If you have a regular breathwork practice, or if you’ve started to delve into the science of breathwork, then you’re already experiencing the benefits of nose breathing first hand.
Breathing through your nose is a far more natural and efficient way to breathe, and studies show that it alone can boost nitric oxide sixfold, which is one of the reasons it’s possible to absorb about 18% more oxygen than by just breathing through your mouth.
You’ve probably also heard that habitual mouth breathing is bad for you. Yet it’s estimated that up to 50 percent of us still do it even though the downside and dangers are well documented.
In his New York Times bestselling book Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, journalist James Nestor gives a first-hand account of the importance of nasal breathing over mouth breathing. He relays the details of an experiment he conducted on himself, where for ten-days he used silicone plugs to block his nose to determine how chronic mouth breathing would affect his health.
He reports feeling awful after only a few hours of mouth breathing, and based on his heart rate measures, ended up finding himself in a state of chronic stress. His blood pressure spiked, putting him into a stage two state of hypertension and he reports that his ability to concentrate on work and remember facts took a hit as well.
After only 10 days of mouth breathing he experienced obstructive sleep apnoea, insomnia, and became a snorer. All of the negative consequences of mouth breathing were reversed however, when the experiment moved into the second stage which involved him breathing exclusively through his nose for 10 days.
Added to James’ experience, a plethora of recent and older studies show that mouth breathing exacerbates stress, anxiety and depression, can lead to insomnia and heart issues, causes bad breath, tooth decay and gum diseases; and can even lower your IQ as well as changing the shape and structure of your face. Not so appealing, huh?
According to the American Lung Association, we are designed to breathe through our noses, not our mouths:
“Humans are ‘belly breathers’, and just above your stomach is a major muscle in the respiration process, the diaphragm. Proper breathing starts in the nose and then moves to the stomach as your diaphragm contracts, the belly expands, and your lungs fill with air. It is the most efficient way to breathe, as it pulls down on the lungs, creating negative pressure in the chest, resulting in air flowing into your lungs.”
Let’s explore more of the benefits of nose breathing and breathwork practices that involve nose breathing.
Nose breathing has a stress lowering effect, and it prepares you for sleep. A regular breathwork practice as a part of an evening sleep ritual can help train your brain for sleep. Try this Breathwork Practice for a Good Night’s Sleep.
Mouth breathing on the other hand, is harder on your body. It is over stimulating, exacerbates stress and causes a state of mental and physiological hyper-arousal, which is responsible for a high proportion of sleep disorders and insomnia. To learn more, check out this article I wrote: Breathe Better, Sleep Better.
INFOGRAPHIC HERE – MOUTH BREATHING CAUSES HYPER AROUSAL
Mouth breathing also 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.
Breathing through your mouth can dry out your mouth and throat, which may cause you to also wake during the night to quench your thirst.
Breathing through the nose lessens the chance of snoring, reduces the chance of sleep apnoea by keeping the tongue in the correct place in the mouth, and can help you to get a good night’s sleep.
In one study, 50 patients with nasal airway obstruction and obstructive sleep apnoea were medically treated to remove the nasal block. Nose breathing was shown to improve 98% of patients with sleep apnoea, 38% of patients were relieved of snoring, and 78% reported more daytime energy.
Breathing through the nose gives your body the correct amount of filtered air that it needs to keep you sleeping peacefully through the night.
Nose breathing during sleep helps calm your body while removing fat-soluble toxins, thus helping with detoxification and helping you to maintain a healthy body weight. It also more effectively drives oxygen into the blood-rich lower lobe alveoli, which not only supports healthy oxygenation of the blood, but more importantly, supports a significantly greater exchange of toxins and waste out of those more vascularized lower lobes.
Those practising nose breathing report 50% less fight-or-flight stress and 50% more calm parasympathetic activation compared to mouth breathing. Parasympathetic activation means the dampening of your stress response. Nose breathing induces the production of Nitric Oxide in your paranasal sinuses, which has a soothing effect on your heart. Learn more here.
