Mouth Taping
Evaluating the Evidence For and Against the Viral Health Hack
Disclosure: This post includes two affiliate links at the end for mouth tape products. I’ve (CG; RC receives no compensation) included the two brands my patients most often report success with — and that I’ve personally tested. As always, the goal of this newsletter is to provide evidence-based insight into sleep health. Mouth taping is not a magic fix, but it can help the right person.
One of the most common things we’re asked in clinic: DOES MOUTH TAPING WORK? Viral TikToks and wellness influencers promise better rest and less snoring. It’s a compelling proposition: an over the counter, cheap remedy to poor sleep and loud snoring. As sleep surgeons, here’s our take.
🩹 What Is Mouth Taping?
Mouth taping is exactly what it sounds like: using a gentle adhesive strip to keep the lips sealed during sleep. The idea is to promote natural nasal breathing instead of mouth breathing—believed to improve oxygenation, reduce snoring, and enhance sleep quality.
📚 What Does the Evidence Say?
A recent systematic-review published in PLOS One provides an excellent summary and discussion about the science around mouth-taping. The authors analyzed 10 studies with over 200 total patients evaluating the utility of the technique in sleep apnea specifically:
Of 5 studies that directly evaluated AHI between mouth tape and not, 3 showed statistically significant improvements in AHI (the ‘score’ for OSA severity).
Several studies showed improvement in other measures like snoring and hypoxia metrics.
Near all of the studies excluded patients with subjective or anatomic nasal obstruction (i.e. septal deviation). It is worth emphasizing, nasal breathing is an ESSENTIAL part of tolerating and improving sleep while mouth taped.*
Overall the studies were quite heterogeneous and of varying quality, limiting larger analysis/conclusions.
In short, there was no strong/consistent support for the practice of mouth-taping in sleep apnea. The authors’ takeaways were that for patients with nasal obstruction as a cause of mouth breathing or more severe forms of OSA, mouth tape should not be considered. For mild OSA/snoring cases, there does seem to be a worthwhile use-case.
* the paper also made a point of mentioning the risk of asphyxia (suffocation) with mouth-taping. While hypothetically this could occur with nasal (anatomic issue) + oral blockage (mouth taping), there are no reported cases of this in the literature. Anecdotally, a patient typically knows quite quickly if they can’t tolerate mouth taping while awake, let alone while asleep.
🧠 Our Take as Sleep Specialists
Mouth taping is not a panacea for sleep apnea—but it might help certain patients, particularly those with mild OSA, snoring, or sleep quality issues. Especially those who struggle with mouth breathing during sleep.
What we tell patients:
If you snore or have sleep quality issues and haven’t had a sleep study, that is a worthwhile initial step to guide discussion.
If you’ve been diagnosed with primary snoring or mild OSA and can’t tolerate CPAP, mouth taping is one of several adjunctive strategies to consider.
Mouth taping is low-risk, inexpensive, and easy to try— while overwhelmingly safe, it should be approached thoughtfully.
If a patient has nasal obstruction symptoms, that should be managed upfront.
✅ Tips If You’re Going to Try It
Test for nasal patency first—if you can’t comfortably breathe through your nose, address that before taping your mouth. See an ear, nose, and throat surgeon.
Use medical-grade, hypoallergenic tape designed for the lips—not typical household/industrial tapes.
Start slow—try it for short naps or a couple of hours at night before committing to the whole night.
Monitor how you feel—if you’re waking up gasping, fatigued, or feeling worse, stop and talk to a sleep specialist.
📬 Final Thoughts
Mouth tape is an example of how patients are looking for simple, vetted solutions to sleep problems, and will bypass their physicians to do so. While far from a cure, providers need to be open to these low-tech tools—especially when paired with evidence-based guidance.
In our practices, we enjoy hearing patients’ anecdotal experiences, and sharing the data on social media trends- as always, a shared decision making model helps best.
Until next time, sleep well.
– Drs. Chris Gouveia and Robson Capasso
If interested in trying mouth tape, these are the two brands I (CG) have the most patients using/recommending, and I have personally trialed. I do receive a 20% affiliate payment for any purchases through the links: