How zapping the legs with tiny electric currents could help ease heavy snoring 

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Repeatedly zapping the legs with tiny electric currents could help ease heavy snoring.

The unlikely remedy involves stimulating the calf muscles with electricity for a couple of hours before bedtime, making muscles in the lower leg contract, even when sitting still.

This reduces the amount of fluid that accumulates in the legs when we sit or stand, and which travels up to the neck area when we lie down in bed. Once there, the fluid can worsen snoring.

Figures show that 41 per cent of UK adults regularly snore. The characteristic rasping sound is caused by tissues in the throat vibrating as we breathe in and out while we sleep.

As we fall asleep, the muscles in the roof of the mouth, tongue and throat relax, narrowing the space for air to pass through as we breathe.

For many people, this does not present a problem. But in some, especially those who have large fat deposits around the neck, the throat can narrow so much that the tissues in it vibrate.

Drinking alcohol, sleeping on the back and having a cold can all further narrow the airway.

Rostral shift — or gathering of fluid in the neck — is a significant factor in snoring, as it adds to the pressure on the upper airways during sleep.

During the day, fluid can accumulate in the blood vessels in the legs, as well as the spaces around cells (this is called interstitial fluid). When we lie down, the force of gravity means this fluid spreads around the body, accumulating in places like the neck, causing airways to narrow.

Rostral shift is a particular problem in patients with heart failure, as they often have a build-up of fluid due to the heart’s poor pumping capacity, but it can affect healthy adults, too.

Scientists at the University of Toronto wanted to see if stimulating the calf muscles with a mild current could reduce this fluid shift and ease snoring.

The idea is that the more these muscles contract, the more fluid is dispersed and the lower the chances of it draining into the neck area at night. Sixteen men with sleep apnoea either had just

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