Are You a Mouth Breather? Here are the possible benefits of Breathing through your nose.

August 28, 2021

3 min read

Do you breathe through your mouth most of the time? An estimated 30 to 50 percent of people do, too. While breathing this way might not seem like a big deal, chronic mouth breathing has actually been linked to a number of health problems, including gum disease, tooth decay, bad breath, snoring, sleep apnea, and enlarged tonsils. Many researchers and health professionals consider mouth breathing to be generally less efficient and more closely associated with abnormal breathing patterns compared to the alternative of breathing through the nose.

Why is exactly breathing through the nose so beneficial and how can you develop this habit?

Possible Benefits of Breathing Through Your Nose

According to a 2015 review paper published in Nursing in General Practice, nasal breathing may help your overall health by:

Improving air moisture
Helping your diaphragm function properly
Naturally filtering the air you breathe by trapping dust, bacteria, viruses, and other debris in nasal mucous and nose hairs
Promoting good alignment of the tongue and upper palate, which is important for dental health and alignment

Because your nasal passage is home to a dense network of capillaries, arteries, veins, and lymphatic vessels, breathing through the nose could be a way to get more oxygen into your blood, tissues, and organs. Nasal breathing may also promote increased oxygen uptake (by as much as 20 percent, according to some estimates) by increasing airflow resistance, which supports healthy lung elasticity, volume, and overall function.

Nasal breathing is also linked to a deeper slower respiratory rate, which we know stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system and promotes relaxation in the body and mind. Breathing through the nose may even help your body produce more of a compound called nitric oxide (NO). NO helps dilate blood vessels and airways inside the lungs and therefore may help lower blood pressure and improve lung function, among other benefits.

Want to Break Your Mouth Breathing Habit? Here Are Three Things That Might Help

Going from a chronic mouth breather to a nose breather can be a tough habit to change. Some people might not be able to effectively breathe through their nose due to issues like facial trauma, a deviated septum, or another underlying health condition. But a growing body of evidence suggests that if you can breathe through your nose more often, you probably should. Here are three things you can do that may make this transition easier:

1.
Consult with your doctor about managing allergies, sinusitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and other respiratory conditions that could make nasal breathing more difficult.
2.
Set aside a few minutes per day to sit quietly and breathe through your nose. Try doing this as a meditative practice and focus on making your inhalations and especially exhalations slow and long.
3.
Consider taping your mouth shut at night with specially made tape—but do so with caution. While the research on mouth taping isn't conclusive yet, proponents of this recent trend say that it can be a simple way to breathe through your nose more and may even reduce snoring. You shouldn't try mouth taping if you consume alcohol or sedatives, if you struggle to breathe through your nose for any reason, if you have damaged skin around your lips or mouth, if you have heart or blood pressure problems, if you have a cold or active allergy issues or if you are obese. If you're being medically supervised, talk to your doctor before trying out mouth taping for yourself.

Go ahead: take a deep breath through your nose. Notice anything different in how you feel? For more on simple strategies to improve your health, be sure to explore the rest of Healthread and check out our app for more updates.