How to stop mouth breathing

How to stop mouth breathing, step by step

Work from the nose outwards. Often, people who breathe through their mouth either can’t breathe easily through their nose, or couldn’t once and the habit stayed. Nose breathing is the first of the three habits in how to breathe properly.

Why do I breathe through my mouth?

Usually because the nose isn’t carrying enough air, now or in the past. Colds, hay fever and other allergies swell the lining of the nose. A bent septum or nasal polyps can narrow it for good. In children, large adenoids or tonsils are a common reason. And if your nose was blocked for a long stretch, the mouth can stay open from habit after the nose has cleared.

Stress plays a part too. When you’re tense, breathing gets faster, and fast breaths come more easily through the mouth. Slowing down is half of switching back.

What are nasal breathing exercises?

Simple breaths that keep the air going in and out through your nose. They won’t widen a narrow nose, but they make nose breathing feel normal again. Three to try:

• Slow nose breathing. 5 seconds in, 5 seconds out, all through the nose. It’s the player at the top of this page.
• Humming. Breathe in through your nose, then hum on a long out-breath with your lips closed. In a small lab study, humming raised nitric oxide in the nose 15-fold (Weitzberg & Lundberg 2002). What that means for health isn’t known yet, but it’s a pleasant way to keep your lips closed. Full guide: humming bee breath.
• Nose-only walking. A few minutes of walking with your mouth closed, slowing down whenever you need to.

You’ll also find breath-hold exercises for unblocking the nose, mostly from the Buteyko method. They’re described honestly in Buteyko breathing. The gentle exercises above are enough to start.

How do I stop mouth breathing at night?

Get the daytime habit going first, then make the night easier for your nose. For the 5 minutes in bed, Breathform has a dark screen for bedtime and keeps going once the screen locks.

If you snore loudly, wake up gasping or feel exhausted however long you sleep, talk to your doctor before trying anything else. Those can be signs of sleep apnoea, which needs a proper diagnosis. That’s also why tape isn’t the first step: is mouth taping safe? looks at the evidence. For winding down, there are more slow breaths in breathing exercises for sleep.

Is mouth breathing bad for you?

Now and then, it’s simply useful: on a run (see how to breathe while running), with a cold, when you’re laughing. Habitual mouth breathing, day and night, tends to bring a dry mouth, a sore throat in the morning and snoring. Breathing through your nose filters, warms and moistens the air, and in one small trial it was linked to slightly lower blood pressure than mouth breathing (Watso et al. 2023). The full comparison is in nose breathing vs mouth breathing.

Can mouth breathing change your face?

In children, it may. A meta-analysis of 10 studies found that children who breathed through their mouths tended to have jaws angled further back and down, and narrower airways, than children who breathed through their noses (Zhao et al. 2021). Those are differences in growth, measured as angles of the jaw and face, and they’re about children who habitually breathe through the mouth.

In adults, your face has finished growing. You’ll see videos promising a sharper jawline from nose breathing or tongue exercises. There’s no good evidence for that. Breathe through your nose because it’s comfortable, not to change your face.

How do I stop my child mouth breathing?

Start by looking for the reason. A child who breathes through their mouth most of the time, snores, or sleeps with their mouth open usually has a blocked nose, allergies, or large adenoids or tonsils. Mention it to your GP or dentist, who can look and refer if needed.

Day to day, nose breathing can be a game: smell the flower through your nose, blow out the candle through your mouth. Smell the flower, blow out the candle has a version little ones can follow.

Every study on this page (3)

• Weitzberg & Lundberg, 2002: Humming raised nitric oxide in the nose 15-fold compared with breathing out quietly, in 10 healthy people; health effects weren't tested.
• Watso et al., 2023: In 20 young adults, breathing through the nose rather than the mouth slightly lowered blood pressure and raised heart-rhythm signs of calm.
• Zhao et al., 2021: A meta-analysis of 10 studies found that mouth-breathing children had backward and downward rotation of the jaws and narrower airways than nasal-breathing children.

Questions people ask

How long does it take to become a nose breather?

It varies. If your nose is clear, daytime nose breathing can start to feel normal within a couple of weeks of noticing and practising a few minutes a day. Night-time can take longer, because you can’t practise while you’re asleep. If you’ve been at it for a month and your nose still feels too narrow, it’s worth asking a GP or pharmacist why.

Why do I wake up with a dry mouth?

Most often because you’ve been breathing through your mouth while you slept. Air moving in and out dries the inside of your mouth, especially in a heated or air-conditioned room. Snoring does the same. A blocked nose is the usual reason, so start there. If the dry mouth comes with loud snoring or feeling exhausted in the day, mention it to your doctor.

Does tongue posture help you breathe through your nose?

It can make it easier to keep your mouth closed. Resting your tongue on the roof of your mouth, just behind your top teeth, with your lips together and teeth slightly apart, is a comfortable position for nose breathing. You’ll see bigger claims online, like reshaping your jaw, and those aren’t supported in adults. Think of it as a resting place, not a workout.