Snoring may Make People Less Attractive

A new study led by Dr Ronald Chervin, from the University of Michigan Sleep Disorders Centre in US, suggests that people who have a snoring problem tend to appear less attractive, youthful and alert than restful sleepers.

The researchers recruited a panel of 22 appearance raters who were asked to rate 20 middle aged people diagnosed with sleep apnoea, a condition in which the patient has problems with snoring and breathing interruptions. The researchers made use of a sensitive 'face mapping technique' and also asked the panel to rate the changes in the patients who went through a new treatment known as CPAP for their problem.

The researchers found that while people with snoring problem were rated to be ugly before the treatment, they appeared more attractive after being treated for apnoea and were also found to have fewer wrinkles following the treatment.

"The common lore, that people 'look sleepy' because they are sleepy, and that they have puffy eyes with dark circles under them, drives people to spend untold dollars on home remedies. We perceived that our CPAP patients often looked better, or reported that they'd been told they looked better, after treatment. But no one has ever actually studied this", Dr Chervin said.


Source: Medindia