Mouth breathing at night

Hi everyone,

I was just scrolling down the comments on the last Pain Free You Youtube video (they have been really helpful to me), and someone was talking about how mouth breathing at night is reaaaally bad for you and can explain a lot of symptoms, e.g. heightened anxiety, poor-quality sleep, etc. Which was quickly confirmed by a Google search (bad, I know).

I've always been a mouth-breather at night, and while I don't suffer from dental side effects (mouth-breathing is very drying to your mouth and can cause tooth decay, bad breath, etc.), I'm now very concerned about not being able to completely recover from TMS because of this. I'm also wondering if breathing through your mouth at night (barring any medical condition like a stuffed-up nose) can be a result of high anxiety levels, i.e. a side effect of TMS.

Does any of you know something about this ?

 

I can't specifically answer your question but you may want to further explore the research of James Nestor, who has a new book out that covers the subject of breathing through your nose while sleeping and otherwise. Here is a snapshot of his work:

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/05/27/862963172/how-the-lost-art-of-breathing-can-impact-sleep-and-resilience (How The 'Lost Art' Of Breathing Can Impact Sleep And Resilience)

All the best.

 

I am not an expert on mouth breathing, but I suggest you may be stressing out about something which has little to do with health. TMS work encourages us to worry less, and to try not to micro-manage our health.

I hope you don't worry about this. Your TMS work should be quite effective, regardless of how you breathe.

Andy

 

Thanks to both of you for your answers.

@Andy : this is the kind of straightforward answer I was hoping for ! The articles I read online sounded a lot like all these health fads that claim to have discovered the one-size-fits-all solution for all health issues. As someone who was involved a lot in the clean-eating community at a time, this reminded me of it. But I'm struggling a lot these times and doubts about TMS are still a problem for me.

 

I've probably been a mouth breather my whole life, but I never had chronic pain from it. I didn't develop chronic pain/muscle tension until my life became fueled with anxiety and fear while in college. It all happened one night while smoking weed. I had a massive panic attack (first one ever) that left me feeling terrified. Every panic attack I had after that revved up my nervous system more and more because I kept believing something was wrong with me and kept searching for a diagnosis even though nothing was wrong.

If you keep trying to associate your pain with a physical problem, then you'll remain in the pain/fear cycle. This is something that I'm currently working on myself. Hope this helps!

 

This is a really interesting topic. I never knew mouth breathing was so ubiquitous. I got my nose smashed to oblivion when I was 17 and I haven't been able to breathe through my nose properly since (even after a fairly involved reconstructive surgery). That's what happens when you think it's a good idea to fight a guy that outweighs you by 100+ pounds +_+.

Anyhoo, this is my non-expert take on it: nasal breathing is optimal, mouth breathing isn't. However, mouth breathing will not turn you into an imbecile with messed up teeth and a funny shaped face. I think nasal steroids/surgery/breathe right strips/whatever are warranted if someone has severe nasal obstruction; barring that, I think it's something to be lived with.