He took magnesium supplements and melatonin. He wore eye masks, went for cold plunges and hot baths with Epson salts. He even tried sweating it out in the sauna before bed.
But nothing helped him sleep better. And so, bereft, Phil Mackenzie, 37, a Burlington fit-fluencer, decided to tape his mouth shut.
鈥淚t seemed crazy,鈥 he said. 鈥淏ut I was willing to try anything.鈥
No, this isn’t some weird, new role playing game. MacKenzie, a father of four kids under eight, was trying out a decades-old, but newly viral wellness trend.
Proponents say that 鈥渕outh-taping,鈥 the practice of, quite literally, using an adhesive to seal your lips shut before bed, not only induces a deeper, more restful sleep, but also allows the sleeper to enjoy hours of uninterrupted slumber, more time in REM sleep (when we dream) and, come morning, to wake up feeling refreshed, energized 鈥 and with better breath.聽
Gwyneth Paltrow and Ashley Graham are reportedly devotees. TikTok is alight with videos of pyjama-wearing 20-somethings trying to talk through shuttered lips. And every day, it seems, up pops a new brand of mouth-tape with names like Hostage Tape and The Skinny Confidential Mouth Tape. In fact, once she saw her husband sleeping like a baby, Brodie MacKenzie, 35, tried it, loved it 鈥 and launched her own brand called TapeHer and TapeHim.
Lara Perel-Panar, a dentist at the TMJ and sleep therapy centre in Vancouver, said that while she likes to test-run many tapes on the market, mouth-taping isn’t really about the tape 鈥 or the mouth 鈥 at all. Rather, it’s about becoming a nose-breather instead of a mouth-breather.
Nasal breathing, Perel-Panar said, is not only a more efficient and effective way to take in air, it鈥檚 also easier on the body.
Before it reaches our lungs, the air coming in through our nose is filtered, humidified and warmed, she said. It’s also eased in slowly. That reduced pace is what tells our nervous system there鈥檚 no cause for alarm,聽which helps us relax and sleep more deeply.
鈥淚t puts us into rest and digest mode,鈥 said Perel-Panar, who is affiliated with the Breathe Institute, a health care centre that specializes in treating breathing and sleep disorders.
鈥淭hink about it: If you鈥檙e running from a tiger, you open your mouth and pant. But if we鈥檙e panting all night, that tells our nervous system that we are in a fight or flight mode.鈥
When we open our mouths and tip back our heads as if to lie down and sleep, our tongues fall back toward our throats, said Ann Kearney, a clinical researcher at Stanford University鈥檚 division of sleep surgery and laryngology. That not only restricts airflow 鈥 making it harder to take in oxygen 鈥 it also dries out the inside of our mouths, giving us pasty morning breath, said Kearney. This can lead to cavities and also turn us into noisy sleepers.
If you wake up during the night, Kearney said, it might be because you’re using your mouth to breathe instead of your nose.聽
Phil and Brodie Mackenzie say that taping their mouths shut at night 鈥 to ensure they breathe through their noses 鈥 has dramatically changed their sleep quality and quantity.
Nick KozakBut not everyone is a believer in mouth-taping.
Brian Rotenberg, an ear, nose and throat doctor and professor of surgery at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry at Western University, said that there is currently little, if any, scientific evidence connecting mode of breathing 鈥 mouth vs nose 鈥 with quality of sleep. Same goes for the link between mouth-tape and quality of sleep, he said.
That鈥檚 why Rotenberg is conducting a meta analysis on the already published studies that touch on sleep, nasal breathing and mouth taping. A meta analysis gleans its data from available research and applies it to new questions.
Rotenberg said he became intrigued by mouth-taping shortly after it began trending on聽social media. 鈥淭wo years ago, this never crossed my desk,” he said. “Now, someone asks about it at least once a week.”
Rather than roll his eyes, as doctors occasionally do when confronted by trending TikTok health fads, Rotenberg said he鈥檚 decided to greet the questions raised by the trend with science.
鈥淲e鈥檙e looking at the published data to see 鈥榠s there any benefit?鈥 said Rotenberg. 鈥淚s there any risk? What are the side effects? Are there any complications?鈥
Pena Orbea, a聽sleep doctor at the Cleveland Clinic, said that physicians may advise patients to wear a chin strap 鈥 a more primitive version of mouth tape 鈥 to keep their lips sealed during sleep if their throats become dry or if they’re swallowing too much air while wearing a CPAP machine that helps them breathe at night.
But without scientific evidence backing up the claims of more restorative rest, Orbea said, she wouldn鈥檛 recommend mouth-taping. If patients complain about interrupted sleep, snoring or feeling fatigued, there’s likely an underlying reason, such as sleep apnea, a deviated septum, allergies or some other type of airway obstruction, she said.
鈥淭aping your mouth won’t help with that. That鈥檚 why it鈥檚 important to talk to health care provider.鈥
As Canada鈥檚 health care system crumbles, however, that could take months. In 2023, the average wait time to see a specialist was 27.7 weeks, according to think tank, the Fraser Institute
Even then, James Nestor, a journalist and author of the 2020 book, 鈥淏reath; The New Science of a Lost Art鈥 鈥 which is widely credited with kick-starting the mouth-taping trend 鈥 said mouth-taping is unlikely to be prescribed.
Doctors may often be wary patients will hurt themselves, Nestor suggested. But he believes that mouth-taping carries little risk since people can simply remove the tape if they can鈥檛 breathe while wearing it. The only bar to entry, he said, is common sense 鈥 and some surgical tape with a mild adhesive.
鈥淥bviously, if you have a chronic obstruction in your nose, don’t try to tape your mouth.鈥 He recommends trying it for 20 minutes during the day. “If you can breathe, maybe try it for a couple of hours at night.鈥
While mouth-taping is unlikely to benefit everyone, it could be revelatory for some. After trying it out himself several years ago, Nestor said that his sleep was transformed. Since 鈥淏reath鈥 was published, he says he鈥檚 heard from thousands of people who have either 鈥渞educed or eliminated their snoring or sleep apnea by using a little piece of tape.鈥
About six months ago, Mackenzie started tracking his sleep data. That’s how he knew mouth-taping was responsible for increasing his REM sleep by an hour or more each night.
His data is also what convinced his wife, Brodie, to give mouth-taping a try. She said she saw dramatic improvements to both her sleep and her mood.
When she didn’t love the tape brands on offer 鈥 some left marks, some waxed the fine hairs off her face when she ripped off the tape in the morning 鈥 she launched her own. She said it’s tight enough to stop air from getting in, but still loose enough for talking.
鈥淵ou can still get some words out,鈥 she said. 鈥淲e do still talk funny, though.鈥
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