WIRED’s Guide to Mouth Tape

I can’t tell you where I first saw mouth tape. Was it while investigating the intense morning shed routines on TikTok? Or perhaps an influencer who insinuated that using mouth tape at night would give me a sharper jawline? (Big shout-out to my algorithm for reminding me about that insecurity.) Nevertheless, it's become a consistent pop-up on my For You page, showing me users raving about how a colorful piece of tape across their mouth is helping them sleep better.

Mouth tape is exactly what it sounds like: a piece of tape designed to sit across your mouth to keep it closed all night long. Mouth tapers rave about health benefits and better sleep, since it encourages you to breathe through your nose rather than your mouth.

“Mouth taping is not a gimmick—it’s a reminder to return to the way we’re built to breathe," says Geoffrey Trenkle, a board-certified ENT, head and neck surgeon, and CEO of the Los Angeles Center for Ear, Nose, Throat and Allergy. “For many people, it’s a safe and effective way to promote better sleep and healthier breathing patterns. But if someone experiences nasal blockage, snoring, or disrupted sleep, it’s worth exploring why that’s happening.”

Mouth tape isn't necessarily a perfect solution to getting a better night's sleep, but if you don't have any airway problems, it can be something worth trying. After sleeping with eight different types of mouth tape and speaking to several experts, I'm here to tell you everything you need to know about mouth tape and which ones are best to try.

Courtesy of Loftie

Mouth tape is a type of specially designed tape to sit over your mouth, keeping it closed throughout the night to encourage nose breathing over mouth breathing. You shouldn't just grab any kind of tape to use for this; as Andrew E. Colsky, a behavioral sleep medicine clinician and founder of the National Sleep Center, told me, “This is one of those rare instances where duct tape is not the answer.”

Mouth tape has some breathability to it and is designed to keep your mouth in place without irritating the skin on your lips or around your mouth. There are a few designs, including options with a hole in the middle if you hydrate a lot at night. The book Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor suggests you can even use first-aid tape as mouth tape.

What does it do? It keeps your mouth closed to force you to breathe through your nose rather than your mouth. You might be looking to close your mouth to avoid snoring or drooling, but nasal breathing is overall a good thing. “Nasal breathing plays a critical role in regulating airflow, humidifying air, and supporting optimal oxygen exchange. It also helps maintain pressure in the airways, which can reduce snoring and support better sleep quality for some people,” says Carlos Nunez, chief medical officer at Resmed, a medical device company.

Mouth tape is touted as a way to help you sleep better and snore less while sleeping. “It is a method generally intended to promote nasal breathing during sleep, which some believe can enhance sleep quality—though these claims remain largely hypothetical. In theory, keeping the mouth closed may help prevent the tongue from falling back toward the airway, and therefore decrease its potential to rattle (and thus contribute to snoring),” says David Benavides, a board-certified sleep medicine physician at Brigham & Women's Hospital.

There aren't just sleep benefits; there are some potential health benefits for both your oral health and your overall health. “Nasal breathing can prevent your mouth and throat from drying out, and in return it will prevent bad breath, cavities, and gum inflammation," says Fatima Khan, a practicing dentist, member of the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine, and cofounder of the oral care line Riven.

She also says it may help with nitric oxide production in the body, since the primary source of nitric oxide is in the nasal passages. “Nitric oxide aids in regulating blood pressure and improving circulation, which in turn can boost both heart health and lower BP. Also, nitric oxide is significant in regulating insulin, which in return affects your blood sugar levels,” she says.

How bad is mouth breathing that people are actually taping their mouths shut? According to one expert, mouth breathing is a bigger problem than you'd expect. “Mouth breathing is wildly unhealthy for any person," says Ben Miraglia, an airway dentist and chief clinical officer at Toothpillow. “There is no amount of mouth breathing that is OK.”

Mouth breathing can cause issues with sleep and breathing in general. Your nose is designed to filter out debris, allergens, and even tiny insects (thank those nose hairs), and it's designed to give your lungs and throat warmer, more moist air, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Your don’t get these same benefits when you breathe through your mouth. It'll also make you more likely to develop sleep problems like sleep apnea, a sleep disorder where breathing repeatedly stops and starts.

Miraglia primarily treats children and approaches airway problems from a youth perspective, including larger dental problems, looking at mouth breathing as a problem overall versus just a sleep problem. From a sleep perspective, the interest in mouth breathing usually comes from sleep problems like snoring and sleep apnea, though getting better air all night long (more moist, less debris, etc.) is obviously a big benefit as well.

If you're coming here after hearing an anecdotal story about how mouth taping has made someone's sleep better, you aren't alone in hearing about mouth tape that way. There are no shortages of these videos online, frequently touting a specific tape they used. But for now, it's mainly personal perspectives supporting the narrative. “There is currently extremely limited clinical evidence to support the efficacy of mouth tape in managing sleep disorders," says Benavides. "One small study from 2022, often cited, looked at 20 people with mild sleep apnea. While these participants showed some improvement with mouth tape, the study didn’t include a placebo comparison, and 20 participants is simply not enough to draw solid conclusions.”

That's not to say it can never be used. Benavides says he has found use for it, even with his obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) patients. Specifically, he has found it useful for OSA patients who want to wear a nasal-only CPAP mask and who could add mouth tape to their nightly setup. "It may help minimize "mouth air leak" (where nasal-entry air escapes through the mouth during therapy) and improve both comfort and adherence. I’ve had success in some individuals," says Benavides.

