Waking up feeling refreshed may be elusive for us mouth breathers. We, sadly, are inclined to cope with the not-so-pretty actuality of rolling away from bed with points like a dry mouth and scratchy throat, chapped lips, and drowsiness which will comply with us into the afternoon. That’s as a result of your mouth can’t filter and humidify air the best way your nostril does, so sleeping slackjawed can dehydrate and irritate your mouth and throat. It might additionally impede your higher airway, which might trigger loud night breathing, wake you up all through the evening, and usually decrease your high quality of relaxation—oh, and to not point out it might additionally result in tooth decay or gum illness.
For sure, when a TikTok development promised to repair the best way I breathe and sleep at evening—and not using a journey to the physician—I used to be intrigued. It’s known as mouth taping, and it’s precisely what it appears like: Slap a bit of tape (ideally the surgical variety, which is gentler on the pores and skin) over your mouth earlier than mattress, and voilà: No extra loud night breathing. No extra dry mouth (or its related unhealthy breath). No extra pillow drool (the doubtless perpetrator behind these cracked lips I discussed). The thought is that in case your mouth is bodily compelled shut, you’ll routinely breathe via your nostril, which is the physique’s default mode.
“The nostril is the humidifier of the physique,” Megan Acho, MD, a scientific assistant professor within the division of pulmonary and significant care on the College of Michigan, tells SELF. “So we encourage nasal respiratory over mouth respiratory as a result of when air goes via the nostril, it will get humidified and warmed, and filtered from mud and [other [potential] allergens too.” Principally, respiratory via your nostril is right general, and in case you can’t do it comfortably, that’s an indication that one thing could also be blocking your nasal airway.
Anyway, mouth taping sounds simple sufficient and, frankly, somewhat too good to be true. Might my lifelong sleep issues actually be solved with a $5 drugstore product? To search out out, I requested two consultants to weigh in on the viral sleep hack. The decision? Mouth tape isn’t the cure-all TikTok purports it to be—and it will also be extraordinarily unsafe.
Mouth taping received’t repair your underlying sleep issues.
When somebody breathes via their mouth whereas sleeping, that sometimes means one thing is obstructing the nostril, Dr. Acho says. That blockage may be attributable to a wide range of elements, together with congestion from a sinus an infection, a deviated septum (when the bone in your nasal cavity is off-center), or obstructive sleep apnea, a dysfunction through which respiratory repeatedly stops all through the evening (at the very least 5 occasions every hour, as SELF beforehand reported).
No matter what’s inflicting you to breathe via your mouth, a bit of tape is unlikely to really resolve the issue, Erich Voigt, MD, the director of common and sleep otolaryngology at NYU Langone Well being, tells SELF. “If somebody is having issue respiratory via their nostril for no matter motive, they should deal with that difficulty straight, and blocking your mouth airway isn’t going to do any good in the long term,” Dr. Voigt says, referring to mouth taping as a “Band-Assist impact.”