Nose breathing activates the production of immunoglobulins to strengthen your immune system – it triggers the release of anti-bacterial molecules helping to clean the incoming air and increase the functioning of your immune system.
Nose breathing moisturises the incoming air. You take around 20,000 – 25,000 breaths each day, so by breathing through your nose, you will be adding a litre of water to your internal environment. Mouth breathing on the other hand adds to dehydration.
Breathing into the lower lobes of the lungs massages and exercises the diaphragm at the base of the lungs, making you a more efficient deep breather in the long run.
Freeing the diaphragm to contract and relax fully massages the stomach situated just below the diaphragm, allowing for more efficient stomach function which can help you avoid heartburn and hiatal hernia-like symptoms.
Nose breathing forces your entire rib cage to breathe. Deep nose breathing engages all 12 ribs to act as levers that massage the heart and lungs, rather than acting as a cage that squeezes the heart and lungs 20,000 – 25,000 breaths a day.
Nose breathing and full rib cage activation acts as a pump to pull lymph fluid from the lower parts of the body up into the chest cavity and to the heart supporting healthy and active lymphatic flow
Nose breathing and full rib cage activation is critical for optimal flexibility and elasticity of the spine, head, neck and lower back.
Nose breathing requires less exertion compared to mouth breathing, according to the Borg Scale of Perceived Exertion, and nose breathing during exercise demonstrates shorter recovery times and better endurance than mouth breathing during exercise.
Stress during exercise causes the production of a hormone called cortisol, along with other hormones that deliver a post-exercise desire for comfort foods.
The desire to eat after exercise often exceeds the calories burned during exercise, ironically rendering exercise a fat-burning ‘failure’. The Ayurvedic approach to exercise suggests nose breathing instead of mouth breathing during exercise to repl
ace exercise stress with a chemistry of composure and calm, that will not drive counterproductive food choices.
The lungs lose about 12 percent of capacity from the age of 30 to 50 and will continue declining even faster as we get older, with women faring worse than men. Nose breathing helps to improve lung capacity by exercising the diaphragm and all of the muscles involved with breathing, keeping everything open and functioning.
During nose breathing your paranasal sinuses produce Nitric Oxide, which is a potent vasodilator (good for your heart and blood pressure), bronchodilator (good for your airways and lungs)
and a powerful sterilizing agent – it kills bacteria and sterilises the air in the sinuses on the way to the lungs. (1)
Your nose has very sensitive nerve endings at the hair roots, which warn about foreign particles in the air. Turbinate (or concha nasalis – a long, narrow, and curled bone shelf which protrudes into the breathing passage of the nose) causes air to centrifuge any inhaled particles which then stick to the mucous membrane, preventing them from being sucked into your lungs. Allergens, bacteria, viruses, etc are filtered out before they reach your lungs.
Breathing through your nose also warms the incoming air to 35 degrees Celsius, which is the optimal temperature for your lungs to utilise it. When you breathe through your mouth the incoming breath does not receive this benefit of being warmed before entering your lungs.
By humidifying the incoming air, nose breathing supports the tiny, microscopic hairs (cilia) that are on the inside of your nose and sinuses in their mission to move sticky mucus, debris, and allergens out. Without enough humidity, cilia can’t work.
The movement of air through your nose keeps the environment around your inner auditory tubes free from stagnating debris. The hairs and membranes of your nose filter the air during inhalation and help to secrete mucous, preventing you from coughing and having to clear your throat.
Breathing through your nose lightens the head by filling your sinuses with fresh air and keeping your sinus membranes lubricated and functioning, lessening the chance of sinus infections. Nose breathing also lessens the risk of asthma. Mouth breathing can cause detrimental changes to the structure of your mouth and sinuses, making obstructions and infections more likely.
Air coming in through your nose stimulates the release of odiferous molecules, which attach to incoming molecules, so that you can smell the quality of the air – it sensitises you to the quality of the air around you, giving you an awareness about which air is healthy and which is not, so that you can act upon it.
Nose breathing regulates the incoming volume of air by providing extra resistance and anatomic “dead space” which is important in the regulation of breathing. Mouth breathing, on the other hand, promotes hyperventilation.
