Doctors are warning about a new trend of taping your mouth shut at night as a hack for better sleep.
The claims – which are not backed by science – are taking off on TikTok and other sites, sometimes promoted by people selling related products. Here’s what doctors have to say about it.
Should you tape your mouth shut at night?
What they’re saying:
The answer is simple, doctors say: Don’t do it.
“The studies behind mouth tape are small, the benefits are modest and the potential risks are there,” Dr. Kimberly Hutchison, a neurologist and sleep medicine expert at Oregon Health & Science University, told The Associated Press.
Some of those risks include making sleep disorders like sleep apnea worse, or even causing suffocation.
Why mouth tape isn’t the answer
Dig deeper:
Experts say it’s better to breathe through your nose: it’s a natural filtering system, trapping dust and other allergens before they can get to your lungs.
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If you’re breathing with your mouth open at night, you could wake up with a dry mouth and irritated throat, which can contribute to bad breath and oral health problems. Mouth breathing is also associated with more snoring.
But even if you’re a chronic mouth-breather, taping your mouth shut is not the best way to address it.
Get a sleep test
What you can do:
Dr. David Schulman, a sleep doctor at Emory University, said there are other things to try, like prescription mouth pieces that can open up your airway, or a CPAP machine. If you’re a smoker or are overweight, for example, quitting smoking and losing weight can help.
The safest approach is to figure out why exactly you are breathing with your mouth, because there could be something else going on.
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You may be breathing through your mouth because you have obstructive sleep apnea, a sleep disorder where breathing repeatedly stops and starts during sleep because of a blocked airway. The disorder is linked to both open mouth breathing and snoring, and is typically treated with a CPAP machine.
“The reason sleep apnea can be bad is that any decrease in the quality of sleep can affect you day to day or over the course of your life,” said Dr. Brian Chen, a sleep doctor at the Cleveland Clinic. “Depending on how bad the sleep is, you may just feel sleep deprived or require more sleep.”
The best thing to do, Emory’s Shulman says, is get a sleep test, some of which can be done at home. “It’s always better to know than not know,” he said. “And if you know that something’s going on and you choose not to pursue therapy, at least you know you’re making an educated decision.”