Noisy breathing during sleep is called snoring and it is more common in men who are overweight. Snoring is the vibration of respiratory structures and the resulting sound, due to obstructed air movement during breathing while sleeping. Although it does not affect the person who does it, people who sleep next to them are hugely affected.

But US researchers have come up with a finding that surely would give heavy snorers a lot to think about. It has been found that being a heavy snorer can increase a person's risk of cancer fivefold. Snoring and other types of sleep disordered breathing can leave the body without normal levels of oxygen for hours at a time. Due to the low blood oxygen levels, there can be a development of cancerous tumors by promoting the growth of the vessels that feed them.

After analyzing more than 1,500 people in US, the researchers took note of cancer rates and sleep problems among them over a period of 22 years. They found that those people with severe sleep disordered breathing (SDB) were 5 times more prone to develop cancer than those who had no such problems. This is a serious problem and an eye-opener for people who did not take snoring seriously.