What Is the Mouth Taping TikTok Trend and Is It All That It’s Hyped up to Be?
With the likes of celebrities such as Erling Haaland touting the benefits, the trend of mouth taping seemingly has TikTok wellness influencers in a choke hold. Now everyone is following their lead in the pursuit of better sleep, health, improved energy levels, enhanced immunity and reductions in stress. But is taping up hostage style at the end of your bedtime routine really a sleep quality hack? Or are the influencers blowing smoke.
To put the trend to the test, Men’s Health spoke to experts Patrick McKeown, founder of Oxygen Advantage and David Jackson, Oxygen Advantage Master Instructor, to find out if mouth taping is really worth shouting about, or keeping schtum. But first, it’s important to understand why nasal breathing should be at the core of your breathing practice. According to McKeown, ‘As long as mouth taping is talked about, nasal breathing is never going to go mainstream. I think we have to be talking about nasal breathing support.’
What is Nasal Breathing?
For experts such as Patrick McKeown, the topic of nasal breathing and mouth taping is nothing new. He first started the method 26 years ago, and has since gone on to write books and lead conferences on the topic worldwide. ‘I wrote a book called The Oxygen Advantage in 2014,’ says McKeown, ‘The whole purpose of the oxygen advantage was nasal breathing during sports. It was all about the application of breathing exercise in sports. Now what was my motive there? I wanted to get nasal breathing accessible to the mainstream population.’
Focusing on nasal breathing is far more than just important for relaxation, it is also something that could improve our training efforts. According to McKeown, ‘An athlete who breathes through their nose during physical exercise will have a better oxygen transfer from the lungs to the blood, and also a better oxygen delivery from the blood to the working muscles.’ — this can then translate to enhanced energy metabolism and therefore, performance.
What Are the Negative Effects of Mouth Breathing?
McKeown explains in simple terms that our mouths just aren’t evolved for breathing the majority of our day. ‘There's nothing in the mouth that serves any purpose for breathing,’ he argues, ‘You have to think of what is in the mouth — our teeth, our gums, our hard palate, soft palate, tongue and throat. None of those things do anything for the breath, so the mouth is an emergency. Mouth breathing is typically what our ancestors would have done in terms of fight or flight. It allows for an immediate exertion in terms of stress.’
According to research published in Breathe, nasal breathing slows down the breathing rate. The nasal passages are smaller than the mouth, causing the air to pass through more slowly, which helps to regulate breathing and promote relaxation.
‘So if you breathe down through the mouth, you typically breathe faster, and you breathe more into the upper chest,’ says McKeown, ‘And this in turn, can increase and cause increased sympathetic drive — so, an increased stress response compared to nose breathing.’ Making it clear that when we rush around our office, we may be mouth breathing, and unwittingly putting ourselves in a hyper stressed state.
What Are the Benefits of Nasal Breathing for Sleep?
Mouth breathing is associated with lower sleep quality and a decrease in oxygenation during sleep according to a study published in Rhinology. McKeown adds to these findings and shares that 50% of the adult population breathe through an open mouth during sleep. ‘They wake up in the dry mouth in the morning, which is a sign that they have the mouth open. If you have your mouth open during sleep, your sleep is lighter. You don't spend as much time in deep sleep. Deep sleep is really important for glymphatic drainage. The brain cleans itself during deep sleep. Plus, deep sleep is very important to help us wake up feeling refreshed.’
This isn’t the only issue according to McKeown – if we have the mouth open, we are more prone to snoring. ‘We're more prone to obstructive sleep apnea, and we're more prone to lighter sleep,’ he says, ‘And this then will impact our cognitive function during the day. We can't focus. We can't concentrate. We're more likely to be stressed or anxious if our sleep quality is not good.’ So, is the fix taping up before bed?
Will Mouth Taping Help Solve Mouth Breathing During Sleep?
According to Oxygen Advantage Master Instructor David Jackson, maybe not. ‘The mouth tape is literally like a band aid. It's there to ensure that the mouth stays closed. But if you're not calm with your nervous system, and haven't done any conscious work on your breathing, it's gonna feel very uncomfortable if you're not used it. So, it's not necessarily going to solve the problem.’
The solution, Jackson explains, is to do conscious work on slowing down and calming your breathing with your mouth closed while you're awake and conscious, in order to encourage a more relaxed nervous system. ‘And the point of keeping the mouth closed is that we have a more restorative night's sleep because we're in a state of parasympathetic, which the nose helps to promote. But not if that's super uncomfortable for you.’
