2 minute read.
FACT. Mouth breathing is incredibly detrimental to sleep. I'll list a few reasons WHY below so you can first understand why its detrimental then I will outline ways you can stop mouth breathing. This is something I personally have suffered with and overcome so I know the exact blueprint to overcome this. If you suffer from sleep apnea, this is especially for you.
Why is mouth breathing bad for sleep?
1. Taking breath through the mouth bypasses the regulatory process through the nose. Basically, your nose actually alters the temperature of your breath before it enters your lungs where your mouth can not do this. This actually translates to us getting 20% LESS oxygen to our brain and body. Not good!
2. Our mouths being open causes our tongue to drop to the back of the throat which restricts the air we breath and actually causes us to momentarily choke (snoring). Try it now, when your mouth is closed your tongue should be sat in the roof of your mouth but open it, you'll notice it naturally sits at the bottom of your mouth now.
3. Now our tongue is blocking our throat (sleep apnea) and this causes us to wake up. Its this exact process that is ruining our sleep and as a result our health. Here's why, tongue goes to back of throat, we choke momentarily (snoring sound) so our body has to wake us up as it realizes we didn't get any oxygen for a while. Our body wakes us by releasing adrenaline into our blood stream which causes us to wake up resulting in us becoming awake and breathing again. However, now we have adrenaline in our blood stream, you try getting a restful nights sleep when this happens, you may find it easy to fall back asleep however your body wont enter the restorative stages of sleep for some time. Couple this with you chocking (snoring) again 10 minutes later and you can see the pattern emerge.
There's more, but I'll stop their and if your interested you can go away and do your own research. Now, I want to tell you how you can fix this.
How to fix this
1. Make a conscious effort to breath through your nose during the day - this should make it easier for your body to breath through the nose when your sleeping.
2. Sleep on your side. This can help your mouth to stay shut because when the jaw relaxes, it should be firmly against the pillow.
3. Mouth taping. I don't mean duct tape around your head to keep your mouth closed. I mean buying actual mouth tape (most boots and supermarket stores sell it). Its a small piece of surgical tape which sits horizontally across your lips to help keep them closed. Now, it will probably come off during the night so if you wake up just put it back on.
These 3 things helped me go from sleep apnea to no sleep apnea in about 3 months so they do work. Mouth breathing and sleep apnea can cause havoc an most people just live with it, you don't have to.
It's also worth sharing what you have learnt here with your friends and family so they have a chance to reduce mouth breathing should that be something that they do.