Viral Sleep Trend Turns Dangerous: Mouth Taping Could Risk Your Life
New Delhi (The Uttam Hindu) - Are you following the social media trend that putting tape on the mouth while sleeping helps in breathing through the nose instead of the mouth? Be careful, this can lead to a serious risk of suffocation. Asphyxiation is a condition in which there is a lack of oxygen in the body, often leading to difficulty in breathing or suffocation. When the nasal passages are blocked, breath moves from the nose to the mouth. Mouth breathing has been linked to sleep disturbances, ranging from snoring to conditions like obstructive sleep apnea, in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts during sleep.
However, a recent trend promoted by social media has some people taping their mouths shut at night to treat sleep-disrupting breathing problems by preventing them from breathing through their mouths.
Mouth taping has been recommended by many social media influencers and celebrities, who claim it can lead to better sleep, improved oral health and anti-ageing results. "Our research shows that taping your mouth while sleeping is dangerous, especially for people who may not know they have sleep apnea," said Dr Brian Rotenberg, an otolaryngologist and sleep surgeon at Western University in the UK.
"These people are unknowingly making their symptoms worse and putting themselves at greater risk of serious health complications, such as heart disease," he said. The researchers evaluated 10 previously published studies to assess the potential benefits of closing the mouth of a total of 213 patients using tape or other devices.
In a paper published in the journal PLOS One, the team said that this practice "may worsen existing sleep disorders by obstructing airflow, putting additional pressure on the respiratory system, and increasing the risk of suffocation in patients with nasal obstruction." Two of the 10 studies suggested that mild obstruction could lead to modest improvements. However, the other studies found no evidence that taping the mouth could help treat mouth breathing, sleep disturbances or sleep apnea.