If you or someone in your house battles with snoring, you must have once in a while thought about mouth taping, a method that has recently become famous. It is aimed at not allowing the mouth to open, and to reduce snoring, the person has to breathe through the nose. However, is mouth-tapping safe? And does it work?
What is mouth taping?
Mouth taping is exactly what it sounds like taping your mouth shut with medical tape to make yourself breathe only through your nose and not through the mouth. However, one must wonder why a person who breathes through the mouth would ever worry about this factor.
Purpose of using Mouth taping
If nasal breathing is best and mouth breathing causes problems, why not simply tape the mouth? A few extremely limited studies have shown that mouth taping can help reduce snoring and improve mild sleep apnea. But taping can be extreme. Taping that prevents movement limits your ability to breathe. And it can cause skin irritation and allergic reactions as well.
Benefits of mouth-tapping for sleep
Mouth taping, the practice of securing the lips shut during sleep with a special tape, has gained attention for its potential health benefits. Encouraging nasal breathing, it can reduce snoring and improve sleep quality, as nasal breathing is more efficient at filtering and humidifying the air.
This can lead to better oxygenation of the body and brain, potentially enhancing overall health and cognitive function. Additionally, it may help alleviate issues like dry mouth and bad breath by maintaining moisture levels in the mouth. Some people find that consistent nasal breathing can even contribute to a calmer state of mind and reduce anxiety, leading to a more restful night's sleep. Read detailed mouth tape benefits here!
Risks of using mouth-tapping
Nasal breathing helps to purify and condition the air, warming and humidifying it before it enters the lungs. Mouth breathing provides fresh air to the lungs, but it is in a substandard state. It is also connected with the aggravation of asthma, allergies, and other pulmonary diseases that are indicative of mouth breathing. Mouth breathing causes dryness of the mouth, which leads to factors such as bad breath, cracked lips, mouth ulcers, tooth decay, and other related illnesses.
At night, when breathing happens through the mouth, the tongue finds its resting position on the inferior surface of the hard palate and can even roll in the oral cavity. It narrows the airway, hence causing snoring and sleep apnea, which interfere with a proper sleeping pattern. In fact, snoring is the first symptom that indicates that you are already in the group of people with poor-quality sleep. This occurs when there are episodes of cessation of breathing and is therefore characteristic of sleep apnea. While it is essential to understand that good-quality sleep is important for an individual’s health, more specifically, cardiovascular, neurological, and metabolic health, memory, and mood,.
Conclusion
Lastly, mouth taping is something that is believed to be beneficial in enhancing nasal breathing by reducing mouth breathing during sleep. Though this has certain advantages, such as reducing snoring and improving the quality of sleep, it raises questions in terms of safety and effectiveness because of the lack of research. Some risks are associated with asphyxiation, dermatitis, and hypersensitivity. These are some of the factors that should be taken into account when choosing to do mouth taping, especially for those with health complications. It is essential to breathe through the nose while not compromising one’s safety in order to get restful and healthy sleep.
