Does Mouth Taping Actually Help You Sleep Better?

Unless you’re stuffed up, you probably don’t think very hard about whether you are breathing through your mouth or your nose. But according to a certain set of wellness and fitness enthusiasts, breathing through your nose can offer all sorts of health benefits, including better sleep — in fact, they even tape their mouths shut at night to improve the quality of their shut-eye.  

But can nose breathing truly help you feel more rested? And are there any other health benefits?  

Is nose breathing better than mouth breathing?

The nose-breathing craze has produced many, well, interesting claims. Some “looksmaxxers” say you can improve your facial structure and jawline by pressing your tongue against the roof of your mouth and breathing through your nose; other fitness enthusiasts force themselves to breathe through their noses while running to improve their endurance. There is little to no evidence behind most of these claims, but it is true that breathing through your nose affects your body differently than breathing through your mouth.  

“The respiratory system has multiple different levels to it, and mouth breathing or nose breathing is just the way we get the air into the upper airway,” says Andrea Kussman, MD, a sports medicine and family medicine doctor at UW Medicine. “But while we’re talking about a fairly small part of that respiratory apparatus, there are significant differences in how those two routes of breathing affect things.”

When you breathe through your nose, the air is warmed, humidified and filtered by tiny hairs in your nostrils, called cilia, on its way to the lungs, which improves the function of your pulmonary system. This process gets bypassed when you breathe through your mouth.

“There’s some evidence that if you’re chronically mouth breathing and underutilizing the nose, then you can get an increased accumulation of inflammatory cells in the nasal mucosa and increased nasal resistance,” says Kussman.

In other words, not using your nose to breathe can make it even harder for air to move through it.  

Why nose breathing is better for sleep

The benefits of breathing through your nose are especially clear when it comes to sleep.  

“There’s been a bunch of different studies that show that if you block nose breathing at night, you get increased nighttime awakenings or even sleep apnea episodes,” says Kussman.  

Breathing through your nose while you’re sleeping stimulates reflexes that cause the muscles in the upper airways to stay tense. When you breathe through your mouth, those muscles relax and collapse, which can obstruct the airway.  

“Sleeping with your mouth closed and breathing through your nose during sleep may help keep the upper airway open by reducing the tendency for the tongue and other upper airway tissues to collapse backward,” says Nathaniel Watson, MD, a neurologist, sleep medicine specialist and director of UW Medicine’s Sleep Center at Harborview Medical Center. “This may improve breathing during sleep in some individuals, particularly those with mild obstructive sleep apnea, although it is not a substitute for evidence-based sleep apnea treatment.”

If your partner says you snore, or if you wake up with a dry mouth or bad breath, you are likely mouth breathing at night.  

The good news?

“Most healthy adults predominantly breathe through their nose during sleep,” says Watson.

But if you are someone who consistently mouth-breathes at night, what should you do about it?

Mouth taping for better sleep  

One of the most common strategies used by nose-breathing enthusiasts is mouth-taping, which involves placing medical-grade tape over your lips to force yourself to breathe through your nose while you sleep.  

There are many anecdotal reports of people snoring less, sleeping more soundly and feeling more rested after using mouth tape. People also claim that they’ve stopped waking up with morning breath, sore throats and dry mouths, which makes sense since mouth breathing dries out your saliva

But so far, there haven’t been any conclusive studies showing that mouth-taping improves sleep. And it can be dangerous if you have an actual breathing condition like sleep apnea. Sleep apnea can pose serious health risks if left untreated, and forcing yourself to breathe through your nose could be dangerous if your airways are obstructed.

If you are consistently breathing through your mouth, the first thing you should do is talk to your doctor to see whether you should get tested for sleep apnea or another breathing condition, such as a deviated septum.  

Do nasal strips work?

Another tool people often use to encourage nose breathing is a nasal strip, which is a piece of adhesive fabric that goes on the bridge of your nose and pulls your nostrils open.

“There is some evidence that they may improve flow through the nose, and people subjectively feel like they sleep better,” says Kussman.

But once again, there’s not a lot of evidence that it helps that much, especially if you have an actual breathing condition. 

“Nasal dilator strips can improve nasal breathing at night and marginally improve sleep disordered breathing, but it is not, in and of itself, a sleep apnea treatment,” says Watson.  

If you’re using these strips for nasal congestion from a cold or allergies, a decongestant might be more effective to improve your sleep. 

Nose breathing for relaxation

There’s one more way you can use nose-breathing to improve your sleep. Controlled breathing through your nose has been shown to increase relaxation and reduce stress and anxiety, which, in turn, improves sleep.  

“Nose breathing produces more nitric oxide, because nitric oxide tends to be produced more in the sinuses,” says Kussmann. “And in general, nitric oxide helps to relax the muscle, and in that way, it may also help to regulate the parasympathetic nervous system.”  

So, meditating or doing a box-breathing exercise when you’re stressed or before you go to bed? Great idea. Here’s one you can try:

The main takeaway

The evidence is pretty clear that breathing through your nose is generally better than breathing through your mouth. But that doesn’t mean you should immediately start forcing yourself to nose breathe. If you have a breathing condition, it’s important to get it diagnosed. If you don’t, you can experiment with mouth tape or nasal strips, but keep in mind that the evidence is still anecdotal.  

And one thing that will definitely help? Taking a few deep breaths.