Mouth taping: does it work, and is it safe?

Key takeaways

• Verdict: unproven. The research on mouth taping is small, mostly uncontrolled, and mixed. It doesn’t show that taping helps most people sleep better.

• The best results are narrow. Two small studies found less snoring and fewer breathing pauses in mouth breathers with mild sleep apnea. In one of them, anyone with a blocked nose was treated first.

• Some people don’t benefit. In one study of 58 people, about half didn’t improve, and on average their drops in blood oxygen became more frequent with tape.

• It can be dangerous if your nose is blocked. Researchers warn that taping can stop you breathing properly if your nose is blocked or you bring up stomach contents in your sleep.

• Loud snoring needs a doctor, not tape. Snoring with gasping, choking, or pauses in breathing can be a sign of sleep apnea, which tape doesn’t treat.

What is mouth taping?

Mouth taping means putting tape over your lips at night so you breathe through your nose. It took off on TikTok and Instagram, where people credit it with better sleep, less snoring, fresher breath, and even a sharper jawline. Some use ordinary surgical tape, and others buy strips made for the purpose.

It’s caught on fast. In a 2023 survey for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, 12% of 2,005 US adults said they had tried it. The academy’s spokesperson called it one of the trends that, at worst, “can be extremely dangerous.”

The idea behind it: breathe through your nose

The theory has a real basis. Your airway works better through the nose during sleep. In a 2003 study of 12 healthy adults, resistance in the upper airway was more than twice as high when they slept breathing through their mouths, and they had far more breathing pauses, an average of 43 an hour against 1.5 when they breathed through their noses.

People usually sleep with their mouths open for a reason, though. A 2025 review lists the most common causes as allergies, enlarged tonsils or adenoids, and a deviated septum. Tape doesn’t fix any of those. It just closes the backup route.

What the studies show

The review. That 2025 review searched 25 years of research and found only 10 studies of mouth taping, with about 200 people in total. Just two found a clear improvement in sleep apnea. The rest found no significant difference. The authors rated the studies as low quality and concluded that taping without checking for problems first carries a “potentially serious risk of harm.”

The two positive studies. Both were small, and neither had a control group.

• In a 2015 study of 30 mouth breathers with mild sleep apnea, a porous patch over the mouth cut their breathing pauses from a median of 12 an hour to about eight, and their snoring by more than two-thirds.

• In a 2022 study of 20 mouth breathers with mild sleep apnea, a 4 cm strip of tape cut breathing pauses from a median of 8.3 an hour to 4.7, and snoring fell sharply. Thirteen of the 20 improved. But the researchers excluded anyone with obesity, more than mild apnea, or large tonsils, and treated blocked noses before the study began.

A study where half didn’t benefit. In a 2023 study that tested 58 people with and without tape, 30 improved. In the other 28, drops in blood oxygen became more frequent with tape, rising from an average of about 23 an hour to about 31. That group spent more of the night intermittently puffing their cheeks against the tape.

Some people need their mouths open. A 2024 study of 54 people with sleep apnea closed their mouths during sedated sleep, by pushing the chin up rather than with tape. For most, it improved airflow. But in the heaviest mouth breathers, closing the mouth made airflow worse, because their airway was blocked higher up, at the soft palate, so the mouth was their way around it. (Several of the authors have financial ties to sleep companies, including one that makes mouth strips.)

Asthma. Taping is also promoted for breathing problems in the daytime. A 2009 trial of 51 adults with asthma who taped their mouths at night for four weeks found no difference in their breathing or symptoms.

With CPAP. The most promising use is alongside treatment, not instead of it. In a 2025 trial of 62 mouth breathers using CPAP machines for sleep apnea, adding tape helped them keep the machine on for about 52 minutes longer a night, and they reported less dryness and snoring.

The risks

The main danger is simple. If tape closes your mouth and your nose is blocked, you can’t breathe properly. Researchers testing taping on people using breathing machines advised against routine long-term home use back in 1999, citing the risk of suffocation if the nose was blocked, the machine failed, or the person brought up stomach contents in their sleep. The 2025 review says four of its 10 studies raised similar safety concerns.

