Contents
- I. Causes Of Mouth Breathing
- II. Why Do You Need Nose Breathing?
- III. Side Effects Of Mouth Breathing
- IV. How To Stop Mouth Breathing At Night
- 1. Using A Tape During Your Sleep
- 2. Training Yourself To Breathe Through The Nose
- 3. Practicing Nose Clearing Exercises
- 4. Elevating Your Head While Sleeping
- 5. The Hat Or Scarf
Mouth breathing is a common issue that many people are facing with. You may have heard that people are joking about someone who is a mouth breather. However, if you actually use your mouth to breathe most of your time, you will see that it is not a joke. Instead of breathing by your nose, using the mouth can cause annoying problems, especially for children. Therefore, people who have a manner of mouth breathing feel discomfort and annoyed. They try to find out the solution to get rid of this condition. Sometimes, they find out the suitable one that helps them. But sometimes, they feel like get lost and do not know how to stop mouth breathing. For such a reason, VKool.com would like to show you different tips to solve the problem.
Top 12 Tips On How To Stop Mouth Breathing At Night
I. Causes Of Mouth Breathing
To find out the solution, we need to look at the root of the problem, thus, we can solve it definitely. That means if you want to know how to stop mouth breathing, the initial task is to know its actual causes.
The main reason behind mouth breathing is usually a nasal obstruction. In other words easy to understand, some obstacles prevent the air passing into the nose. As normal, most of us bring air into our body through our nose. The nose is designed to act as a natural humidifier and filtering system for the air we breathe. When we can’t get enough air through our nose, however, the mouth takes over. Actually, there are different reasons for a blocked nose. Nasal congestion resulted from allergies, a sinus infection, or a cold, enlarged tonsils, enlarged adenoids, deviated septum, enlarged turbinates, nasal polyps, the shape of a nose, obstructive sleep apnea are examples. Besides, stress and anxiety are also causes of mouth breathing. Particularly, stress activates your sympathetic nervous system that leads to rapid, shallow, and abnormal breathing.
Read more: How to treat nasal polyps
II. Why Do You Need Nose Breathing?
It would be better if you understand why we need to breathe through our noses and why to stop mouth breathing. The normal anatomical function, of course, is nose breathing. What is natural should exist naturally. We will show you several reasons why we should breathe through the nose.
Initially, breathing through the nose helps the small levels of nitric oxide gas to be produced by mucus. This gas can drive the oxygen absorption capacity of your lung increase. Prolonged oxygen inadequacy can have detrimental long-term impacts on our overall health. Secondly, nose can reduce and eliminate harmful microbes as well as other impurities out of the air. Besides, the mucous lining of our nose can moisturize and warm the air before it gets into our lungs.
Learn more: How to treat shortness of breath
III. Side Effects Of Mouth Breathing
Using mouth to breathe most of the time can affect your health negatively [1]. That’s why people want to know how to stop mouth breathing. Its side effects are various even though they may not cause serious problems, you should be aware of them.
Its common side effect is considered an excessively dry mouth. In fact, under normal conditions, saliva continuously helps to remove bacteria from the mouth. In case, your mouth is dry, nevertheless, that bacteria may more readily take hold & cause problems like cavities. Additionally, you have to face oxygen deprivation. When we take in air through the mouth, less oxygen is able to be absorbed into the bloodstream. This can cause high blood pressure, sleep difficulties such as sleep – loss, sleep apnea and increase inflammation and heart rate. Moreover, mouth breathing can actually change the shape of your face and alter your appearance. It’s not kidding, anyway. Mouth breathers may suffer from abnormal facial and dental development (long, narrow faces and mouths, less defined cheek bone, small lower jaws, gummy smiles, crooked teeth and “weak” chins). According to a study carried out by Yosh Jefferson, DMD, MADG, mouth breathing has adverse effects on health, facial growth, academics, and behavior [2]. Another research published in the Journal of International Oral Health also shows that if children are mouth breathers, they can suffer from significant negative effects on their growth. These effects imposed on children are stronger than that on adults [3]. Therefore, mouth breathers should know how to stop mouth breathing.
