From the moment you are born, you breathe through your nose unless you are crying. That’s the way humans are designed to breathe – through the nose unless there are exceptional circumstances. Mouth breathing can develop in response to an upper airway blockage (cold, allergy, stuffy nose) and become a life-long habit that can be difficult to break. While occasional mouth breathing doesn’t pose any real issue, problems can occur when you breathe through your mouth all the time, including when sleeping. In children, mouth breathing can cause crooked teeth, facial deformities, or poor growth. In adults, chronic mouth breathing can cause bad breath and gum disease. It can also worsen symptoms of other illnesses. There are really only two situations when you would need to breathe through your mouth – when your nose is blocked or during high levels of physical exertion.
When we breathe through our nose compared to our mouth, we better protect our lungs and airways by warming and humidifying the air and filtering airborne particles. We optimise levels of carbon dioxide and oxygen in the body. Did you know the body needs carbon dioxide just as much as it needs oxygen to thrive? Mouth breathing can cause us to expel too much carbon dioxide and disrupt the body’s homeostasis. Nasal breathing creates nitric oxide, which helps to expand blood vessels and improve circulation leading to lower blood pressure, boosts in the immune system, improving exercise performance, increasing brain function and many other health-related issues associated with blood flow. If none of the other nose breathing benefits speak to you, do it for this little molecule. Your energy levels will thank you.
Mouth breathing dries up saliva, an important protector of the oral microbiome by washing away bacteria and keeping oral membranes healthy. It can lead to serious conditions like gingivitis, periodontitis, receding gums, cavities, oral decay, and halitosis (bad breath). Simply closing the mouth can ensure that the mouth cavity stays moist and prevent bad bacteria from wreaking havoc. Mouth breathing can also cause dry mouth, sore throat and nasal congestion. If you wake up in the morning and your mouth feels like a desert, chances are you were mouth breathing while you slept.
So if you have identified that you are a mouth breather (it can come as a surprise, it did to me) there are two things you can do:
- Become more aware of your breathing (a little yoga wouldn’t hurt here) and throughout the day catch yourself breathing through the moth and switch to nasal breathing. Changing any habit requires awareness and repetition of the desired behaviour (breathing through the nose).
- You spend a third of your life asleep, so a great way to train yourself to nasal breathe is to do it during those 6-9 hrs. Whilst the science is lacking, there is much anecdotal evidence of the benefits of mouth taping. Some use a horizontal piece of tape to seal the entire mouth, though I use a hypoallergenic surgical tape an inch long to keep the centre of my lips together so I can still talk a little. It’s important to make sure you only try this if you can easily breathe through your nose and feel comfortable with the mouth taped – you could try it for a few hours during the day while awake to see how it feels.
My snoring stopped the first night I taped, and ever since I wake feeling more refreshed with a moist mouth and lips – no more dry mouth. Some report that the increase in nitric oxide from nasal breathing has lead to a more restful sleep with no need to get up for a drink or use the loo.
A yoga practice will always include awareness of the breath, slowing down and deepening your nasal breathing, so a regular practice will also help you train your body and mind to bring yourself back to your natural born state, a nasal breather.
