People Are Taping Their Mouths Shut At Night To Improve Sleep — Why You Should Proceed With Caution
What are the benefits of mouth taping?
TikTok Sleep is essential for everything. And most of us do everything we can to ensure we get a good night's sleep.
Some studies say you need at least seven to nine hours of sleep, while others state you need six to eight, so research is constantly evolving.
Naturally, we are prone to breathing through the nose when sleeping, but some people become mouth breathers later in life or are born with it because of their body's structural makeup.
New TikTok videos are beginning to show why it can be harmful to be a mouth breather when you sleep, and what you can do to prevent this from happening.
What is mouth taping?
Mouth taping is wearing an adhesive strip across your mouth while you sleep with the goal of preventing any blocked nasal passages from disrupting your sleep cycle.
TikToker content creator "@isabelle.lux" shared a video to the social media platform showing everything she does before she gets ready for bed.
A user then asked her, "What's the mouth pouch about!? My man would love that for me on a daily basis," referring to the mouth tape that Isabelle puts on.
Responding to the comment in another video, she details everything that she uses but what everyone wanted to know about was the mouth tape.
"Mouth tape. Taping your mouth shut before bed is really important to your breathing, to your face structure if you can imagine that," Isabelle answers in her second video.
The idea is that breathing out of your mouth instead of your nose can affect the muscles in your face that can change the shape of it, along with other potential abnormalities that will affect your sleep.
RELATED: If You Obsessively Check Social Media, You Probably Suffer From This Disorder
It can be hard to tell if you are a mouth breather when you sleep, but if you are, there are some symptoms that you might see.
You may have a dry mouth in the morning, smell bad breath, hoarseness in your voice, or you may feel tired and irritable when you wake up. It is best to consult an orthodontist.
Experts are split on whether or not mouth taping works or can be more harmful than beneficial.
Dr. James Mojica, a pulmonologist and director of the Spaulding Rehab Sleep Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, says, "you want to figure out why you're mouth breathing. You want to find the source of the snoring."
Mouth taping varies differently for each person. The benefit of mouth taping is, that it's trying to kick you off the habit of mouth breathing.
It can combat snoring and bad breath in the morning but this is still early and no benefits have been shown as of yet.
TikToker "@kay.fit" goes into detail about her experiences as a mouth breather in a TikTok she posted.
The video gives an example of what differing facial structures between nose breathers and mouth breathers might look like, but many people in the comments claim that it's inaccurate.
While mouth taping is still a developing trend, individuals say that they have noticed a change in their sleeping pattern and have noticed a difference, too, but it is always best to consult your doctor before you consider this beauty/sleeping tip.
Kurtis Condra is a writer for YourTango based in San Francisco. He covers news, entertainment and pop culture deep dives. When he's not writing, you can catch him on Instagram posting his poetry. You can keep up with his poetry on Instagram.