If you can breathe comfortably through your nose, mouth tape should be safe to do. Where it gets dicey is if you're trying to use mouth tape to solve a sleep disorder or breathing problems that your nasal passageways might not be able to solve.

“Mouth tape could potentially cause harm in many others. For example, those with moderate to severe sleep apnea may actually find themselves with even more impaired ability to breathe than before. Worse yet, it may further compromise those with central sleep apnea—a different type of apnea disorder,” says Benavides. “Another group to watch out for are those with impaired nasal breathing, as removing the ability to breathe through the mouth severely restricts their remaining—and often much-needed—airflow path.”

The takeaway is this: If you can't breathe comfortably on your own through your nose as it is, mouth tape won't fix that for you.

Since I have no airway problems, I spent several weeks trying different mouth tapes. I tried them all during the day at my desk to see how they felt and how secure they were, and then I wore the most comfortable and secure options overnight. Overall, I usually got a solid night's sleep when using the tape, but some were less comfortable than others, and I found myself irritated by them and removing them during the night. I also had to skip mouth tape if I had a cold or any kind of postnasal drip, since I have a 3-year-old who brings home a ton of germs. After trying multiple kinds of tape, I had some pretty clear favorites.

This is my favorite mouth tape I've tried. Dream says all of its mouth tape uses organic bamboo silk, and while there aren't any certifications on its site to back that up, the Plus+ tape is super soft and flexible on my face, easily the softest I tried. It still feels plenty secure and breathable with that softness and was an easy favorite after my testing.

This set was also really comfortable, with a softer texture and a larger shape that will fit all kinds of lip sizes. It is very feminine in its design and comes in a couple different shades. This set promises to hold overnight skin care products, and I tested this tape with the Laniege Lip Sleeping Mask ($24) on my lips and found it stayed on when I used both together.

Photograph: Nena Farrell

Here are the other mouth tapes I tried. All prices are based on a one-month supply.

Dream Recovery Mouth Tape for $34: I like this one because it has a wide and tall design, but the Plus+ version is so much softer. This one feels pretty coarse.

Heronlink Micropore Premium Tape for $17: This is at the top of Amazon's recommended mouth tapes, and it's a fine option. It's secure on my face, but the opening in the middle allowed for me to resume mouth breathing pretty easily.

Hostage Tape for $20: This tape was solid to wear all night long, but I found that it was most likely to leave bits of the tape on my face. It's another popular one I see recommended often online, but it wasn't tremendously better than any others I tested.

Loftie Mouth Tape for $30: This set is pretty comfortable, and I like the small opening for a water straw without giving me too much wiggle room. But it left behind the most sticky residue after using it, and the design of this tape is a little Ronald McDonald for my liking.

Longevity Sleep Tape for £8: I loved this tape. I loved it almost as much as the Dream and Say Less I recommend above, and it's definitely one of the most secure tapes without being too restrictive or coarse. It has a nice lavender-scented option that comes in purple, plus black and beige options that are both unscented. It's only available in the UK, though.

The Skinny Confidential for $39: I found myself removing this tape during the night. It has an opening like the Loftie above, but didn't feel quite as secure, and the more feminine shape wasn't as wide as the Say Less option to fit more lip sizes. It did come with a cute little case for my bedside.

Queen Tape for $13: This tape is comfortable, and I constantly see it advertised on TikTok, but I didn't find the adhesive secure. It started peeling off my face almost immediately during my daytime wear tests.

VIO2 Unscented Mouth Tapes for $27: This has a different style of design, with an H-style look to it versus tape that covers a minimal amount of your skin. You could wear it different ways, but I found the H-style position the most secure. I didn't like it as much as full tape designs, but this is a good option if you want security without full coverage.

After trying so many mouth tapes, the question remained: Did they work? Did I sleep better and wake up more rested?

Honestly, not really. I had the same kind of sleep I would without mouth tape: better, deeper sleep on days I had more physical activity and kept to my routines better, and worse sleep on nights after I forgot to go outside and do anything beyond hunch over a screen (she says as she types at her desk, staring at yet another screen). Some nights I woke up and ripped the mouth tape off in irritation, other nights I slept all night long with it on my face. Some nights I had to take it off at 3 in the morning because my toddler was up yet again, so the inconsistency could be me and my own daily routines.

But I also wonder if that's everyone's issue. Did they have an inconsistent bedtime routine, and now adding something that makes them mentally prepared for bedtime is what's changing their life? Perhaps it's not the tape so much as the need for a bedtime routine to tell their body and mind it's time for bed. There's no way to be sure if that's the secret benefit of mouth tape, but it is known that a good bedtime routine to wind down before bed makes for better sleep.

If you're looking for other solutions to help with nasal breathing, mouth tape isn't the only option. Trenkle recommends a handful of different medical and lifestyle changes. “Saline rinses, nasal steroid sprays, and allergy management can dramatically improve nasal function,” he says. "Tools like nasal dilators or strips can also help keep the nose open during sleep. For patients with sleep apnea or structural airway issues, we offer targeted therapies—from oral appliances to surgical solutions—depending on the diagnosis.”

• Geoffrey Trenkle, a board-certified ENT, head and neck surgeon, and CEO of the Los Angeles Center for Ear, Nose, Throat and Allergy
• Carlos Nunez, chief medical officer at Resmed
• David Benavides, a board-certified sleep medicine physician at Brigham & Women's Hospital and a faculty member at Harvard Medical School
• Ben Miraglia, an airway dentist and chief clinical Officer at Toothpillow
• Andrew E. Colsky, a behavioral sleep medicine clinician and founder of the National Sleep Center

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