How Can We Start Mouth Taping?
Jackson recommends to not dive in headfirst to mouth taping without practicing nasal breathing first: ‘The biggest mistake people make is they get in bed, they stick the mouth tape on, lie there and their brain goes, ‘This is weird’. What I suggest is you do that with a bit of tape on the mouth to allow yourself to get used to it. But you're not trying to sleep. You're just allowing yourself to get used to the sensation of the tape on the mouth. And then do some slow, calming breathing, extending your exhales, to actually let the nervous system calm down. Naturally, it's much easier to breathe through the nose. So, it's like a more gradual process, rather than just whacking some tape on your mouth.’
To help ease the process, McKeown has developed a free Oxygen Advantage app to help improve breathing patterns, which you can find available on android and iTunes. And once you’ve mastered nasal breathing? It’s all about reaching for the right tools (i.e. not gaffer tape). ‘Patrick’s developed the MyoTape which goes around the mouth,’ says Jackson. ‘The mouth can open. So that's a great option particularly for people that feel a bit anxious about putting tape directly on the lips or having the mouth closed. But, the other tape that I use personally, 3M micropore tape — a little strip vertically in the middle. The mouth isn’t closed. Either side you've got space that you know you're not feeling like you're suffocating yourself. It’s not supposed to be a hostage attempt.’ Noted.
Should Mouth Taping Be Used During Exercise?
According to Jackson, no. ‘I only use mouth taping for sleep, not for exercise for a couple of reasons. One: if you need a drink, you're a bit knackered. And if you talk, you're a bit knackered. The reason you need the mouth tape at night, is because you're unconscious. But when you're training, chances are when you're training hopefully, you're conscious and therefore you can just choose to keep your mouth closed.’
Jackson explains that if you’re training at an intensity that is too difficult to keep your mouth closed, you’re working at too hard to practice nasal breathing. If we then put tape on — we’re forcing the body to do something it can’t, ‘And when you try and force it, the body typically fights back,’ he adds.
How Long Does It Take to Get Used to Mouth Taping?
Mouth taping isn’t an overnight fix says McKeown. ‘If you spend many years breathing through an open mouth and then all of a sudden, you're switching from mouth to nose breathing, you will feel that you're not getting enough air because your breathing patterns have adapted to mouth breathing,’ he explains, ‘And now all of a sudden you're breathing through the nose. There is a transition period. It takes a little bit of time for the body to adapt to nasal breathing.’
If we still struggle with nasal breathing despite our best efforts, McKeown recommends to try Breathe Right strips which open the nasal passages and then help us feel more comfortable.
Is Mouth Taping Dangerous? Who Shouldn’t Do It?
McKeown warns that if anyone has moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea, and their mouth is taped shut, it prevents them from mouth puffing. ‘Mouth puffing is when the individual may be breathing through the nose or mouth and then puffing out through the mouth,’ says McKeown, ‘And if the mouth is taped shut, it prevents them from doing this, which can worsen their sleep apnea. Any tape worn should not cover the mouth- hence the idea of a tape which brings the lips together without covering the mouth- a nasal breathing support.’
Jackson concurs, ‘If someone has sleep apnea, or someone uses a sleep apnea machine, they need to consult the doctor before any of this type of stuff. If people have got a deviated septum, or really blocked airways. If someone is quite restricted some physical restrictions around their nose and around their airway, I would recommend that they seek some professional advice first.’
So the bottom line is: talk to your GP first before trying mouth taping if you’re unsure.
Does Mouth Taping Improve Your Jawline?
Potentially yes, according to McKeown. The expert has worked extensively with children, helping them correct their breathing mechanics, and explains that if corrected in early years, it can change the shape of a person’s face, ‘But it's not just breathing through the nose. They also need to get their tongue resting in the roof of the mouth. So, it's the tongue resting in the roof of the mouth that provides the scaffold and the driving support for the cranial facial growth,’ he explains.
‘When your mouth is closed, three quarters of your tongue is resting in the roof of the mouth. It's resting against the palate. It's not touching the top front teeth, and it's the gentle pressure over time that's exerted by the tongue resting in the roof of the mouth that contributes to the forward growth of the face. So, the maxilla (the top jaw) is more likely to be forward. And the mandible (the lower jaw), will follow the top jaw,’ He adds that the result, is a better looking face and potentially a stronger looking jawline. ‘But it's also a better functioning face, with a better airway,’
Regardless, whether our goals are form or function, nasal breathing seems to be the way forward, for enhanced sleep, focus and stress management, tape or no tape.
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