SNORING CAN KEEP you from getting a good night’s sleep. It might wake you up during the night and cause you to toss and turn, which likely leaves you feeling grouchy in the morning. If you sleep with a partner, they’re probably dealing with these sleep interruptions, too.
When a third of adults don’t consistently get enough sleep, snoring can be frustrating. You might have heard that taping your mouth shut could solve the problem.
Mouth taping has been a viral trend on TikTok, where #mouthtaping videos have been viewed millions of times. It simply refers to taping your mouth shut before you fall asleep. TikTokkers have used everything from duct tape to medical tape and suggest that the process forces people to breathe through their nose and avoid the side effects of mouth breathing, including snoring.
But sleep experts say this approach could be harmful, and it’s not something they usually recommend, says Nishay Chitkara, M.D., director of sleep medicine at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue. “It hasn’t been proven as an effective treatment.”
However, it can be safe when it’s done under the supervision of a physician, adds Zachary Strumpf, M.D., a pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine physician at University Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio.
Still, you’re likely looking for a remedy for snoring, which is something that nearly half of adults do. So you might be interested in trying mouth taping to help you sleep better. If so, here’s what you should know about its potential benefits and drawbacks, and other snoring remedies.
The benefits of mouth taping
Mouth taping can help you breathe through your nose when you sleep, which is more beneficial than breathing through your mouth, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Breathing through your nose:
- Reduces blood pressure
- Filters allergens
- Keeps the throat moist
- Lowers anxiety
- Regulates the temperature of your breath
Mouth breathing can cause a dry mouth, bad breath, and sore throat. Mouth breathers also tend to snore more.
Mouth taping doesn’t necessarily prevent air from going through your mouth, but keeps your jaw from falling open involuntarily, which can worsen snoring and other symptoms, Dr. Strumpf says.
“People tend to mouth breathe because their noses are congested” from a cold, sinus infection, allergies, deviated septum, or enlarged tonsils or adenoids, says Alex Dimitriu, M.D., a psychiatrist and sleep medicine physician and founder of Menlo Park Psychiatry & Sleep Medicine. “Often, nasal congestion gets worse when lying flat.”
Some have said mouth taping helps improve fatigue, concentration issues, and excessive thirst at night, Dr. Chitkara says. But these claims haven’t been proven.
In fact, research on mouth taping is limited. A small study published in 2014 found that 30 people snored less after mouth taping, and other research on 36 patients with asthma found no signs that mouth taping improved their condition. A 2022 study published in Sleep & Breathing showed that people tried to mouth breathe even when their mouths were taped, which interfered with their sleep.
The risks of mouth taping
Mouth breathing serves as a backup – if you can’t breathe through your nose while sleeping, your mouth will naturally open and allow you to take in air, Dr. Chitkara says.
“Taping the mouth shut can thereby make it difficult to breathe, especially if one has significant nasal congestion,” he says.
It also might increase your risk of aspiration of stomach contents into the lungs, which may block your airway and cause lung inflammation, Dr. Chitkara says. The tape may irritate the skin on and around your lips and cause pain and discomfort when you remove it, especially if you have facial hair.
Actually having your mouth taped shut could trigger anxiety for some people, which may interfere with your sleep, he adds.
Mouth taping can restrict airflow, and it’s an especially bad idea if you don’t breathe well through your nose or if you suspect you have sleep apnea, which comes with symptoms like snoring loudly, waking up often, and being sleepy during the day, Dr. Dimitriu says.
Even if mouth taping could potentially reduce instances of snoring, it doesn’t treat the cause of snoring, which might be sleep apnea, Dr. Chitkara says.
Sleep apnea is a disorder causing you to stop and start breathing during sleep, according to the Mayo Clinic. Sometimes, it leads to an airflow blockage. Long term, it can increase the risk for stroke, cardiovascular disorders, and type 2 diabetes.
Should you try mouth taping?
It’s best to talk to your doctor about your sleep problems first, Dr. Strumpf says.
“This is important to ensure your sleep breathing symptoms are fully evaluated and effective sleep apnea is ruled out prior to initiating a trial of mouth taping,” he says.
If you do try it, Dr. Strumpf suggests using medical tape and using a small strip on the midline of your mouth from just above the upper lip to just below the lower lip.
Mouth taping can be useful for sleep apnea patients being treated with a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine, Dr. Dimitriu says. Some patients use the tape to reduce air leakage from the machine and improve its efficacy. In this situation, the taping is done under medical supervision.
How to improve your snoring
People snore when air can’t easily flow through their mouth or nose, according to the Cleveland Clinic. When airflow is restricted, the soft palate, tonsils, adenoids, and tongue vibrate against each other as air is forced out. This creates rattling, snorting, or grumbling sounds.
Some things can block airflow, which makes snoring worse, like:
- Alcohol or other sedatives that relax muscles
- Enlarged adenoids, tonsils, or tongue
- Excess body fat that puts extra pressure on soft tissues
- Pregnancy, which may cause inflammation in the nose
- Nasal congestion and inflammation from a cold or allergies
- Anatomy that decreases the size of airways
If you snore regularly and it’s so loud it’s affecting a partner, visit a sleep medicine doctor, Dr. Dimitriu says. Getting a sleep study will identify what’s causing your snoring and rule out sleep apnea.
He also recommends using apps like SnoreLab, which lets you record your snoring all night to see what you sound like. “I pay particular attention to loud snoring and pauses in breathing (apneas), and also what breathing sounds like before people wake up,” Dr. Dimitriu says.
Snoring remedies when you don’t have sleep apnea
Here are some things to try:
- Changing your sleep position
- Avoiding alcohol before bed
- Maintaining a healthy weight
- Taking medication to relieve nasal congestion
- Using nasal strips that stick to the outside of your nose and open nasal passages
- Wearing a mouth guard to keep your jaw positioned to enable airflow
Could you have sleep apnea?
Sleep apnea is a serious condition. The most common type, obstructive sleep apnea, happens when the throat muscles relax, blocking your airway, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Signs of sleep apnea include:
- Snoring loudly
- Gasping for air when sleeping
- Stopping breathing during sleep
- Waking up with a dry mouth
- Experiencing excessive sleepiness after a full night’s sleep
- Feeling irritable
Sleep apnea is diagnosed by doctors via a series of tests, including a sleep study, Dr. Dimitriu says. Treatments include using a CPAP machine, an oral appliance, or other devices.
This article originally appeared on Men’s Health US.
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