When you snore, it’s because parts of your throat vibrate as you breathe during sleep. These vibrations produce the sound of snoring. Now, just like you can hear sounds around you, you technically can hear your snore. However, there’s a catch.
During deep sleep, your brain is less responsive to sounds, including your snoring. There’s a phase of sleep called “REM” (Rapid Eye Movement), where dreams occur. During REM, your brain’s ability to process sounds drops by about 40%. So, if you snore during this time, it’s pretty unlikely you’ll notice!
But if you’re in a lighter sleep phase or drifting off, you might be awakened by the sound of your snoring or other noises.
To put it in numbers: if your snoring is as loud as 60 decibels (dB) – which is similar to a normal conversation level – your brain during REM might perceive it as around 36 dB, close to a whisper. This drop makes it less likely for you to wake up from your snore.
So, while you technically “hear” your snoring, whether or not you notice or wake up from it depends on how deeply you’re sleeping! In fact, people who do not snore might also have a flash of waking up, lasting for a few seconds, before they go back to sleep. This happens almost around 20 to 25 times and is known as microarousal.
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