Why some people shouldn’t mouth tape for sleep
Mouth taping during sleep can be beneficial for some, but it's not suitable for everyone. This article will focus on those who shouldn’t jump onto the mouth taping trend without more education around their breathing habits.
There are 3 types of people.
YES MOUTH TAPE NOW
Those who can easily nose breathe all day and may benefit immediately if they mouth taped
MAYBE MOUTH TAPE LATER
Those who aren’t ready yet, but after some breathing habit retraining, would be ready to mouth tape
NO DON’T MOUTH TAPE
Those who should not mouth tape due to issues which can’t be trained
I’m a mouth breather. Should I mouth tape?
When you mouth tape for sleep, you either partially or fully seal your lips, encouraging or forcing you to inhale and exhale through your nose. If you are someone who cannot normally nose breathe for extended periods of time during the day, this should not be attempted at night. That being said, at this point, we don’t yet know if you could potentially learn to feel comfortable breathing through your nose with some training. This is definitely something I recommend exploring as nose breathing is substantially healthier and more efficient than mouth breathing.
An example of someone who cannot breathe solely through their nose, even with breathing habit retraining, is someone who has such such a small nasal airway due to obstruction that they cannot get enough oxygen into their body.
Someone might have nasal obstruction for various reasons, e.g.:
developing a narrow ‘too small’ mouth as a child which reduces the size of the nasal airway and nasal cavity
someone with nostrils that barely are open and collapse easily
someone with a compromised airway due to enlarged adenoids, polyps, a broken nose or an accident or growth.
Just because someone has a nasal obstruction, it does not mean it is severe enough to prevent improved nose breathing. It also does not mean someone with nasal obstruction could not improve it with surgery or other less invasive procedures. That being said, this is out of my area of expertise and you should consult an ENT specialist about obstruction. Just don’t expect them to tell you enough about retaining breathing habits.
Should I mouth tape if I have sleep apnoea?
I wish the question of whether you should mouth tape if you have sleep apnoea was easier to answer. That being said, the short answer is, if you have sleep apnoea don’t mouth tape if you’ve not yet retrained your breathing habits, including your tongue position. I say this because the cause of sleep apnoea can be multidimensional and if you have only had a medical professional (i.e. non holistic) provide solutions, you’re missing part of the picture.
Typical issues that are overlooked when you’ve been offered a CPAP machine the currently accepted ‘gold standard’ of sleep apnoea management are:
Your tongue may have dropped away from it’s correct position, therefore falling back into your throat. (This can be retrained)
Your tongue may not be able to fit in the correct position due to how your face, smile and jaw developed. (This could be addressed as an adult, but it would be better once the world wakes up and addresses this during our developing years). For more information look into the work of Dr Steffen Decker, a leading early intervention orthodontics educator, @theorthodonticspecialist.
Your airway may be collapsing. This can be down to excess weight on the neck, but it can also be down to reduced tone. (Toning exercises are part of my breathing retraining online course. Weight management is a topic I stay well away from, but if the reason you struggle with weight is due to poor sleep, low energy and breathlessness and chest tightness during attempted exercise, then breathing habit retraining is vital here.)
Then there are the two more complicated areas of ‘upper airway recruitment threshold’ and ‘arousal threshold’ which I consider outside of my remit. That being said, I would still suggest retraining breathing habits as best you can and seeing what impact it has on your body’s current challenges. You might be surprised.
This is an interview with my client who had sleep apnoea (aka apnea) after a life threatening accident. They didn’t get on with their CPAP machine, but their energy and quality of life was severely impacted. Listen to him explain what a change breathing retraining (including mouth taping in the latter stages) made to his life. He described the process of breathing retraining as giving him a, “more happy and healthy life, more positive and hopeful life.”
Should I mouth tape with a deviated septum or broken nose?
