As a permanent snorer and nose cold sufferer several tips in that book worked wonders for me. I already had a good set of lungs and low breathing rhythm thanks to swimming, but a few weeks of sleeping with my mouth taped shut and attention to my jaw posture solved quite some issues. (N=1 YMMV etc)
I read the book a week ago, said, why not. Instant improvement. Before, I'd have to wake up to go to the bathroom every night for the past 10 years, and when I woke up I'd have this eye pain every day leading to these giant eye bags. On top of those, if I didn't get that last sleep cycle in, I'd have to take a nap to get rid of this weird headache which made the time in the morning before nap seem pointless. In the book he mentioned how face skin can improve, and less bathroom in the middle of the night because apparently the body releases something to tell the body to hold water because we're sleeping. Mouth breating at night didn't cause this to happen.
I did the mouth tape and instantly, first night and every night in the past week, eye pain is gone, I don't have get up to use the bathroom, and the amount of consistent energy is absurd compared to before.
Seriously, I want to shout it out to everyone to tape their mouths at night.
I think I would staying awake at least the first nights just by the thought that I have my mouth shut, and "what if I cannot breath and I die", or "this is so uncomfortable" etc etc. How did you manage that?
Yeah, the first two nights I woke up decently alert a couple times which I took to be my body telling me that something might be wrong and I should check it out.
I never felt a sense of uncomfortableness, it felt almost comfortable for me as if the tape was making me feel more secure, maybe? Similarly I didn't have the worry about not being able to breathe and not know about it. In both those cases, don't feel weird about wearing some around when waking and you can get used to it.
The other mindset to have is remember that our bodies are really incredible at things after millions of years of evolution. Nose breathing especially is something we're able to do. That acknowledgement and trust can go a long way mentally.
You can actually cut a little slit in the mouth tape, so that you won't panic. Breathing a straw sized amount of air through the mouth if you need to, will prevent suffocation anxiety, but also limit your mouth breathing enough that your nose does most of the work.
I can see how it can cause some anxiety. I suppose I was lucky that it didn't for me. The first two nights I work up in the middle a couple times, decently alert, and could tell my body was trying to say something might be wrong. I was able to fall asleep quickly though, which also was something I wasn't able to do before.
If you might have that anxiety, I'd say try putting tape on your mouth during the day at times to get used to it, and you might find you'll forget about it and that can ease the worry. It might be difficult, but we all can breathe only through our noses, even if that requires some practice and reassurance.
It did cause some anxiety for me. But I use a soft tape that easily comes loose with just the back of my hand or a big jaw movement.
I especially enjoy how the nasal cycle with nose breathing just seems to physically “halve” colds. Even with a cold with nose breathing one nostril just opens up at night in order to let me breathe.
What kind of tape do you use? I've just started trying this and best I have found so far in my local grocery store is Nexcare Absolute Waterproof tape. It stays on all night, but I wondered if there was something a bit easier to remove.