Taping also hides a problem rather than fixing it. Loud snoring can be a sign of obstructive sleep apnea, in which the airway repeatedly closes during sleep. A 2019 analysis estimated that about 936 million adults aged 30 to 69 worldwide have it, most of them undiagnosed. Quieter snoring under tape doesn’t mean the apnea has gone.

According to the NHS, signs of sleep apnea include breathing that stops and starts, gasping or choking noises, loud snoring, and feeling very tired during the day. Drinking alcohol and sleeping on your back make it more likely. If any of that sounds familiar, see a doctor before trying tape.

If you still want to try it

We couldn’t find any official guidance on doing this safely, so the points below are cautions based on how the studies were run, what they warned about, and common sense.

• Get checked first if you snore loudly, gasp in your sleep, or wake up unrefreshed. Rule out sleep apnea before anything else.

• Only try it if you can breathe easily through your nose. Skip it during a cold, a flare of hay fever, or any night your nose feels stuffy.

• Skip it after drinking or taking anything that makes you sleep more heavily.

• Use a small strip, not a full seal. The 2022 study used a short vertical strip of gentle tape across the middle of the lips, not tape covering the whole mouth.

• Try it while you’re awake first. Wear it for 20 minutes while reading. If you feel short of breath, it isn’t for you.

• Never tape a child’s mouth. Children who snore or breathe through their mouths should see a doctor.

• Stop if you wake up breathless, with a headache, or more tired than before.

What helps instead

• Treat a blocked nose. A steroid nasal spray eases a nose blocked by allergies. A 2021 review found nasal sprays didn’t reduce sleep apnea overall, but they may improve oxygen levels and quality of life, especially in people with allergies.

• Try sleeping on your side. In a Cochrane review, devices that discouraged sleeping on the back, mostly vibrating alarms, reduced breathing pauses by about seven an hour compared with no treatment.

• Mouth and tongue exercises. A 2015 meta-analysis of nine studies found that exercises for the tongue, mouth, and throat roughly halved breathing pauses in adults with sleep apnea. The authors suggest them as an add-on to other treatment.

• Nasal strips for snoring. External strips that hold the nostrils open make nose breathing easier, but a 2016 meta-analysis found they didn’t reduce sleep apnea.

If a partner’s snoring is the real problem, our guide to the Scandinavian sleep method explains why separate duvets won’t fix it, and sleeping apart is a reasonable choice too.

Verdict: unproven

Breathing through your nose at night is better for your airway than breathing through your mouth, so the idea behind mouth taping isn’t silly. But the evidence that tape gets you there is thin. There’s a handful of small studies, most without a control group, with benefits only in small groups of people with mild sleep apnea. In other studies, taping did nothing, and some people breathed worse. If you snore or wake up tired, find out why before you tape anything.

Frequently asked questions

Does mouth taping stop snoring?

It reduced snoring in two small studies of mouth breathers with mild sleep apnea. It’s unlikely to help if your snoring starts behind the soft palate or your nose is blocked, and quieter snoring doesn’t mean sleep apnea has gone.

Is mouth taping safe?

It isn’t safe for everyone. Researchers warn against it if your nose is blocked, and taping can mask sleep apnea. Never tape a child’s mouth.

Can mouth taping help sleep apnea?

Only in small, uncontrolled studies of people with mild sleep apnea, and some people in another study got worse. It isn’t a treatment for sleep apnea. If you have it, talk to a doctor about proven options such as CPAP or an oral appliance.

What kind of tape do people use for mouth taping?

The 2022 study used a short strip of gentle, hypoallergenic tape placed vertically across the middle of the lips. Avoid strong tapes that are hard to remove, and don’t seal the whole mouth.

Does mouth taping help with dry mouth?

People who breathe through their mouths often wake with a dry mouth or throat, and taping alongside CPAP reduced dryness in one trial. If dry mouth is your main problem, check for a blocked nose first.

Should I try mouth taping if I have a cold?

No. If you can’t breathe easily through your nose, taping your mouth closed is risky.