I’m not really set up for success when it comes to having a restful night of sleep. My usual sleep position is on my stomach, I have an inner anxiety monologue that never shuts up, and I sleep with my mouth open.
On TikTok, I came across something that people said could help remedy that last thing: Taping my mouth shut while I sleep. In theory, this would force me to breathe through my nose instead of my mouth.
Nose breathing is, generally speaking, the gold standard of breathing. It’s more beneficial than breathing through your mouth in a host of ways that we talk about in detail here. As it relates to sleep, nose breathing can promote better sleep quality and oral health.
Mouth breathing can do the opposite and cause issues like bad breath, dry mouth, and cavities.
According to proponents, taping your mouth shut while you sleep forces you to breathe through your nose, thus getting the benefits of nose breathing and improving sleep.
The night the mouth tape arrived, I affixed one of the weird sticky Xs to my mouth right before bed. It was…weird.
I tried it for a few nights, and I can say that mouth taping is just not for me. I felt like it made it more difficult for me to fall asleep because I was worried about, like, not being able to breathe. Also, I’m pretty sure I was still breathing a bit through my mouth despite the tape.
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