Neuro Athletes, 

Last week I included a new hack into the my NBA players night time routine. This hack was unconventional and resulted in an email from his concerned wife. After a 45 minute phone call, she now performs the same night time ritual and it’s been a game changer.

The hack? Taping your mouth shut.

You read it correctly. Mouth taping is a simple, cheap and effective hack, backed by science that can dramatically increase your sleep quality and reduce

We all breathe.

To be exact, we take around 25,000 breathes a day.

It is what sustains our life and all our metabolic functions.

Without it, we would die.

Despite its importance, very few of us do it well and this is to our own detriment.

The only reason why elite athletes come to see me is to get them to perform better, think faster and live longer. So amongst the programming we do at Neuro Athletics, we also input a number of strategies to enhance brain function.

One way we can do this is by delivering maximum amount of oxygen to the brain when we sleep.

Here’s how it’s done.

The email is brought to you by….

Primer

Individuals who habitually breathe through the mouth are more likely than nasal breathers to have sleep disorders and attention deficit hyperactive disorder.

There are two breathing routes, through the mouth and the nose, and humans normally breathe through the nose. Mouth breathing because of nasal obstruction is likely to cause sleep disorders, and by day, it may give rise to symptoms similar to those of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In these ways, it has been suggested that breathing through the mouth instead of the nose can adversely affect brain function.

You’ll often notice that those with the worst breathing, often have the worst health.

Mouth Taping While You Sleep

When you breathe through your mouth while you sleep, you go through many periods of paralysis as your body's repairing. So neurologically, you're not sending signals to your tongue, and then so your tongue will collapse on your airway, and you'll have hypoxic events (also known as apneas). Some people have more apneas depending on their neck size, and how much body fat they have.

Isn’t Air Just air?

I know it sounds crazy but there’s a difference between nasal breathing and mouth breathing.

Ever heard the saying “noses are for breathing, mouths are for eating”?

It’s true. Our nose was designed with the respiratory system in mind. We optimise our breath and our physiology when breathing through the nose. We should only breathe through the mouth in the following situations:

• As a back-up system in case of a blockage in the nose from injury or illness

• In emergency situations. For example, you’re getting chased by someone or something.

• As a top gear when performing short and high-intensity bursts of training.

According to James Nestor in his book Breath, the difference is:

How it Results in Better Sleep

As an athlete, sleep is crucial for performance. As Mathew Walker says in his book “Why We Sleep”…

Deep sleep allows us to go into the optimal state of recovery for repairing damaged cells. Without sufficient sleep, we can’t recover and we won’t improve over time. We only get better once our body has had time to recover and adapt to the training stimulus.

When you breathe through your mouth during sleep, you’re more likely to experience obstructive sleep apnea, micro awakenings, and snoring. If you wake up with a dry mouth or are groggy in the morning despite getting 8 hours, you may be suffering from some form of sleep apnea.

Snoring and sleep apnea are worsened due to mouth breathing.

Teaching yourself to breathe through your nose during the night and developing breathing techniques can radically reduce the impact of snoring and sleep apnea. As a consequence, your sleep will drastically improve.

How to Tape Your Mouth Before Sleep

Using clear surgical tape (which is meant to be used on skin), you tape your mouth shut right before you go to sleep. This encourages you to breathe through your nose instead.

The tape just has to cover the mouth by a millimeter or so on each side, it’s not like a hostage situation where your entire lower face is covered in duct tape.

If you are pregnant or have any medical conditions please consult your health care practitioner before trying these methods.

Closing Thoughts

Mouth breathing is bad news. The majority of the time, we should be breathing through our noses. If you’re adamant that you can’t breathe through your nose then try taping your mouth shut before you sleep and measure your results over the course of 2 weeks.

If it works for my elite athletes, it can work for you!

Until next time.

- Louisa

Improve Your Fitness Through Sleep

Eight Sleep is the premier sleep fitness company that powers human performance through optimal sleep.

They use an advanced temperature-controlled system that adjusts throughout the night. It analyzes your personalized sleep stages, biometrics, and bedroom temperature, reacting intelligently to create the optimal sleeping environment.

The result?

Since getting my Eight Sleep Pod Pro Cover a few months ago, not only do I fall asleep faster, I actually get high-quality sleep, so I wake up feeling well-rested and energized.

Simply put, it’s been a game-changer.

If you want to join me and thousands of pro athletes, CEOs, and other high performers that are dedicated to improving their sleep fitness, you should get an Eight Sleep Pod Pro Cover too.

Trust me; you won’t regret it :)