Daytime practice keeping mouth closed - more info?

Hey all. I've been practicing nasal breathing during the day for a few weeks based on Buteyko (which I don't totally buy into, but I think has some worthwhile wisdom). I've also been practicing keeping my tongue up behind my front teeth during the day, in order to train my mouth to stay closed at night, which has been suggested on here as being worthwhile. I use a FFM, and I tape too, but I'd like to be able to switch to nasal pillows eventually.

Anyway, rereading some of the advice on daytime exercises, it is suggested to "practice keeping your mouth closed". Can y'all clarify what this means? Is it my lips closed, or my teeth touching, or both? I find it pretty easy to keep my tongue up on my palate, and a little strenuous to also "close off the back of my mouth" at the same time (I don't know how this works, I just know that I can do something with my tongue/throat that disconnects my mouth from my nasal airway). But my natural mouth position is for my jaw to hang open a bit, and my lips apart a little - even if the back of my mouth is closed off - and I find it uncomfortable to close my lips/teeth. Is that just because I have bad mouth posture habits?

Curious to hear a bit more about peoples jaw/lips/tongue position for daytime practice.

Some people might have a harder time trying to keep their mouth shut during the day. If they overbites, underbites, jaw issues, etc.

For me, I always kept my mouth shut during the day once I learned it can give you bad breath and cause teeth problems.

I don't "practice" but i've found that over time my mouth breathing is declining. I started out with needing to use 4 pieces of gorilla glue duct tape and a mouth piece to keep my mouth shut through the night - and even with all that, half the time i would have opened my mouth during the night. Now I use just a single 3 - 4 inch strip of 2 inch wide 3MM tape and i pretty much never open my mouth - this over about 4 months.

cosmo wrote:Some people might have a harder time trying to keep their mouth shut during the day. If they overbites, underbites, jaw issues, etc.

For me, I always kept my mouth shut during the day once I learned it can give you bad breath and cause teeth problems.

I don't think you mean this.....

I've been practicing nasal breathing during the day for a few weeks based on Buteyko (which I don't totally buy into, but I think has some worthwhile wisdom). I've also been practicing keeping my tongue up behind my front teeth during the day, in order to train my mouth to stay closed at night, which has been suggested on here as being worthwhile. I use a FFM, and I tape too, but I'd like to be able to switch to nasal pillows eventually.

You have been doing it the hard way.

3 minutes x 4 times per day:

http://liptrainerguru.com/



$120

Wow, it seems to treat everything! I'm a little suspicious - have others used it successfully?

Also, I have a PowerLung coming any day now, which is going to be my oropharyngeal/mouth/lip exercise tool for the next few weeks, I can only handle so many gadgets

TheUglyTruth wrote:

I've been practicing nasal breathing during the day for a few weeks based on Buteyko (which I don't totally buy into, but I think has some worthwhile wisdom). I've also been practicing keeping my tongue up behind my front teeth during the day, in order to train my mouth to stay closed at night, which has been suggested on here as being worthwhile. I use a FFM, and I tape too, but I'd like to be able to switch to nasal pillows eventually.

You have been doing it the hard way.

3 minutes x 4 times per day:

http://liptrainerguru.com/



$120

If ThighMaster works, LipTrainer should work.

Patrissimo, you are doing SO much at once (lung, keeping mouth shut, analyzing and graphing data, research, etc.). Are you SURE you have EDS??

TheUglyTruth wrote:You have been doing it the hard way.

3 minutes x 4 times per day:

http://liptrainerguru.com/



$120

From that website:

Extreme cases in weakness of lip muscles can be seen in children suffering from Autism, Down Syndrome, Speech impediment and other brain-related conditions. It was found that by increasing the lip closure strength through Patakara training, the patient’s conditions improved considerably. Many enjoyed recovery over time.

Alert the media! Kids with Autism and Down Syndrome can "recover" by strengthening their lips! What a breakthrough!!

The trick here is don't over-think it. The idea is to keep the airway and the mouth separated. If you learn to separate the airway from the mouth, the position of the lips and teeth don't matter. It is really much simpler than many people make it out to be.

To feel what you need to do, start with your mouth only slightly open. As you start breathing in through your mouth, lightly move your tongue up against the roof of your mouth, and it will stop your breath completely with very little effort. Now, do it again, and when your breath stops, keep your tongue there, with the lightest pressure, and start breathing through your nose. With your tongue in the right place, you can't breathe through your mouth, and that is the feel you want to practice. Trying to keep your tongue right behind your teeth can get tiring. Try pulling it back into the hollow in the top of your mouth. Its a more relaxed position.

I may be an exception, but before CPAP I was a mouth breather who snored like a chainsaw. After my sleep tech at my titration spent 15 minutes going through this exercise, I took to the nasal mask with no problem, and no chinstrap or tape.

SleepingUgly wrote:Patrissimo, you are doing SO much at once (lung, keeping mouth shut, analyzing and graphing data, research, etc.). Are you SURE you have EDS??

Heh. I can see how it could look that way, but I'm doing all of that with splitting headaches every day, can't get moving without coffee (and provigil several times a week), spend hours many days lying around too tired to do anything, saving up energy so I can get in a few hours of work and then a couple hours with the kids in the evening. Sacrificed most other hobbies and entertainment to focus on my sleep the last month or two. Went from working multiple demanding jobs a couple years ago to struggling to work part-time last year. Have days where I just turn off the alarm and lie in bed until noon before I have the energy to get up. All my tax returns are a year+ late. Etc.

I think partly what you're seeing is that I've made sleep a huge priority, because I feel awful most days and I can't stand it any more, I can't go on like this financially, and, well, it's a really big painful problem, as most people here will understand. And partly what you're seeing is that I was very high-functioning before, everything I'm doing now with all the time and energy I can scrape together I could have done as one of 3 side projects while working 2 jobs and parenting before. Also, reading forums and analyzing data is easy for me, I'm an infovore, learning new things is something I do for fun to relax that I can do even when I feel like crap. Working, paperwork, exercise, patience, tolerance, meeting deadlines...those are all huge struggles. Breathing through my nose and browsing the web for hours, that's easy.

jzap wrote:
To feel what you need to do, start with your mouth only slightly open. As you start breathing in through your mouth, lightly move your tongue up against the roof of your mouth, and it will stop your breath completely with very little effort.

I don't get this.

When I put my tongue on the roof of my mouth, I can still breath through my mouth. Enough so that I could run a race.

I can clench my teeth together and put my tongue on the roof of my mouth and still breathe easily through my mouth.

Only keeping my lips closed stops my mouthbreathing.

Hmm, I'm pretty sure my mouth is normally closed all day, but it falls open (or at any rate, it's not sealed shut) immediately during the night (and/or the air rushing at it seems to push my lips apart). :/

roubai wrote:Hmm, I'm pretty sure my mouth is normally closed all day, but it falls open (or at any rate, it's not sealed shut) immediately during the night (and/or the air rushing at it seems to push my lips apart). :/

Yup. Totally nose breather by day and jaw slacker at night.

SleepingUgly wrote:

roubai wrote:Hmm, I'm pretty sure my mouth is normally closed all day, but it falls open (or at any rate, it's not sealed shut) immediately during the night (and/or the air rushing at it seems to push my lips apart). :/

Yup. Totally nose breather by day and jaw slacker at night.

Yes! My twin.