Get more: How to keep the respiratory system healthy
IV. How To Stop Mouth Breathing At Night
1. Using A Tape During Your Sleep
We could not rely 100% on the first suggestion. Therefore, another idea comes up. It is suggested to tape over your mouth with some sticky papers. You need to ensure that your mouth is closed completely before using the tape. If your mouth is partially open, you will be likely to breathe through the tape during the night sleep. The most suitable tape is only one-inch paper. What you need to do is horizontally applying it to cover your mouth. In case you cannot put it in a horizontal position, you can place it vertically. Before placing, remember to remove the glue on it by sticking it to your hand and peeling this tape off a couple of times. Repeat it until there is only enough glue to keep this tape in place. Before placing it over your mouth, create two tabs by placing a small fold at 2 of the corners. This will make the task easier and you can remove the tap in the next morning. The tape should not be applied to a child under 5 years old. If you feel nauseous or you have been consumed alcohol, it is also not for you.
Sometimes, you may have difficulty in breathing at night while using the tape, try not to remove this tape as if you do that, you will begin to breathe through the mouth, which will make your condition worse.
If you are afraid of using a tape during the whole night sleep, you should tape just half of the mouth. Another way is that you can place the tape for half an hour before sleeping to get used to it. It may come off during the sleep, but at least you will have to spend a few hours on breathing through the nose. Continue to wear this tape until you have really managed to stop mouth breathing. In fact, this is only one of the effective tips on how to stop mouth breathing you thus stay with us and discover more.
Read more: Home Remedies for Wheezing
2. Training Yourself To Breathe Through The Nose
Why don’t you use your brain before thinking of other ways on how to stop mouth breathing? That’s right. Our brain is always a powerful tool to solve the problem. During the day, whenever you subconsciously find yourself use the mouth to breathe, you should try and get rid of the bad habit. Eventually, you can use stick notes or set a reminder. At the beginning, it would be hard for you and you may forget sometimes but if you are always aware of that, you can change the habit gradually. Try to breathe through your nose and close your mouth at all times. Although this method cannot be applied during your sleep, you are recommended trying because it can be a foundation for you to apply other tips on how to stop mouth breathing effectively.
Read more: How to Detox Your Lungs
3. Practicing Nose Clearing Exercises
As mentioned, the underlying reason for mouth breathing is a nasal obstruction. What causes the problem should be solved. Therefore, you should practice nose-clearing exercises as suggested below. This is an exercise named Buteyko will be applied whenever you feel your nose is blocked and you cannot take a usual breath. This is also used to correct other breathing problems. It can reestablish the breathing volume to normal, which might be considered as the most efficient tip on how to stop mouth breathing.
Direction:
- In a sitting position, you breathe through your nose as usual for 2-3 minutes. Remember to keep your mouth closed.
- Breathe in and use your fingers to press closed your nose. Maintain it as long as possible.
- Once you think that you are not able to hold it anymore, you should let the air go out through your nostrils slowly.
- Repeat several times to have the good effects.
- Note: During this exercise, you have to keep your mouth closed. Otherwise, the exercise is meaningless and useless.
Get more: Benefits of breathing exercises
4. Elevating Your Head While Sleeping
Another effective tip on how to stop mouth breathing is to elevate your head while sleeping. In fact, a poor sleeping position might worsen your snoring. If the sleeping forces you to open your mouth, you will have to breathe through your mouth and you will not be able to stop it. Therefore, you need to pay attention to the sleeping position as well. A tip for you is to sleep with your head that is elevated above the body. You can use a pillow to elevate your head. An adjustable mattress can be another good alternative. Remember that your pillow should not be too thick and high. Your back cannot be tilted too much to the back, which will cause other bone-related issues.
Do you know why we suggest you to that? Actually, there are several reasons to show that elevating your head is necessary. Firstly, if you get an acid influx, elevating your head will help you to deal with this problem because it is able to prevent acids as well as other intestinal fluids from moving up to your throat. Secondly, by elevating your head, a clear and smooth passage for air will be created, which avoids nasal obstruction – the main cause of mouth breathing. Finally, this sleeping position helps to reduce stress on your heart. All in all, it is recommended elevating your head during your sleep, which is another tip on how to stop mouth breathing.
Read more: Benefits of sleeping naked
5. The Hat Or Scarf
If your children are mouth breathers, you can apply this tip on how to stop mouth breathing. If your kids have a hat with a strap coming under the chin, you should cut almost all of the material from the hat so that there is only enough to keep this hat’s structure intact. A small note is that you should cut as much material as you can in order to prevent your kids from feeling too warm at night, which can add to over-breathing. Allow your children to wear that hat to bed and place the strap under the chin in order to stop the lower jaw from dropping down. You can wrap a scarf around your children’s head under the chin. Tie it to make sure that the lower jaw cannot drop down at night. This suggestion allows the night-time breathing through the nose with minimum discomfort. Remember this tip on how to stop mouth breathing in children.
Get more: Home remedies for chest congestion
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