By Anya Brand, Breathwork Instructor & Yoga Teacher
The way you breathe matters, and research suggests that if you are a poor breather or a mouth breather, it may even be keeping you up at night. When breathing is so fundamental to our health, it seems crazy that it’s not something we hear about, talk about or even think about much.
In this article we will look at the link between insomnia and breathing and explore why breathwork training and developing a regular breathwork practice can become a part of your solution for insomnia and other sleep (and health) problems.
It’s estimated that 30-50 percent of adults breathe through their mouths, which has wide ranging consequences for the mental and physical health, and future, of our species. The ramifications of mouth breathing include everything from chronic stress and depleted immune function to insomnia and sleep deprivation, the last of which are directly linked to a long list of deleterious health complications.
The most obvious and undesirable sleep-related consequence of mouth breathing is mental and physiological hyper-stimulation, which is responsible for a high proportion of sleep disorders. About 50% of insomnia cases result from anxiety, depression, or psychological stress according to The American Psychological Association, all of which can be caused by or exacerbated by poor breathing habits, especially mouth breathing.
Mouth breathing activates the sympathetic nervous system, commonly known as the fight-or-flight response. When you feel tired-but-wired, alert and primed for survival it is difficult or even near impossible to sleep, and any sleep you do manage is not restorative. This pattern cycles around and into itself again, causing further sleeping problems, even more anxiety and chronic stress.
Less obvious perhaps are the long-term effects of mouth breathing on the structure of the airways, which includes damage, trauma, and excessive mucus production, all of which can cause sleep issues. Add structural narrowing of the passages and sinuses through which we are designed to breathe, which further ‘feeds the fire’ and can result in serious breathing related sleep disorders like obstructive sleep apnoea. Researchers estimate that 1 Billion people around the world suffer from obstructive sleep apnoea and that 90% of cases are undiagnosed according to the National Library of Medicine studies.
Mouth breathing causes poor oxygenation to the body and brain, lowers resilience and increases stress and reactivity through mental and physiological hyper-stimulation (as previously mentioned). When hyper-stimulation causes sleep deprivation it can lead to burn out, depression, brain fog and anxiety, and can cause heart diseases such as stroke and hypertension, ADHD, chronic fatigue, weight gain and obesity, Alzheimer’s, eczema, and premature ageing. Add early death and lower IQ to the list, and you have a veritable smorgasbord of unwanted repercussions that you may not have even been aware of.
We breathe 20,000 times a day, yet for the majority it’s something we are barely conscious of. When breathing is so fundamental to health, and so many of us are experiencing physical health problems like insomnia and burn out, and mental health issues such as anxiety and depression which have been directly linked to poor breathing, it really begs the questions:
· Why aren’t we taught more about the importance of breathing properly?
· Why don’t we see the link between breathing and breathing related diseases being highlighted in the public domain?
· Why is functional breathing rarely consulted upon or considered by allopathic doctors?
· Has your GP ever investigated links between your health issues and dysfunctional breathing?
Curious, isn’t it…?
To me, it really highlights a fundamental need to lift the benchmark on the knowledge and understanding that we have, and the education and resources that are offered around functional breathing. The world needs more skilled breathwork instructors and breathwork advocates who can inspire and empower much needed, life-changing paradigm shifts in our understanding of the breath being foundational to good health.
Why can’t I sleep?
It’s a question you may be asking if you have insomnia, and one that’s relevant to more than half of the adult Australian population who regularly experience at least one sleep symptom like trouble falling or staying asleep.
36 percent of us are sleep-deprived and catching six hours or less per night, 38 percent rate their sleep as poor, and 14.8 percent have symptoms which could result in a diagnosis of clinical insomnia. So, it’s obvious that we’re a nation that could do with a bit more shut-eye, and better quality to boot. If you are having problems sleeping, it’s clear that you are not alone.
What is insomnia?
Insomnia is defined as a sleep disorder in which people are unable to fall asleep or stay asleep and can include the following, which may be experienced independently or together:
What are the Dangers of Insomnia?
Adults need 8-9 hours of quality sleep per night, without waking up more than twice in that time. When you get less than you need it affects every system in your body and can leave you feeling sleepy, tired, irritable, moody, anxious, foggy, depressed, unmotivated, and unable to concentrate or perform your tasks and responsibilities throughout the day.
