If you snore or suffer from sleep related breathing problems, like sleep apnea, you might find it beneficial to catch the shuttle to outer space. According to a news brief in Scientific American, scientists found that the microgravity of space resulted in a 55 percent reduction in the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI)—a measure of the incidence of temporarily not breathing (apnea) and very shallow, slow breathing (hypopnea). What does microgravity mean? In simple terms, weightlessness.

The tag line for the movie Alien was "In space, no one can hear you scream." Well, it sounds like, in outer space, no one can hear you snore, either! That's another plus of space travel - lack of gravity almost totally eliminates snoring.

Both sleep apnea and snoring are caused by the slackening of the muscles of the throat area during sleep, allowing the fat and flesh of the throat to fall back and obstruct the air passages. Of course, without gravity, nothing falls, so there is no obstruction.

The researchers concluded that the respiratory system is greatly influenced by the force of gravity. The full text of this study may be purchased from American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine 2001