While many people were first exposed to the idea by James Nestor’s 2020 book Breath, the trend took off on TikTok in earnest around 2022. Skinny Confidential podcast host Laryn Bosstick, professed the benefits of mouth-taping on her TikTok after hearing Stanford Neurobiologist Andrew Huberman talk about it on his podcast, Huberman Lab. “What I notice is that I wake up with so much more energy. Other benefits are less cavities, reduced snoring, better breath,” she says, “but honestly, I’ve noticed that I just have a deeper sleep.” That video has 35.2K likes.
Huberman pushed the practice a step further in a LinkedIn post, writing: “Some people opt to tape their mouth shut before sleep, but another solution that is additionally beneficial is to restrict yourself to nasal breathing during low to moderate intensity cardiovascular exercise (which we should all be doing at least 180 to 200 minutes per week for health).” And then, as if whispering it into existence, the athletes, one by one, put up and taped up.
Ultramarathoner and breathwork coach Rory Warnock posted on Instagram about taping his mouth for the Sydney Half Marathon. “I wanted to demonstrate that we can still perform to a high ability, only nasal breathing,” he wrote. “We’re designed to adapt. Give the body the correct environment and stimulus and it will do exactly that.” Swiatek, similarly said in a press conference that: “It’s harder to breathe when you’re only breathing with your nose, and it’s easier for my heart rate to go up,” she told reporters. “It’s a way to work on my endurance by not having me run so fast and do extreme things.”
Look, we can get back to the how—the crux of how mouth breathing impacts CO2 tolerance; restructuring your diaphragm; changing your jaw shape—but maybe what’s more important is taking a look at why people are doing this.
We’re in the era of exploiting the edge—where if you’re not on to the new thing, you’re not in the conversation. Between the chatter on social media, Internet hype, and talking heads—all looking to fill space and time—we’re consistently reminded of how to optimize our every moment. We must train like athletes, getting in a good sweat and a great sleep with techy new equipment, despite the fact that most of us aren’t training for the Olympics. If there is a trend at hand, you’d better believe there’s pressure to try it from every angle.
That’s when something like mouth-taping slowly works its way into the collective consciousness. As Mikesell puts it, when one athlete starts doing mouth-taping, others fear that they’ll fall behind or not reach their potential when it comes to performing at their best. “For better or worse,” he says, “trends often catch on faster than research can catch up, but that doesn’t always mean the research isn’t out there.”
In this case, it is. Nose breathing is perfectly fine—preferable even, according to every expert I spoke with. The tape, less so, but by all means, when responsibly applied, is probably okay, too.
What they’re less sold on is the idea that everything that crosses our screens needs to be in our personal repertoires, cautioning scrutiny and personal considerations before adopting the latest physiology fad. In other words, keep the nose breathing, but don’t feel like you have to tape.
