Breathing. It’s easy, right?
Once upon a time, you were born into this world with not a single person telling you what you need to do when you arrived. The cool thing is though, something magical happened! You took your first gasp of air, naturally, deeply and with zero prompting. This was probably followed by a huge effort-filled cry to the world to state your presence.
It is something we do without being taught. It comes so naturally to us. We do it every day and rarely think about it. Our body is breathing without us having to remember to, consciously every single day, over and over again.
Imagine having to breathe consciously, that would be a tiresome life!
However, there is a healthy way to breathe and an unhealthy way.
Nearly half of the population spends most of their days and nights breathing through their mouth. You’re not the only one tossing and turning at night, kicking your partner out of bed to go to sleep downstairs because they won’t stop snoring.
Primarily breathing through our mouths instead of our noses can do more damage than simply just snoring at night.
We can exercise, eat well, sleep, meditate, and do all the right things but if we aren’t breathing correctly then we might just be downgrading ourselves a little. Breathing should be seen as one of the pillars of health.
Most of us are mouth-breathing without even knowing!
What are the health risks of mouth breathing?
Mouth breathing habitually can cause many health risks, for example, crowded teeth, cavities, cracked lips, gum disease, and more. However, it doesn’t stop there. Mouth breathing over a long period affects the body, too. It can cause chronic fatigue, digestive issues, morning headaches, and sore throats. There is more research coming to light on breathing.
Below is a 15-minute snippet from a podcast by which James Nestor shares fascinating facts about breathing, we recommend you give this a listen.
James Nestor’s book is, ‘Breath: A New Science of a Lost Art’.
Isn’t it funny how the things we do subconsciously are the exact things we overlook?
We would think that we would consume more oxygen by breathing through our mouths!
Wrong! It may seem that breathing through our mouth means we receive more oxygen, but science shows that this isn’t the case. Instead, we are offloading a mass amount of CO2, which restricts the lungs. However, when we breathe through our nose, the lungs absorb the breath easier.
On the other hand, mouth breathing won’t have a harmful effect if you do it now and then. In this blog, we are looking at ‘habitual breathing‘, and how we breathe when we are sleeping, not thinking about our breathing.
Can mouth breathing change the structure of our face?
Yes! That is right. Mouth breathing over a few years can change the bone structure of our face. Our jaw drops and we develop an elongated face, this is found in a lot of children nowadays. This can be a cause of health issues and dental issues. However, by switching to nasal breathing as a habit, over time, the structure of your face can change back, limiting those health risks.
BREATHING IS POWERFUL!
Why is it more beneficial to breathe through our nose?
The nose is more than just one of our senses alerting us when there is a bad smell or making us hungry with the waft of homemade bread coming from the bakery. We have filters in our nose that demolishes the bad stuff, like viruses. It filters and humidifies the air so that the lungs can absorb the oxygen easily. By breathing through our nose we increase oxygen uptake, improve lung volume, increase airflow to the arteries, veins, and nerves, and slow down our breathing. The nose is our first line of defence!
Who knew our noses could be so powerful? (well, maybe Pinocchio)
Our nose breathing helps us to sleep better as it puts our body into a relaxed state. When patients have treatment for sleep apnea and other sleeping disorders, they are often told to start sleeping with their mouths closed. The other ways we can hack our sleep are explained in our previous blog. There are many gems!
How can we begin to breathe through our noses?
MOUTH TAPING!
When we first heard this technique we thought, ‘how can we breathe if our mouth is covered up?’. It turns out our autonomic nervous system is extremely clever and will recognise changes in any given situation, e.g your mouth being taped up! We’ll begin breathing through our noses. Our brain has become used to breathing through our mouth but its job is to survive. The autonomic nervous system will always find a way to keep us alive, this also goes for our heartbeat.
During the day we can try focusing on different breathing exercises to breathe through our nose but if we have been mouth breathers for most of our lives it will be difficult. Our nostrils are out of practice! The airwaves are not as wide and need re-training. The same as if we haven’t been to the gym for a while and we try to start back where we left off. We have to re-train.
This is why mouth tapping is an incredible way to learn how to nose breathe because we are training our brain whilst we are asleep. Remember, we are looking to improve our habitual breathing.
As with any habit, it takes time to break and create a new one. Mouth taping each night allows the brain to gradually create new neuro-pathways to habitually breathe through the nose. Eventually, as time passes we will find ourselves naturally breathing through the nose during the day, too. Also finding it a lot easier to allow oxygen through.
Summary
Nasal breathing turns out to be more effective than mouth breathing in many, many ways. If you’re able to practise breathing with your mouth closed during the day when you are conscious of it and then try taping your mouth at night. These practices will improve your quality of life tenfold.
There are many specific mouth tapes available. Simple search ‘mouth tape for sleeping’ on Amazon and you’ll find many options available. It works wonders!
Let us know how you get on!
Seek and Discover
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BG9TFRDK?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
