mouth taping have you heard of it have you tried it or have you clicked on this video
thinking I am absolutely insane if you fall into the last category I urge you
to stick around and at least hear me out because I know it does sound crazy when
you first hear about it but when you start to look into the evidence supporting it the
studies that have been done and the reasoning behind it it starts to make a bit more sense
so in short mouth taping is the practice of taping your mouth shut while you sleep by taping your
mouse shut you are forcing your body to breathe through your nose and not through your mouth and
that's where the benefits stem from some of these proven benefits include increased REM sleep and
cognitive function reduced blood pressure reduced inflammation increased athletic performance
accelerated weight loss and improved digestion so if you or someone with sleep apnea someone who
snores or just someone who knows they sleep with their mouth open this video is for you [Music]
hey guys welcome back to my channel if you're new here my name is Kait I'm a certified health and
nutrition coach I post videos twice a week here on YouTube talking all things insulin resistance
weight loss sleep and more so if you're ready to take control of your metabolic Health make sure to
click that subscribe button and you can also find me on Tick Tock and Instagram where I share new
posts every single day now for most of my life I was definitely a nighttime mouth breather and this
is not natural humans should be breathing through their nose when they sleep but there are a lot of
reasons why most modern humans don't in my case it came down to my jaw not developing properly
I could not physically close my jaw comfortably even when my lips were closed my jaw would hang
open so when I was asleep my lips would part and I would breathe through my mouth and as someone who
has been tracking their sleep for years with the goal of optimizing it let me tell you that when I
started mouth taping I saw huge improvements to my Sleep Quality more deep sleep more REM sleep
less waking up just improvements across the board and jaw development is a large reason why a lot of
us breathe through our mouths nowadays but other reasons can be being overweight or obese having
a deviated septum or having enlarged tonsils now before I get into mouth taping further I just want
to disclose that I no longer do this practice and this is because and if you've been around for a
while you'll already know this but at the end of 2021 I had double jaw surgery to correct my bite
so since then not only can I actually close my jaw comfortably and keep it closed but another
side effect that I didn't expect was it actually opened up my nostrils a bit more so now because
I can close my jaw properly and my mouth doesn't fall open when I sleep I no longer have to mouth
tape now this was a pretty major surgery and this was something that I knew I needed for the last 15
years so I'm not saying this is the solution for everyone but I just want to share my experience
and disclose that I'm no longer mouth taping simply because I don't need to anymore if you
want to know more about my jaw surgery experience I did Vlog the whole thing over on my second
channel so I'll link that up above obviously I'm still a huge fan of mouth taping hence this video
the benefits once you start to experience them they're incredible but anyways that's my story
out of the way let's get into the rest of the video so as I said earlier mouth taping is the
practice of taping your mouse shut while you sleep you can either do this with regular tape or with
specific tape that's made for this purpose mouth taping teaches you to breathe through your nose
as your mouth is sealed and as I also said before ideal we should be breathing entirely through our
noses while we sleep but unfortunately this isn't the case for most people and the main reason that
we should be breathing through our noses at night is because it increases nitric oxide production
when we breathe through our nose nitric oxide is created and this increases blood oxygen levels
nitric oxide relaxes the inner muscles of your blood vessels causing the vessels to widen this
increases blood flow and lowers blood pressure reduce nitric oxide has also been shown to
decrease cognitive function and weaken the immune system and increase nitric oxide has been shown to
improve exercise performance now when we breathe through our mouths nitric oxide is not created so
we miss out on all of these benefits and since we spend a third of our life asleep if there was ever
a time that we want to be breathing through our noses this is it now of course if you can close
your jaw comfortably if you already naturally breathe through your nose when you sleep then
mouth taping isn't necessary for you but if you're not sure if you're a mouth breather or not here
are some signs if you toss and turn throughout the night if you have bad breath in the morning if you
get up in the middle of the night to pee if you drool on your pillow or if you grind your teeth
these are all signs that you're a nighttime mouth breather now there are two groups of people who
will benefit even more from mouth taping and those are people who snore and people with sleep apnea
so snoring this one is pretty straightforward if your mouth is sealed shut you're not gonna snore
and of course storing not only disrupts your own sleep but it disrupts the sleep of the people
around you as well and chronic snores often report that they get frequent headaches throughout the
day and sleep apnea and snoring tend to go hand in hand sleep apnea occurs when a person's throat
is partially or completely blocked while they are asleep the most common cause of obstructive
sleep apnea is excess weight and obesity during sleep when the throat and tongue muscles are more
relaxed this soft tissue can cause the airway to become blocked if you're breathing through
your nose this doesn't happen so how do you actually tape your mouth shut well there are
a few different ways to do this obviously you want to use a gentle tape that doesn't irritate
your skin and there are some brands that actually make tape specifically for most taping I actually
still have some strips somewhere lying around from a brand called somnifix that does just that these
strips are super gentle and they actually have a small hole in the center so if you feel like you
do need to take a breath you can part your lips slightly and take one without having to remove the
tape now before we wrap up I just want to answer one final question is mouth taping safe because
I know a lot of people were worried that they're not going to be able to breathe while they sleep
if they tape their mouth shut but Mouth taping is generally considered to be safe however if you do
have difficulty breathing through your nose this is definitely something that you want to dress
first but your body isn't stupid if you're really not able to breathe you're going to wake up and
just take the tape off or if you use the strips from omnifix that I mentioned you can just part
your mouth slightly and take a breath and honestly guys I know a lot of people think that it's going
to like increase their anxiety and make them stressed out but it's honestly really really
calming give it a try because the worst thing that can happen is you're just gonna take the
tape off but if you're just getting started I do recommend the strips from somnifix so I'll
put the link to check them out in the description box down below anyways that's all I have for you
today let me know in the comment section if you've tried mouth taping before what was your experience
and if you're looking looking for other ways to improve your sleep I posted a video a couple
weeks ago with eight proven tips to do just that so if you want to check out that video on ways
to improve your sleep you can check it out here if you want to catch up on my most recent upload
you can find it here and if you want to check out my coaching programs including my seven
day insulin resistance Master Class you can find those here thanks guys I'll see you next time bye