Mouth Taping for Better Sleep
Updated: 4/18/2024Everybody is doing it.
Should I be mouth taping if I want to sleep better?
I’ve been hearing more about it outside of the biohacking and functional medicine communities these days.
“Why Indonesia singer Andien sleeps with tape on her mouth”
“Should You Be Taping Your Mouth Shut for Better Sleep?”
“A Doctor Taped His Mouth Shut at Night to Try and Sleep Better”
“I’ve Started Taping My Mouth Shut Before I Go to Sleep—And I Can’t Stop Talking About It”
“Mouth Taping: The Sleep Technique Going Viral On TikTok”
But it all started with a dentist, ya’ll. Mouth breathing can give you a dry mouth which leads to bad breath and tooth decay.
Mouth breathing leads to bad breath and tooth decay
Some of you know how much I struggled with sleep for about 7 years. Chronic insomnia in my 40’s… it was awful. So sleep is a special topic I like to dabble in. Turns out, it’s important to my clients as poor sleep is a big contributing factor to metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease.
During my last visit to the dental hygienist, I asked her about mouth breathing and mouth taping. The hygienist in the next station (eavesdropping on our admittedly interesting conversation) leaned over the divider and offered, “We can see a mouth-breather coming a mile away.” They said it’s due to the pattern of decay unique to mouth breathers. It alters the oral pH and leads to more decay and gingivitis.
What are the benefits of nose-breathing?
Nose breathing helps keep your sinuses from drying out.
It humidifies the air you inhale, which helps with chronic lung diseases like asthma.
The increased moisture in your sinuses and lungs makes you less susceptible to airborne diseases.
Nose breathing drives greater nitric oxide levels (good for blood pressure, memory, sleep, pain, and more)
Reduces snoring
Reduces sleep apnea
Leads to better sleep
How do you do mouth taping?
I get a roll of this Gentle Paper Tape. Tear off a few inches (fold under a little tab for easy removal) and just tape my mouth shut. You can buy this tape in the first-aid section of a supermarket too.
I have been diagnosed with sleep apnea. It’s not severe (yet). I have used mouth taping for years to improve my sleep quality. It doesn’t work for everyone, and it’s not an approved method for treating sleep apnea. But for me, it has helped me sleep better until my sleep apnea is bad enough that I have to try a different strategy.
Mouth taping for better sleep
Will mouth taping cause me to suffocate?
No. You can remove it in your sleep easily. I’ve done that many times before.
What if I can’t breathe through my nose?
Well, that’s a good place to start. I like to use a Neti Pot daily to help keep my nose clear. (Here’s a video showing you how to use a neti pot.) But if you suffer from a chronic stuffy nose, you might have other allergies, histamine intolerance, mold, or other things going on. You might want to do something about that! (hint… give me a call.) I encourage you to read my post on Allergies.
Anyway, this isn’t that hard or expensive. Give it a try and see if it works for you. I recommend you give it a week because things like this are inherently fiddly and it took me a night or 2 to get used to it. But I was a TERRIBLE sleeper before and it only helped from the very start.
More Sleep Tips
If you’d like to learn more hacks about sleep, I’ve created a slick little e-book course on sleep tips for you that you can pick up on how to normalize your circadian rhythm and sleep better. The information is a summary of what I feel are the most useful action points from the excellent books Why We Sleep, by Matthew Walker and The Circadian Code, by Satchin Panda. If you want a deep dive into this topic, I recommend you go straight to the books!
