Some people tape their mouths shut at night. Doctors wish they wouldn’t
Getting a closure in the mouth is closed nightmares – but some people do this exactly for themselves. And in an attempt to sleep better, no less.
Doctors say they don’t do it.
Some on social networks say it is a hacking to sleep more and better and reduce snoring. Affirmations – which are not supported by science – take off in places like Tiktok, sometimes pushed by people working for companies selling related products.
“Studies behind the mouth ribbon are small, the advantages are modest and the potential risks are there,” said Dr. Kimberly Hutchison, Neurologist and Sleep Medicine Expert in Oregon Health & Science University. Some of these risks include sleep disorders such as sleep apnea worse, or even cause suffocation.
Oral breathing in adults is not a major health problem, but it is better to breathe through the nose, say the experts. Your nose is a natural filtering system, trapping dust and other allergens before you can go to your lungs.
If you breathe your mouth open at night, you can wake up with a dry mouth and an irritated throat, which can contribute to bad breath and oral health problems. Oral breathing is also associated with more snoring.
But even if breathing in your nose is better than breathing through the mouth, closing your mouth is not the best way to solve the problem.
There is no solid evidence, this helps improve sleep. Some studies have been carried out, most of which have shown little or no impact, but they were so small experts say that the conclusions should not be drawn from it.
And during this time there are the potential dangers to avoid.
Dr. David Schulman, sleep doctor at Emory University, said that there were other things to try, such as prescription pieces that can open your airways or a CPAP machine. If you are a smoker or are overweight, for example, quit smoking and losing weight can help.
The safest approach is to understand why exactly you breathe with your mouth, because there could be something else.
You may breathe through your mouth because you have obstructive sleep apnea, a sleep disorder where breathing stops on several occasions and begins during sleep because of a blocked airway. The disorder is linked to both open oral breathing and snoring, and is generally treated with a CPAP machine.
“The reason why sleep apnea can be bad is that any decrease in sleep quality can affect you day by day or in your lifetime,” Dr. Brian Chen, sleep doctor at Cleveland Clinic. “Depending on the severity of sleep, you can just feel deprived of sleep or require more sleep.”
The best thing to do, says Shulman from Emory, is to do a sleep test, some of which can be done at home. “It is always better to know than not knowing,” he said. “And if you know that something is happening and you choose not to continue therapy, you at least know that you are making an informed decision.”
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