Is mouth taping safe, and does it work?

What is mouth taping?

A small strip of tape over closed lips, to nudge you to breathe through your nose at night. If your nose is clear and you can breathe through it easily, the main risks are sore skin and a restless night. For some people, though, it really isn’t a good idea.

The trouble is the people it appeals to most. If you breathe through your mouth at night, there’s often a reason: a nose that’s blocked by a cold, allergies or a bent septum, or sleep apnoea, where the airway keeps narrowing during sleep. Taping over the one route that’s working can leave too little room to breathe. The nose matters at night: in a 2026 meta-analysis of studies where people’s noses were blocked, by packing after surgery or on purpose in experiments, breathing interruptions in sleep rose by about 14 an hour (Alshehri et al. 2026).

Does mouth taping actually work?

Not in any proven way, yet. Ear, nose and throat doctors reviewed 25 years of research in 2025 and found just 10 studies, with 213 patients between them. Two showed better sleep apnoea scores with tape. The rest found no difference, and some discussed risks, including suffocation if the nose is blocked. Many excluded anyone with a nose problem in the first place (Rhee et al. 2025).

The most encouraging study taped the mouths of 20 people with mild sleep apnoea who breathed through their mouths. On a home sleep test with tape a week later, breathing interruptions fell from about 8 to about 5 an hour (Lee et al. 2022). It had no comparison group, and it only included people who could tolerate the tape.

So: a small, promising signal for a narrow group under medical care, and no evidence for everyone else.

Does mouth taping help snoring?

Sometimes. In that small study, the snoring score roughly halved with tape (Lee et al. 2022). But snoring is also the most common sign of sleep apnoea, and that’s exactly the group for whom tape can be risky.

What do doctors say about mouth taping?

The doctors behind the 2025 review called it a social-media trend with a potentially serious risk of harm for people who try it without thinking it through (Rhee et al. 2025). Advice from sleep and ENT clinics tends to follow from that: find out why you breathe through your mouth before you try to stop it at night. Often the answer is the nose, and the nose can usually be helped. Mouth taping is also one of the habits in Breath by James Nestor, which we’ve checked against the studies.

What are the alternatives to mouth taping?

The gentler route is to make nose breathing your habit while you’re awake, when you can notice and adjust, and to look after your nose. How to breathe properly starts there too.

Other things that can help: treating a blocked nose (a pharmacist or GP can suggest what suits yours), sleeping on your side, nasal strips that hold the nostrils open, and a few minutes of slow breathing before bed. How to stop mouth breathing goes through them in order, and nose breathing vs mouth breathing explains why the nose is worth the effort.

How do you practise nose breathing first?

Five minutes before bed, sitting up or lying down. If this is easy, your nose is ready for the night.

A quiet hum on the out-breath is a good evening alternative: it keeps your lips closed and lengthens the breath out. Both breaths keep going in Breathform with the screen locked, so the phone can go face-down. There are more ideas for winding down in breathing exercises for sleep.

If you still want to try tape after a few weeks of this, keep it gentle: a small strip of skin-safe tape in the middle of your lips rather than across them, tested first for 20 minutes while you read, and never on a night your nose is stuffy.

Every study on this page (3)

• Alshehri et al., 2026: A meta-analysis found that nasal obstruction, induced non-surgically or after nasal surgery, was associated with about 14 more apnoea-hypopnea events an hour (+13.78).
• Rhee et al., 2025: A systematic review of 10 studies (213 patients) found improved sleep apnoea markers in 2 studies, no difference in others, and a potentially serious risk of harm, including asphyxiation with nasal obstruction.
• Lee et al., 2022: In 20 mouth-breathers with mild obstructive sleep apnoea, a home sleep test with the mouth taped, a week after baseline, showed the apnoea-hypopnea index falling from 8.3 to 4.7 events an hour and the snoring index roughly halving; there was no control group.

Questions people ask

Can mouth taping help sleep apnoea?

In two small studies of people with mild sleep apnoea who breathed through their mouths, events per hour fell with tape. That’s interesting, but it isn’t a treatment, and the same review warns that tape can be dangerous if your nose can’t carry you through the night. Sleep apnoea needs a proper diagnosis first. A sleep clinic can tell you whether tape has any place alongside your treatment.

Is mouth taping safe for children?

It’s not something to try at home. A child who breathes through their mouth at night usually has a reason: a blocked nose, allergies, or large adenoids or tonsils. Those need looking at, and taping over them could make breathing harder. If your child snores, mouth-breathes most nights or seems tired in the day, mention it to your GP or dentist.

Does mouth taping give you a better jawline?

You’ll see that claim a lot on social media, and there’s no evidence for it in adults. Your jaw and face have finished growing. Studies linking mouth breathing to how the face develops are about children who habitually breathe through the mouth, often because of a blocked nose, and the fix there is the nose, not tape.

What are the side effects of mouth taping?

The minor ones can include sore or irritated skin around the lips, a dry or itchy feeling under the tape, and broken sleep from waking up and noticing it. Some people feel anxious with their mouth closed and wake in a panic. The serious risk is for anyone whose nose can’t cope: a cold, allergies or a bent septum can leave too little room to breathe.