(NewsNation) — Though not a proven medical therapy, mouth taping has become a popular trend shared through social media.
Mouth taping is the process of placing special tape over your lips at night to prevent mouth breathing during sleep, forcing you to breathe through your nose.
Breathing through your nose filters allergens from the air before reaching your lungs, making the air you breathe humid, which keeps your mouth and throat moist, and controlling the temperature of the inhaled air, so it’s not too cold or warm when it reaches the lungs, according to WebMD.
Mouth breathing can present health problems like bad breath, dry mouth, poor oral health, sleep disordered breathing, symptoms related to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and slowed growth in children.
But does mouth taping work?
People who suffer from sleep apnea, a disorder in which an individual’s breathing repeatedly stops and starts during sleep, often try mouth taping. Research is limited, but some small-scale studies have shown mouth taping helps people snore less, although it does not prevent people from breathing out of their mouths.
“Mouth taping can prevent people with sleep apnea from breathing in through their mouth, but it doesn’t always prevent them from breathing out through their mouth – a phenomenon known as mouth puffing,” according to WebMD.
“Because there are so few studies on mouth taping, it’s not yet clear what side effects it may cause,” WebMD said.
Anecdotal side effects include anxiety from having their mouth taped shut, discomfort or irritation around lips, pain taking off the mouth tape and trouble sleeping from being uncomfortable.