Taping Your Mouth? What to Expect.

You've seen the trending TikTok videos. Perhaps you heard Andrew Huberman's latest podcast episode on sleep? Did a wellness-obsessed friend share their latest biohack with you?

However you first heard about mouth taping, you most likely are wondering about how long it takes to see and feel the benefits of this weird wellness hack.

This inaugural post on the bouche.me blog details the most common benefits from mouth taping, based on this author's personal journey.

Night One

The most immediately obvious benefit of mouth taping is reducing dry mouth and snoring. Personally, I grew up in a very dry climate (wooo Calgary!) and I would wake up almost every morning, feeling dehydrated, with a mouth drier than an Albertan winter. 

When I first started taping my mouth at night I immediately noticed relief from morning dry mouth. That's because we expire 42% less water when nasal breathing as compared to mouth breathing.

This effect of preventing dry mouth also contributes to the other benefits of mouth taping such as: reducing cavities, deeper sleep, and teeth grinding. 

Week One

After about a week a mouth taping I started to noticed less muscle soreness from my usual workouts, and higher capacity to perform in the gym. 

As a former college athlete, I love any protocol that can help give me an edge in performance. When I mouth tape, I typically feel much more rested and ready to train in the mornings. 

Month Six

Reduced cavities. If you're one of those poor souls that wasn't blessed with invincible teeth then this benefit is probably the most important. 

Cavities are terrible. We are talking about the irreversible decay of the part of your body needed to process food to keep you alive. And what does mouth breathing have to do with cavities? Your gums and teeth hate mouth breathing because mouth breathing results in retaining 42% less water than by nasal breathing. This means dried out gums and increased bacteria production (1). 

The mean loss of expired water was 42% less by nasal expiration before decongestion than by oral expiration (1.9x10-3 g/Lmin compared to 2.7x10-3 g/Lmin, p<0.001). 

Since bacteria thrives in dry environments the impact on your oral health alone was a huge reason for me to mouth tape everynight. 

Year Three

I have now been mouth taping for over three years and I can't and won't stop. On the off chance I do forget to tape I wake up to drink water in the middle of the night or with a horrible dry and disgusting mouth in the morning. Mouth taping has become the staple for my evening wind down. It is the clearest signal to my body, its time to sleep, and I have never slept better in my whole life. 

If you are interested in trying mouth taping make sure you use a high quality product. The issue with many of the competitors on the market, is that they aren't comfortable, don't cover your full mouth, or fall off in the middle of the night. If your mouth tape doesn't stay on, it is impossible to get the benefits. Bouche was designed to be the most comfortable, most effective mouth tape on the market. 

1. https://www.rhinologyjournal.com/Rhinology_issues/554.pdf