Inadequate sleep is dangerous for both your physical and emotional health. Your body heals, detoxifies and repairs as you sleep and if you don’t have enough proper rest, it can increase your risk for depression, obesity, heart disease including hypertension and stroke, and diabetes. Add to that premature ageing and early death as mentioned earlier.
Not getting enough sleep can cause problems with learning, reacting, and focusing, making it difficult to make decisions, control emotions, solve problems, or cope with change. Sleep deprivation is linked to an increase in risk for medical errors by doctors. Accidents are more frequent when sleep deprived. 4.2% reported falling asleep or nodding off while driving in the last 30 days. 20% of all car crash accidents and injuries are associated with sleepiness.
Sleep deprivation can also worsen anxiety, spurring a negative cycle involving insomnia and anxiety disorders.A state of mental hyperarousal, frequently marked by worry, has been identified as a key factor behind insomnia. People with anxiety disorders are inclined to have higher sleep reactivity, which means they are much more likely to have sleeping problems when facing stress.
What Contributes to Insomnia?
Unhealthy sleep habits, breathing problems, mental and medical conditions, specific substances, and certain biological factors can cause insomnia.
Here’s the list:
It’s notable that at least half of these factors can be positively influenced, or in some cases completely mitigated, though breathwork practices that include changing from mouth to nose breathing, and sleep hygiene/lifestyle hacks.
Your Breathing Habits Could be Causing Insomnia
According to a 2012 study, the vast majority of patients seeking treatment for insomnia have some kind of sleep breathing problems. In that study, published online in the journal Sleep & Breathing, researchers conducted a chart review of 1,035 patients and found that 81 percent had breathing issues.
The study’s lead author, Barry Krakow, medical director of Maimonides Sleep Arts and Sciences in Albuquerque, designed a subsequent study to better understand insomniacs who did not have obvious breathing issues.
When the participants spent one night in a sleep research facility, the findings were illuminating. Researchers recorded a combined total of 531 awakenings amongst the study group and found that 478 of them followed a “breathing event” such as an episode of apnoea or laboured breathing.
Thirty of these lasted at least five minutes, and all of these were preceded by a breathing event. These findings that were published in the journal Sleep, reveal that breathing issues are the cause for even more middle-of-the-night awakenings than previously appreciated.
A sleep survey of 1,001 American adults found that more than 60% habitually breathe through their mouth while sleeping and mouth breathing disrupted their sleep more than anything except stress. The most common signs of mouth breathing reported were being awoken by night-time nasal congestion (75 percent) waking up with a dry mouth (61 percent) and snoring (37 percent).
“Mouth breathing disrupted sleep more than anything except stress.”
The survey revealed that mouth breathing impacted the quality of sleep (64 percent) nearly as much as stress (69 percent) the most common sleep deterrent. Further, mouth breathing impacted sleep more than a partner’s snoring (53 percent), noise (52 percent) and an irregular sleep schedule (51 percent).
Consequences of Mouth Breathing
As already highlighted, Mouth breathing can lead to a number of sleep disorders, including snoring, sleep apnoea and insomnia. Other manifestations of mouth breathing include:
In children, mouth breathing can lead to physical abnormalities and cognitive challenges. Children who aren’t treated for mouth breathing can develop:
These changes are passed down through the generations, so what you do now to improve your breathing habits and change your physical and genetic expression will conversely benefit future generations.
How Mouth Breathing Steals Your Sleep
SLOWER TRANSITION
Breathing through your mouth, especially during the first 20 minutes of light sleep, can slow your transition into deep restorative sleep that is vital to healing and restoring your body and mind.
TOO STRESSED TO SLEEP
Mouth breathing stimulates your body’s stress response. When in this hyper-aroused state, it is difficult to sleep because your body and mind are too stimulated to welcome rest.
WAKING UP FOR THE BATHROOM
Mouth breathing causes disturbances to your body’s chemistry resulting in the need to urinate frequently during the night. One study showed that 69% of men and 76% of women over 40 get up to go to the bathroom at least once per night.
