Did you know, as humans, we are supposed to breathe through our nose.
The mouth is really just an emergency backup for breathing, but it’s not meant to be the main pathway for it.
What’s the big deal about how we breathe?
With nose breathing we:
- keep our sinuses clear and keeps proper bacterial balance
- warm up the air as we inhale
- produce nitric oxide
- ensure a healthy microbiome in our mouth (breathing through the mouth dries it out and can cause issues with the gums)
- improve sleep
When I started lip taping it was just to try it out because I always test everything myself first.
But my sleep was fine so it was mostly for checking for comfort etc.
Well… lip taping improved my sleep, even though I thought there was no improvement necessary.
Of course, during the day you can just keep reminding yourself to breathe through your nose.
But at night… you don’t really have control over it anymore.
This is where lip taping comes in.
You just need a little piece of tape!
But please make sure to use one that is meant for skin… I like to use “gentle paper” from Nexcare.
To lip tape, all you have to do is: Place tape over your lips while you sleep
Simple, right?
Now, of course you would only do this assuming you can in fact breathe through your nose.
If you feel claustrophobic with the tape, just start with a little piece vertically down the middle of your lips.
As you get used to it, you can increase the size of the piece of tape.
Some of us seem to be sleep acrobats and take the tape off in their sleep.
In that case, you can try taping it in an X shape over the mouth or maybe make the piece a little bigger.
Also, I like to fold over one of the corners of the tape to make removing it easier when I get up in the morning.
I highly recommend giving it a try.
Need more encouragement?
