Web Chat: Why We Snore And How To Stop It

John W. Poole/NPR

Ever wondered what Richard Knox's or Joe Palca's snores sound like?

You know who you are. Or maybe you sleep next to one. About 20 percent of adults snore. But it gets worse — by age 60, nearly half of all adults snore.

And while snoring at times can be cute — in pets at least — it often is a sign that all is not well. Snoring happens when air moves through crowded nasal and throat passages. The crowding is usually the result of inflammation, flaccid tissue in the roof of mouth, or physical irregularities such as a large uvula or deviated septum.

The good news is that there are lots of things you can do to stop snoring. Bring your questions to a live Web chat on Thursday, March 5, at noon ET, with Drs. Sonya Malekzadeh and Judith Owens, and NPR editors Joe Neel and Vikki Valentine.

Malekzadeh is an otolaryngology, head and neck surgery specialist and associate professor at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

Owens is a professor of medicine at Brown University in Providence, R.I. In addition to heading the Pediatric Sleep Disorders Clinic at Hasbro Children's Hospital in Providence, she directs the ADHD clinic there.