several countries, and the
only one like it, Frances took ve years to
develop her Patney sleep positioner – a
sleep pillow that encourages the head and
upper chest into the correct position to
maintain an open airway and good sleep
posture. In a trial carried out by the Otago
University WellSleep Centre, 89% of those
who completed a survey after using the
pillow found it reduced their snoring.
Today, almost half of all Patney pillows
are bought by women. About a third of
the customised pillows are sold to petitewomen who are shorter than 165cm and
weigh less than 70kg. Of the pillow
buyers, half said snoring was in their
family, suggesting that, like Frances, there
may be a genetic predisposition behind it.
Says Frances, “I wish I had a dollar for
every time I hear about the dramas women
put themselves through because of their
shame about snoring.”
A survey of her customers found
18% moved out of the marital bed because
of their snoring. “Women will stay awake or
move rooms because they’re so humiliated.
Men will have a few beers with the boys
and spend all night snoring but they
usually don’t care.”
According to Angela Campbell, the
manager of Otago University’s WellSleep
Centre, female snoring is more common
than we admit. Although men snore more
than women, the condition affects around
30% of women.
At the sleep diagnostic facility at
Wellington’s Bowen Hospital, Angela and
her team see Wellington’s worst sleepers,
numbering around 1200 people a year,
of whom about a third are female. All
those referred for a diagnostic sleep
study struggle to get the recommended
minimum seven hours of sleep a night.
The most common problem suffered »‘Wen wi me rms because ey’re so humiliated’
HEALTH