Can taping your mouth closed at night REALLY improve your sleep?

Can something as simple – albeit bizarre – as taping your mouth shut while you sleep really solve a host of common health problems, from bad breath to snoring?

In fact, the claims on social media platform TikTok about the new viral health craze don’t stop there: Mouth tape is said to help banish a double chin, brighten sagging jawlines – and even help you run faster.

All summer long, TikTokkers have been posting videos raving about the benefits of mouth taping, which involves placing the tape vertically (over the lips) or diagonally across the mouth (in a St. Andrew’s-style cross), drawing more than 25 million was viewed times.

Typical posts include one from @Semlerrr, in which she claims she had the “best night’s sleep in years” after using mouth tape, while @countydownunder, a teacher, recalls being “so focused the next day” after taping the mouth, and even suggesting nasal breathing should be taught in schools.

Last week TV presenter Julia Bradbury revealed she had tried it, as did Manchester City striker Erling Haaland.

Mouth tape is based on the principle that nasal breathing – inhaling and exhaling through the nose – is better for you because it stimulates the release of nitric oxide, a chemical that opens the airways and is also thought to help the body fight of it. infections (nitric oxide is not produced when you breathe in through the mouth).

But is there a scientific basis for this new craze?

There is no doubt that nitric oxide itself has many health benefits. For example, it relaxes the inner muscles of blood vessels, increasing blood flow, which can help lower blood pressure — and experts agree that nasal breathing helps retain more nitric oxide.

“When you exhale through your nose, 75 percent of the nitric oxide produced is deposited and recycled in the nose, but when you exhale through your mouth, more than 75 percent of the nitric oxide is lost,” says Robin. McNelis, a specialist NHS pulmonary physiotherapist in London.

But it’s not just about nitric oxide, he adds: ‘When breathing through the nose, the air passes through the structures of the nose and picks up a lot of heat and moisture – this is beneficial because you need oxygen to maintain a temperature of 37 degrees Celsius reach and be saturated with moisture. so that it is absorbed into the lung tissue.’

The nose also filters out bacteria, pollen and pollutants.

‘But when you breathe through the mouth, the air is drier and colder, meaning the air has to travel further through the bronchi before it can be absorbed. This can promote hyperventilation and excessive breathing,” says Robin McNelis.

Some athletes use mouth taping at night to improve their speed and endurance.

Tennis player Iga Swiatek even recently practiced on the court during the Omnium Banque National tournament in Canada with her mouth taped in an attempt to improve her performance. (The world number two lost in the semi-finals.)

This appears to be supported by research, including a study by George Dallam, professor of human health and exercise at the University of Colorado, which found that runners who had their mouths taped shut during treadmill tests did better after six months of training in the technology. months than those who wore nose clips and breathed through their mouths.

With the mouth narrowings, more oxygen was delivered to the bloodstream and therefore to the muscles, possibly giving them a competitive advantage.

Additionally, when running at their 5K race pace, they used less oxygen overall when breathing nasally, because they were breathing about 23 percent less.

‘This may provide a small performance advantage during exercise,’ Professor Dallam told Good Health.

That’s because it means the body works more efficiently (oxygen is a bit like gasoline for your body).

He says athletes should practice breathing in this way so that it becomes second nature.

“Anecdotally, we also see that nasal breathing reduces ‘stitches,’” he adds.

Robin McNelis says mouth taping can work for people without underlying medical problems who have simply ‘developed bad breathing habits’, but adds: ‘You would always want to try to identify the underlying cause of mouth breathing and treat that first. It would be the treatment to consider once you have everything else taken care of.”

But if nasal breathing is better for overall health and possibly for athletic performance, experts say that when it comes to disturbed sleep or snoring, mouth taping isn’t the solution people are hoping for.

“I don’t think many people in the sleep community would be in favor of it,” says Guy Leschziner, professor of neurology and sleep medicine and consultant neurologist at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust in London. ‘It would be better to understand why you sleep poorly and why you snore, rather than using these techniques, which could cause you to miss underlying medical conditions.’

Mouth breathing can be caused by a range of problems, including a deviated septum (crooked cartilage in the nose that narrows one nasal passage); inflammation related to allergic rhinitis; or a narrowing at the back of the throat – as well as sleep apnea, the potentially serious condition where you temporarily stop breathing during your sleep.

And Professor Leschziner is concerned that mouth taping could inadvertently lead to people being ‘only partially able to cope with conditions such as sleep apnoea’, warning that it could actually make breathing more difficult for someone with a stuffy nose, which could result in a ‘poorer sleep quality’.

Pavol Surda, an ear, nose and throat surgeon at Guy’s and St Thomas’ and the private London Bridge Hospital, agrees, warning that this can also sometimes lead to ‘breathing difficulties in the case of a stuffy or stuffy nose, and an increased risk’. of asphyxiation or aspiration’.

He recommends consulting a healthcare provider before trying mouth taping, “especially if someone has pre-existing breathing problems or sleep apnea.”

The idea that taping could help with disrupted sleep problems may be based on a misunderstanding of breathing pattern disorders – ‘where you are either breathing too much, too fast, or a combination of both, or inefficient breathing, where you are pressing your chest instead and shoulders used’. of your diaphragm’, says Robin McNelis.

He explains that while these can disrupt sleep – by overstimulating nerves and signals to the brain, causing a stress response and the release of the stress hormone adrenaline, which keeps you awake – mouth taping would not work as a treatment.

Instead, patients should learn breathing exercises.

There is also a risk in using a type of tape that itself causes problems.

Robin McNelis warns that any tape used should be easy to remove by simply blowing through your lips.

He says: ‘I’ve seen people on social media using very strong tape and it’s definitely not a good idea.’