SFH #32: Nasal Breathing 👃🏽
Why I tried out mouth taping during sleep
A few weeks ago, after hearing from another person I follow about mouth taping, I decided to go for it!
The different ways we can breathe can have an enormous impact on our health. First and foremost, we should be focusing on breathing through our noses and not through our mouths. Our noses do a lot more than we think. Through our nose, we can clean the air 🧽 passing through, moisten it 💦, and heat it 🔥. This process leads to a release of chemicals that lowers our blood pressure and regulates our heart rate. Our mouth breathing is not capable of this process. Breathing through your mouth can also dry out your tongue, gums, and teeth, leading to tooth decay and gum disease. Saliva washes away plaque and bacteria before they can accumulate on your teeth. With mouth breathing, you lose this natural cleansing effect due to the dryness.1
The Key Benefits of Nasal Breathing 🔑
Nasal breathing influences the parasympathetic nervous system that controls our rest and digestion. We can actively affect our mood and reduce our stress levels through our controlled nasal breathing. On the other hand, mouth breathing impacts the sympathetic nervous system, which triggers our fight or flight response. Whenever you're feeling anxious or stressed, try taking slow, deep inhales and exhales through your nose.
Nitric oxide (there it is again 😉) is the main driver behind sterilizing our incoming air, enhancing oxygen uptake, and opening our airways. An increased amount of oxygen in the bloodstream positively impacts our sleep quality, cognitive functionality, and cellular repair.
Sleep and breathing are closely tied. In sleep apnea, people take shallow breaths through the mouth instead of breathing through the nose. Nasal breathing can minimize the intensity of sleep disorders and give us greater access to restful sleep.2
Below is Ali Abdaal, testing out mouth taping. It's the video that put me over the top to try for myself. 📺
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16242785/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10629486/