Some social media videos recommend that you fully record your mouth to improve sleep, while others advise only by closing it in part
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There is little good quality evidence to support the tendency of social media in the recording of the closed mouth at night to relieve breathing difficulties – and some scientists fear that it can bring its own set of problems.
“Fashion has taken off on social networks,” says Ken O'Halloran At the University College Cork in Ireland, which was not involved in the new research. “In the end, there is little evidence that it works.”
In recent years, some platform users such as Tiktok and Instagram have recommended using adhesive tape to close their mouths during sleep, in videos that have been collectively watched millions of times. This obliges nasal breathing, which, according to some people, brings various health benefits, namely the reduction of respiratory problems and thus deepen sleep.
To explore if there is support, Brian Rotenberg At Western University in Ontario, Canada, and his colleagues examined eight studies involving nearly 200 people with obstructive sleep apnea. This is a current condition where breathing stops temporarily or becomes restricted during sleep, which makes people snore and shake several times due to low oxygen levels.
Studies have launched mixed results. In two of them, the researchers followed people's breathing while they were sleeping for two nights, with and without a band. They found that the band reduced how often they have temporarily stopped breathing or known a limited air flow. “This has happened several times less per hour,” says Rotenberg.
But the remaining six studies, one of which was a randomized controlled trial, revealed that recording the mouth had no advantage for these problems. “The results were very mixed, so the evidence is low, and the studies were generally of poor quality with about a dozen or a few dozen people involved,” explains O'Halloran.
Rotenberg also says that recording the mouth could be problematic in itself. “If your nose is blocked and your mouth is closed, you are more likely to have these situations inducing panic not to make an air.”
“People can just remove the band, but I imagine someone could become quite anxious when they wake up, so I wouldn't advise it,” said David Garley At the Better Sleep Clinic in Bristol, in the United Kingdom.
But part of the variation in results could be due to differences in the way in which the oral recording has been carried out, explains Rotenberg. Some studies have defined it as a horizontal strip covering the whole mouth, while others were less specific, it is therefore possible that in some cases, the mouth is only partially closed, he says.
Another limitation is that none of the studies have followed the daytime symptoms. “It is the fatigue and the headache of the day that cause substantial problems to the clinic [with obstructive sleep apnoea]But they didn't look at this, ”explains Garley.
Until more research is available, people should talk to a doctor if they encounter breathing difficulties, he said. Approved treatments, such as CPAP machines that slowly push air through a mask to keep the airways open, proved to be helping toy sleep, Garley explains.
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