I have worked with various clients with a broken nose or deviated septum, which have impacted airway size in at least one nostril. Many of those have been able to retrain their nose breathing habits from mouth breathing habits despite a restrictrion through daytime training. Not all have gone on to tape their mouth at night, but some have been comfortable doing so. Many people don’t need to mouth tape at night once their breathing habits have been retrained in order to nose breathe at night for the majority of the time. Whether you have a good lip seal is important here. Myofunctional therapists can help you improve your lip seal where teeth are not in the way.
Severe nasal airway obstruction
The severity of the broken nose or deviated septum needs to be considered. There are those who have severe nasal airway obstruction which, especially with added congestion, could mean they aren’t able to get enough oxygen when solely nose breathing. If this is the case, mouth taping would be detrimental as opposed to beneficial.
Carbon Dioxide (CO2) tolerance
The other thing to consider, which is a more typical issue is the CO2 tolerance. Your CO2 tolerance is usually retrainable and often comes about through deteriorated breathing habits, sometimes triggered or worsened by the reduction in airway size. Whilst we often want more carbon dioxide than we have as over-breathers, in order to deliver more oxygen, there can be too much carbon dioxide build up when an airway is too small.
Why does CO2 tolerance matter for mouth taping at night?
When carbon dioxide (CO2) increases in your body, you’ll eventually reach your CO2 tolerance. At this tolerance level, your body then sends a signal for you to breathe, getting rid of excess CO2 and accessing fresh oxygen. A CO2 tolerance is important to ensure we regulate our carbon dioxide and oxygen levels. That being said, when we chronically over-breathe, i.e. our breathing habits are faster, larger and higher in the chest than they should be, we dump CO2 at a higher rate. This degrades our CO2 tolerance, impacting how well we are able to deliver oxygen. Effectively we start to trigger the ‘breathe more’ signal too early. This then becomes a vicious cycle.
If, due to deteriorated breathing habits, you have degraded your CO2 tolerance, this means that simply nose breathing could feel like “insufficient air” or anxiety inducing. It might be that if you had increased congestion, which is common at night, your airway which usually feels fine becomes uncomfortable to breathe through earlier than usual.
For those who have tried mouth taping too early, prior to retraining their breathing habits and CO2 tolerance, you may have found your mouth tape in your hair on the headboard. You have likely removed it without realising in your sleep because you couldn’t get enough air through your nose for too long and your CO2 tolerance was exceeded.
When you train your CO2 tolerance to an optimal range, you are able to reduce your breathing from an over-breathing habit, resulting in calmer sleep and better delivery of oxygen to your cells. To read more on this, you can read up on the ‘Bohr Effect’.
How can I check if I have deteriorated breathing habits?
I encourage you to:
Research this topic online, even using the term ‘dysfunctional breathing’,
Read the excellent book, ‘Breath’ by James Nestor; and/or
Book a Breathing Assessment via Zoom call*.
*You’d be amazed at what you can pick up over Zoom with regards to breath. That being said, those local to Bicester, Oxfordshire, UK can visit me in person for this service if preferred.
Which is the best mouth tape?
I personally mouth tape for sleep, as well as during certain exercise. I also use nasal dilation devices to help with nasal airflow, especially during heavy congestion or sport. Visit my ‘mouth tape’ resource page to find out more about the best mouth tape options.
Who is the author of this article?
Hi, I’m Jane Tarrant, the Founder of LiNK BREATHING and an international speaker on breathing habits.
I’m a former mouth breather, snorer, heavy breather and ‘night time clicker’. My affectionate pet names have included Darth Vader and The Predator. (See heavy breathing and clicking.)
As someone who lives with what I call an ‘impacted facial and airway structure’, I have been fascinated about the ‘WHY’ behind the deterioration of breathing habits, from a developmental point of view, as well as the impact our life experiences have.
I couldn’t be more passionate about breathing habit education and I’m grateful that you have taken the time to read this article.
Should you have any questions, please reach out via jane@linkbreathing.co.uk
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