Sleep hygiene involves incorporating various habits to your sleep routine to improve your sleep quality and your health. Many people sleep with the mouth open, breathe through the mouth, and snore. These habits are not normal and result in poor sleep, poor healing, and feeling lousy upon waking up. Waking up feeling rested is normal and very important to your overall health. The body needs around 8 hours of sleep per day in order to rejuvenate and prepare for the following day. If sleep is not obtained, nobody is able to function correctly. Over time, breathing through the mouth at night will deteriorate our health silently and slowly.
The most important habit to have while sleeping is forming a tongue suction to the roof of your mouth. This is considered the proper position of the tongue while sleeping. The purpose of this habit is to seal off the oral cavity and force air inhalation through the nose. The nose is designed to filter the air we breathe to absorb enough oxygen into the bloodstream. If you can’t suction the tongue to the roof of the mouth or touch the roof of the mouth with the tongue, you are more likely to be experiencing sleep-disordered-breathing/mouth breathing. To manage a functional issue with the tongue to acquire a tongue suction, myofunctional therapy and tongue tie release surgery should be considered. Myofunctional therapy involves exercising the muscles in the head, neck, and tongue to encourage proper function and tone prior to surgically releasing a restricted tongue that cannot move freely.
Once proper tongue placement is achieved, there are other sleep hygiene techniques that can be used to reinforce a good night’s sleep. Using medical tape to keep the lips closed reinforces a tongue suction and nasal breathing. It is important to take nose hygiene into consideration as the nose is where our air flow should be occurring. Nose cones can be placed inside narrow nostrils that tend to collapse. This will open weak nostrils up and encourage nasal breathing. Nasal strips can also be placed on the external skin of the nostrils to open them up further. Keeping the nose clean to maintain a clear nasal airway can be achieved using saline rinses or a neti pot to flush out mucous with clean fluids. By taking all of these healthy sleep habits into consideration, you will likely see an improvement in your sleep quality that you never knew could be possible.