WAKING DUE TO THIRST
Breathing through your mouth can dry out your mouth and throat, which may cause you to wake during the night due to thirst, to drink water. Not only that, but mouth breathing can cause bad breath and detrimental changes to the structure of your mouth and sinuses.
Many medications also cause dry mouth (known as xerostomia) resulting from reduced or absent saliva flow. Keeping the mouth closed all night can greatly reduce the incidence of dry mouth and sleep disturbance.
WAKING UP CONGESTED
Your sinuses need constant ventilation to stay healthy, uncongested and pain free. Breathing through your mouth during sleep shuts down the flow of air through your sinuses causing mucus to build up and block your sinus cavities. The result is sinus pressure and a stuffy nose in the morning, and potential snoring during the night, all of which spirals into further mouth breathing, sinus issues and sleeping problems.
Blocked and obstructed sinuses can lead to sleep apnoea, snoring, bad breath, and sinus infections, which further affect your ability to sleep.
OBSTRUCTIVE SLEEP APNOEA
Mouth breathing causes changes in the airways that cause the throat to collapse so much that not enough air gets into the lungs. This causes you to stop breathing until your brain notices and sends you a wake-up call. The brain briefly arouses itself from sleep to get the throat muscles working again to allow air into the lungs. This process can repeat hundreds of times every night, causing you to have a very broken sleep.
NARROWER AIRWAYS
Mouth breathing can lead to narrower, traumatised, and congested airways and long-term increased mucus production as you will need to breathe harder and faster to get the oxygen you require. When breathing faster you are stimulating your stress response, otherwise known as fight or flight, as mentioned above.
MISSING OUT ON NITRIC OXIDE
Mouth breathing also means you miss out on Nitric Oxide (N.O.) which is produced in the paranasal sinuses as a result of nose breathing. N.O. dilates the bronchial passages and airways, helping to keep them clear and functioning. N.O. is also a vasodilator meaning that it has a calming effect on the heart and blood pressure, helping you to sleep.
· Regular breathwork practices will focus mostly on functional nose breathing and help increase breathing capacity, correct dysfunctional and mouth breathing and can be a part of a bedtime ritual to help train your brain to be ready for sleep.
· Nose breathing combats stress and helps to calm the mind. That’s why nostril breathing is such a huge element of a yoga practice.
· When you breathe through your nose it encourages deeper, slower breathing using the diaphragm, which will put you into a parasympathetic state, slowing you down and helping you to relax ready for sleep.
· Nose breathing produces nasal nitric oxide, which has proven antiviral, anti-bacterial, anti-pathogen and anti-allergen qualities. It has even been found to prevent the replication of the SARS coronavirus. Nitric oxide works as a toxic defence molecule that protects you from infectious organisms and reduces inflammation. It helps to boost your immune system by reducing the risk of infection. It also works to relax the inner muscles of our blood vessels, allowing them to widen and increase circulation.
· Nose breathing more effectively drives oxygen into the blood-rich lower lobe alveoli, which not only support healthy oxygenation of the blood, but more importantly, support a significantly greater exchange of toxins and waste out of those more vascularized lower lobes. Sleep is more restorative.
· Nose breathing at night helps calm the body while removing fat-soluble toxins, thus helping with detoxification, and helping you to maintain a healthy body weight.
Although breathing through your mouth may seem harmless, it increases stress and really messes with your ability to get the restorative night’s sleep that your body requires. Sleep deprivation causes a host of health problems not limited to mental health issues, premature ageing and early death so it’s worth prioritising if you want to live a long and healthy life.
If you are a mouth breather, it’s in your best interest to switch to nose breathing as soon as you can. Take it slowly if breathing through your nose is difficult due to obstruction, use online breathwork resources, attend a breathwork training course or work with a qualified Breathless breathwork instructor. Check out this article on How to Change To Nose Breathing.
Access this Breathwork Masterclass and live breathwork training events and resources, like the 21 Day Master Your Breath Program. Learn about lifestyle hacks with Sleep Hygiene, How it Can Help You Sleep Better).
Here’s a simple breathwork practice that I created to help you wind down in the evening and prepare for sleep 3-Step Breathwork Practice for Sleep.
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Copyright © 2022 | Breathless
Copyright © 2022 | Breathless
