Mouth Taping: A Comprehensive Guide

Think of it as a temporary solution that can support you in building a healthy habit of nose breathing during sleep. Mouth taping is not an ultimate sleep problems solver.

1. It is not a treatment for snoring. Snoring can happen when breathing through the nose. Although for certain people it may alleviate snoring.
2. It is not a treatment for sleep apnea. Although for some people mouth taping might decrease the number of sleep apnea events, for others it might exacerbate it.

The trend has roots in older practice – the Buteyko breathing method from the 1950s, which claimed that decreasing volume of air used for breathing combined with nasal breathing has many health benefits.

If you have a question and can’t find an answer in this post, don’t hesitate to reach out to me directly:

I interviewed over 30 mouth breathers who tried mouth taping. And I’ve been practicing mouth taping myself for over 2 years now. Three most common symptoms reported by people who breathe through the mouth during sleep are:

1. permanent ‘mild-hangover’ feeling
2. dry throat in the morning
3. fatigue

Most of the interviewees and myself felt a clear difference already after first night of mouth taping. They feel better in the morning, perceived sleep quality is always higher, no dry throat, no ‘hangover’. They want more of it. They keep on mouth taping.

In my personal experience mouth taping was the second step. First step was to transition to nose breathing during the day – which by the way took me around 6 month of daily practice of intermittent hypoxic training. It overlapped with mouth taping so it is difficult to say what brought the biggest difference. And the difference was tremendous. It solved 28 health issues (you can read more about my story in the first blog post). What is crazy, even some long term negative effects of mouth breathing dissappeared. For example I had clearly forward head posture wich further caused problems with swallowing. Both reverted relatively quickly after transition.

If you buy a roll of medical tape in a local pharmacy, it is a good way to start. For example, I often use 3M Micropore tape, that is just strong enough. Its adhesive coating is acrylic, without latex, which makes it less allergic. It meets the medical standards – however I wouldn’t be so sure that it is neutral when we inhale it. The adhesive of this 3M tape is not as smelly as the other tapes. If something smells I never bring it close to my mouth, on the other hand, if there is no smell at all, it doesn’t mean it is healthy. Glue is glue. I don’t like the idea of having glue over my mouth, but the benefits are too big.

I cut as small piece as possible. Around 3cm high and 2.5cm wide – to have the smallest possible coated area. Ideally the mouth tape has no coating in the middle of the mouth or has a cutout like myotapes.

I put it vertically in the middle of my mouth and it is just enough. Most of interviewees however prefer horizontal, over entire mouth. I wouldn’t recommend it however, as sealing the mouth completely can be dangerous. They say, the tape comes off otherwise, or that they have a beard and need a strong grip. Well, I would check first if correct oral posture is in place first.

There are many designed tapes specifically for mouth taping. There are myotapes which seem the most reasonable, they are created by Buteyko method promotor Patrick McKeown. There are PAP MDs, very popular in US, they are however covering entire mouth, designed for beards I guess, or people with sleep apnea who use CPAP machines. There is Hostage tape, and dozens of micro brands on amazon. I would recommend to always read reviews under the product description, and also see if there are any certificates, and if the product materials and content of adhesive is explicitly shown. Most of the tapes are manufactured in China. Just for your information, nothing against China, but if there is no decent quality check on the brand side, probably the quality is missing.

It removes symptoms related to mouth breathing

All the short term symptoms of mouth breathing should be gone once you started to mouth tape. Keeping the mouth shut prevents mouth from drying out and from reduced saliva flow. Therefore it decreases the risk of gum diseases, tooth decay and bad breath. The long term effects of mouth breathing, such as forward head posture, influenced development of the face and jaw or malocclusion, are more difficult to revert, especially later in life, however switching to nose will at least prevent from further damage. As I mentioned above, mouth taping together with hypoxic intermittent training reverted forward posture for me.

It inherits the benefits of nose breathing

All the benefits of nose breathing come with mouth taping. The nose has over 30 different functions, please use it as often as possible because:

Does mouth taping improve sleep apnea?

Mouth taping is still an uncharted territory. There is not enough evidence to make bold claims that it alleviates sleep apnea or improves snoring. While some people report a reduction in sleep apnea events, for others, mouth taping may actually have the opposite effect. There is still more research needed. For now the answer is: sometimes, for some people. Knowing that, would you dare to try? If yes, never seal your mouth, use the tape with a cutout, or a small vertical piece.

There have been many small scientific studies conducted throughout the last ten years. They were however financially limited, often exploratory studies, which means they might not be considered significant enough by the high standards of sleep medicine.

I selected one study that I found the most interesting and relevant. It is well known in the field. However it divides professionals into two camps. It generally suggests that mouth taping has potential for reducing the number of sleep apnea events, but the further research is required to support this hypothesis.

The Impact of Mouth-Taping in Mouth-Breathers with Mild Obstructive Sleep Apnea: A Preliminary Study
Year: 2022
Participants: 20 with mild obstructive sleep apnea (OSA)
Methodology: This study utilized 3M silicone hypoallergenic tape for mouth taping. Home sleep tests (HST) were conducted before and after the intervention.
Main Outcomes: The apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) decreased from 8.3 to 4.7 events per hour (a 47% reduction, p=0.0002). Similarly, the snoring index (SI) reduced from 303.8 to 121.1 events per hour (also a 47% reduction, p=0.0002).
Link: “The Impact of Mouth Taping…”

And here is the comment by one of the sleep experts I’ve interviewed recently, a head of a sleep laboratory in Austria:

“The study was home-based with apnoea-link, a device that doesn´t fulfill the criteria for home-based monitoring in the international guidelines in the first place as it does not provide a brething curve, so cannot be validated manually. Furthermore, the baseline AHI was < 10/h which in a polygraphy is not considered a significant result, ie officially not even classified as sleep apnoea.”

Mouth taping carries potential downsides: