Does Taping Your Mouth Shut Help You Sleep?

GRACE: Hey, Science Friday. It’s Grace from Brooklyn. My question for you is regarding mouth taping. Now, my social media feeds are flooded with influencers promoting this trend and the health benefits that come with it. So should I be adding this to my nighttime routine? Any information you could share would be great. Thanks in advance.

FLORA LICHTMAN: If you frequent the wellness world on social media, you have probably seen this mouth taping trend. If you avoid wellness TikTok like an unsterilized jade egg, then you probably haven’t. But it’s people using adhesive tape to force their mouth closed while they’re sleeping to promote nose breathing.

[AUDIO PLAYBACK]

– I absolutely love mouth taping. It has completely changed my life, my sleep, the way that I look.

– I have such a stuffy nose by nature, deviated septum, all the nose problems. And it forces your nose to clear out. I’ve never woken up with a clearer nose.

– The mouth tape– and the reason why I wear this is because I’m a heavy mouth breather. If I just tape my mouth, I think my sleep can get better.

FLORA LICHTMAN: And yes, it can make practitioners look like they’re part of a hostage negotiation. So is this a good thing to do? Is there any benefit to breathing through your nose? Here to help us sort fact from TikTok-tion is Dr. Linda Lee, physician and surgeon at Massachusetts Eye and Ear in Boston. Linda, welcome.

LINDA LEE: Thank you so much. I love being here for this topic.

FLORA LICHTMAN: You do?

LINDA LEE: Yeah, it’s so timely. And I get this question from patients at least once or twice per clinic.

FLORA LICHTMAN: You’re joking.

LINDA LEE: No, I do, deviated septum surgery and nose breathing surgeries. And they want to know, is there evidence to it? Is this safe?

FLORA LICHTMAN: Yeah, let’s go through it. OK. First of all, is this a good idea?

LINDA LEE: I think it is generally not a good idea to do before you’ve had an evaluation, because a lot of people actually cannot breathe through their nose. They either have deviated septum, they have allergies. And so if your body is actually opening its mouth to allow more oxygen, forcing it closed, it’s not the right thing to do. So you might need your mouth to breathe.

There are some cases where I think it can be a good thing. Do you want me to tell you about them?

FLORA LICHTMAN: Yeah, because, I mean, it sounded absurd to me, but is there any reason why you would want to breathe through your nose?

LINDA LEE: So I think sometimes you are doing it out of habit. So now I think you can try to train your body. But I still feel like, first let’s try during the day when you can consciously take it off if you’re not getting enough air before you try to shove it closed at night.

FLORA LICHTMAN: Before you go into an unconscious state where you force your mouth closed.

LINDA LEE: Yes, exactly. And then one of the most interesting things that I think is at Mass Eye and Ear, a lot of our surgeons are really into sleeping quality. And so they’ll do something where they call it drug-induced sleep endoscopy, which means let me put you to sleep under anesthesia and watch you sleep. And they can tell where the obstruction is. So a lot of mouth taping is to try to compensate for sleep apnea. Instead of using a CPAP machine, let me close my mouth.

And so in these sleep endoscopies, you can actually see, where is the level of abstraction? And there are some people where they close their mouth during that sleep endoscopy and they see that now they don’t have sleep apnea. So then now you can actually try to train your body to close your mouth with a chin strap or a mouth tape. But that’s kind of after you rule out something else that is happening.

FLORA LICHTMAN: Well, what is the advantage of breathing through your nose?

LINDA LEE: Yeah, I mean, it’s soft evidence, for sure. But maybe it helps with digestion. Maybe it helps with sleeping. And even when you are breathing through your nose, you’re able to close your mouth. So then your mouth doesn’t dry out. And saliva in your mouth is really helpful for not having bad breath, not having poor dentition.

FLORA LICHTMAN: Is there any science to back up mouth taping as beneficial?

LINDA LEE: OK, so there is science, but it’s not very good. So there’s a study out of Taiwan in 2022. And it’s literally called Impact of Mouth Taping in Mouth Breathers with Mild Obstructive Sleep Apnea. And they do call it a preliminary study. So they’re kind of saying, this is not a great study. It’s early.

But their conclusion was that mouth taping during sleep improved snoring and the severity of sleep apnea in people who have mild sleep apnea. Their conclusion, which I think is so dangerous, it says, mouth taping could be an alternative treatment in patients with mild sleep apnea before turning to CPAP therapy or surgical intervention. And that kind of stuff is so powerful in potentially a dangerous way. Because nobody likes their CPAP.

So if you tell me that I can tape my mouth closed rather than use CPAP, I’m definitely going to try it. But sleep apnea, it means you deoxygenate your body and you’re not oxygenating your organs. So if you get evaluated and they find that do a sleep endoscopy and you can close your mouth and your sleep apnea gets better, then, sure, for that person, it can be an alternative treatment. But if the random person that needs a CPAP is just doing it instead of mouth taping, that’s dangerous. And then there are other studies that are telling people there is no benefit.

FLORA LICHTMAN: I have to ask you while I have you. The trend that’s made it to me, this elder millennial, are these nose magnets. Have you seen these? They go over the bridge of the nose to open your nostrils, I think.

LINDA LEE: Yes, yes.

FLORA LICHTMAN: What’s up with these? What do you think of these?

LINDA LEE: Yeah, the problem with the magnets is they are so extreme. So they really pull your nose open a ton. You’re pulling your nose out to twice the size of normal. So actually, I love the idea of a Breathe-Right strip, which is a very toned down version of the magnet. Those are the things you see football players wearing on Sunday at the football game. Those are very conservative. They open your airway a little bit. And they can make a big difference in helping you to try to nose breathe.

FLORA LICHTMAN: Big picture– are these social media health trends changing your practice?

LINDA LEE: They are in terms of awareness. I don’t know if you’ve seen these TikToks on “morning shed.”

[AUDIO PLAYBACK]

– The more crazy you go to sleep, the prettier you wake up. What? You don’t have a morning routine? Girl, let me show you my morning routine that leaves me looking perfect in the mornings.

LINDA LEE: It’s like people will wake up and kind of shed their nighttime routine. And it’s always a mouth tape. There’s even mouth tape with a straw hole in it. And it’s just it’s very trendy-looking–

FLORA LICHTMAN: Mouth tape with a straw? It seems to defeat the–

LINDA LEE: It does defeat the purpose–

FLORA LICHTMAN: –of a mouth tape if there’s a hole in it.

LINDA LEE: It does. It does. So I think what’s happening is that patients are coming in, realizing that, I can’t breathe in through my nose, and should I be looking at, are there ways to have my deviated septum fixed or get my allergies treated so that I’m breathing through my nose?

FLORA LICHTMAN: So it’s calling attention to a part of the body you care about.

LINDA LEE: And actually, I think it’s great. What a lot of TikTok and social media does is bring awareness to the issue. But then you have to just be careful that you are backing that up with some science. Don’t just do it without realizing, is it the right thing for you?

FLORA LICHTMAN: Because an influencer told you so.

LINDA LEE: Right.

FLORA LICHTMAN: Makes sense to me. Thanks, Dr. Lee.

LINDA LEE: Of course. Thanks for having me.

FLORA LICHTMAN: Dr. Linda Lee, physician and surgeon at Massachusetts Eye and Ear in Boston. And if you have a question about a wellness trend or something you saw on TikTok, our line is always open. Call us at 877-4-SciFri. That’s 877-472-4374.

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