I know. If this is the first time when you hear about putting tape over your mouth, this might seem a bit odd. But hear me out. I talk a lot about the importance of nasal breathing and I also recommend quite a few resources all over the place if you are interested in it more in detail (I also mention my favorite one lower down the page). In case you are not, here is the short version.
Learn to breathe through your nose and keep your mouth shut most of the time. Lay down or sit down and get it done. Later on, try doing it while walking or cycling, then during running or something more tiring. Heads up: you can’t chat with anybody while practicing it. And eventually (and simultaneously), do it even when you can’t consciously think about it: when sleeping. So although the key is to learn to breathe through the nose, one way to get there is to tape the mouth – so it’s harder to return to the default habit of mouth breathing.
Some benefits of nasal breathing:
– Increased oxygen uptake
– Increased oxygen delivery to working muscles
– Increased functional breathing for functional movements
– Conservation of moisture to help prevent dehydration
– Protection of gum & teeth
– Increased training load to allow the body to do more/ (for example run harder) with less air
– Psychological benefits of accessing flow states
– Better recovery
There are many tapes that you could try, ranging from a normal plaster or 3M tape to special mouth tapes – those exist even for children. Obviously, if you are congested, had a few drinks, can’t breathe properly or have any other issues, this might not be you, but if everything is good on paper, you should give it a try and tape your mouth when going to bed.
Your survival instinct and reflexes are very strong, so in case something isn’t right, you will find that tape all over the place in the morning without even remembering taking it off. Maybe it’s a bit more expensive, but there are tapes that actually allow you to breathe over your mouth if it’s absolutely necessary so if you have concerns, that could be a way to go.
It has many benefits, which are a lot more detailed in my favorite breathing-related book (James Nestor – Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, get it on Amazon), but just to mention a few: less snoring, no dry mouth in the morning, better quality sleep, no sleep apnea, less restlessness (do you see what I did here? I love this language).
I recommend things that I tried and work for me. Or things that even I haven’t found ways to get around and do it yet, but I truly believe in the benefit of them. Taping your mouth while sleeping costs barely anything, only the people you chose to sleep with would see and know about it anyway (they should be doing it with you btw) and it can change your life without having to invest a lot of time, energy, money everything else that you can think of.