I Slept With My Mouth Taped Shut for 30 Days

2021-02-21 · Long video (solo, talking head or whiteboard) · Ali, Sheen · recording, 10:12 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Health, sleep and habits · mode: Reflection and life update

Ali sleeps with his mouth taped shut using Somnifix strips for three weeks, then a week without; he feels he sleeps better and wakes less with a dry mouth, but his Apple Watch and Oura Ring data do not show it, and he recommends mouth breathers at least try it.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Why sleep matters and why breathing through the nose beats breathing through the mouth

★ Ali says there is a lot of scientific evidence that people who sleep well are healthier, more engaged and get more done. — 00:00:00
★★ Ali says there is no categorical scientific evidence for taping your mouth shut during sleep, but enough people online found it helpful that he decided to try it. — 00:00:29
★★ Ali explains that the mucus and hairs inside the nose humidify, filter and warm the air to body temperature before it reaches the lungs. — 00:00:58
★★ Breathing through the mouth apparently dries out the sinuses, worsens dental hygiene, reduces intake of nitric oxide, important for brain function, and lowers sleep quality, cardiovascular health and blood oxygen, Ali says. (hedged) — 00:00:58
★★ Ali says he breathes mostly through his mouth because his nose is always blocked, and for the last few years he has often woken in the night with a very dry mouth, needing water and sometimes unable to get back to sleep. — 00:00:58

00:01:42 — First night with Somnifix mouth strips, reusing one strip, Sheen's verdict, a week without tape

★ The Somnifix mouth strips Ali uses come 28 days' worth to a pack, which the maker says is clinically proven to improve breathing and sleep quality. — 00:01:42
★★ After his first night with his mouth taped shut, Ali did not wake up at all, and his mouth was only a little dry, much less than usual. — 00:02:58
★★ Around day 14, with the tape feeling weird on his mouth, Ali realised he had been reusing one Somnifix strip for 14 days to save money; the strips are disposable, one a night. — 00:03:21
★ Sheen: Ali's housemate Sheen calls his mouth-taping experiment pretty dumb. (playful) — 00:03:51 · Sheen
★★ Sheen says that since Ali started taping his mouth she no longer hears him snore, so her own sleep has improved. — 00:03:51 · Sheen
★★ After three weeks of mouth taping, Ali spends a week sleeping without the tape, tracking his sleep with his Apple Watch and Oura Ring to see whether it makes a difference. — 00:04:21 · Apple Watch

00:04:46 — Does it work: the subjective way and the sleep-tracker data

★★ On his first night without the tape Ali did not wake for water, though his mouth was dry in the morning; he wonders whether three weeks of taping made him keep his mouth closed in his sleep anyway. (hedged) — 00:04:46
★★★ Judged by his own experience, Ali says mouth taping does work. — 00:05:35
★★ With his mouth taped Ali did not wake in the night, or woke around 6 a.m. instead of 3 a.m.; his mouth felt much less dry and he did not need water during the night. — 00:06:05
★★ Since starting the mouth-taping experiment Ali has had many mornings of waking genuinely refreshed, which he rarely remembers from the year before, though he does not know if the tape is why. (hedged) — 00:06:05
★ For two months Ali has tracked his sleep with the AutoSleep app on an Apple Watch worn to bed nearly every night, along with his Oura Ring and its own app. — 00:06:41 · Apple Watch
★★ Ali says a home sleep experiment on yourself is only valid if the conditions stay constant, and countless variables can skew a one-person study. — 00:06:41
★★★ Ali's January sleep data looks as if his sleep quality was better in the last seven days, without mouth tape, than with it, against his own experience. (hedged) — 00:07:10
★★ Ali thinks his better tracked sleep in the week without tape more likely came from other factors: nothing early in the morning, no caffeine before bed, lights off, no phone. (hedged) — 00:07:38
★★★ Ali's verdict on mouth taping: subjectively a definite improvement in his sleep, but objectively he cannot say, as his tracker data did not show the pattern he wanted. — 00:07:38

00:08:00 — Would he recommend it, and is he going to continue

★★★ Ali recommends at least trying mouth taping at night, especially for mouth breathers like him and people who wake in the night with a dry mouth to drink water. — 00:08:07
★★ Ali thinks taping his mouth at night has made his mouth more likely to stay closed during the day too, for instance at his laptop. — 00:08:07
★★ Two weeks into February Ali still puts on a fresh mouth strip every night; his sleep routine is skincare, lights off, the strip, then reading on his Kindle until his eyes start to close. — 00:08:55 · Kindle
★★ Ali plans to keep taping his mouth for the next few months, buying a pack of 28 Somnifix strips each month. (hedged) — 00:09:20
★★ Ali recommends the Somnifix mouth strips as pretty solid, saying the video is not sponsored. — 00:09:20

00:09:49 — Playlist of life-lesson videos and sign-off

Threads in this video

refine · How do you sleep better? — Ali recommends at least trying mouth taping at night, especially for mouth breathers like him and people who wake in the night with a dry mouth to drink water. (00:08:07)
restate · How do you sleep better? — Two weeks into February Ali still puts on a fresh mouth strip every night; his sleep routine is skincare, lights off, the strip, then reading on his Kindle until his eyes start to close. (00:08:55)

Mentioned

Central: mouth taping · Somnifix

Also: Apple Watch · AutoSleep · Kindle · Oura Ring · Sheen

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