Nose breathing moves the air so that it passes along your nasal septum, slowing the movement of air and facilitating a more complete integration of the process of ventilation with other biological processes, like filling and emptying of the lungs. Nose breathing also allows excess tears to have a clear passageway for drainage.
Nose breathing reduces the volume of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) released during exhalation. CO2 is needed to release oxygen from your blood to your brain, organs, muscles, and cells (Bohr Effect). The sinuses trap CO2 at the end of exhalation. CO2 helps to reduce constriction in the airways and blood vessels and facilitates the release of oxygen from the red blood cells and oxygen delivery to the other cells of your body by helping to balance the Ph of the blood.
Nose breathing promotes oral health, whereas mouth breathing can cause problems. When you breathe through your mouth, your gums, tongue, and oral cavity become dried out, which allows direct exposure to pathogens and particles in the air, as well as causing excess acids in your mouth. Extraoral acids cause gums and teeth to decay faster. A moisturised mouth remains healthier for the long term, and helps you avoid gum disease, as well as bad breath.
Nose breathing increases your sense of smell, linking it to the Limbic system, which is the seat of your emotional body. You can then have more awareness around how you feel about certain things. Smell is a very important environmental factor for survival.
Nose breathing brings air into the sphenoid sinuses to cool the pituitary gland which helps regulate your body temperature.
Breathing through your nose keeps your nasal passages open. Having a clear nasal passage allows light to reach the pituitary gland through the sphenoid sinus to help regulate your sleeping patterns.
Nose breathing reduces the chances of snoring, whereas mouth breathing encourages snoring.
Nose breathing activates movement at several head and neck joints. They are the atlanto-occipital joint, the atlanto-axial joint, the sphenobasilar joint and the sutures of the facial and head bones. Mouth breathing can lead to using the upper chest and neck muscles to breathe, which causes restriction through tightness.
Nasal breathing allows the tongue and lips to properly form the natural arch around your mouth, thereby preventing tooth malformation. Improves the aesthetics of your entire face, as your jaw forms in a most anatomically advantageous way.
In children, breathing through the nose helps to form the sinuses by activating their growth with the movement of air. Children who mouth-breathe often have very narrow faces. The sinuses do not start growing until about age 4.
Nose breathing helps increase the fluctuations of the cerebral-spinal fluid by activation and movement of the sphenobasilar joint thereby nourishing the central nervous system.
Breathing through your mouth causes the tissues in your nose and other airways to swell and become congested and thus make it more difficult to breathe. Mouth breathing can thereby lead to over-breathing as your body struggles to get the oxygen it requires. This activates the stress response and can add to chronic stress. Nose breathing on the other hand downregulates the stress response.
Nose breathing reduces anxiety.
It downregulates the stress response and turns the parasympathetic nervous system on – commonly known as rest-and-digest or the Relaxation Response. Mouth breathing on the other hand, produces a significant amount of beta brain waves that are associated with a stress response.
Nose breathing activates the diaphragm, encouraging longer, deeper breaths and a breathing pattern which has a calming effect on your mind and body.
Nose breathing adds a huge reservoir of sensation to tap into to deepen your connection to yourself and bring your attention to the present moment.
Breathing through the nose allows the air to pass by the structures that mark the centre of the head, keeping your energetic balanced and centred.
There’s a reason why yoga and meditation traditions focus awareness on the breath as a doorway to meditation. Nose breathing facilitates deep meditation because it increases alpha brain wave activity compared to mouth breathing. Alpha brain waves are produced during relaxation or meditative states.
The Takeaway
Research shows that nose breathing is the natural and most efficient way to breathe – it’s exponentially better for you than mouth breathing. Nose breathing is healthier and safer and contributes more than 30 benefits to your mental, physical and emotional health and wellbeing. It’s recommended to work with an experienced breathwork instructor if you are currently a mouth breather and/or a new to breathwork practices.
To learn more about breathwork training and breathwork workshops near you, click here or join the free 21 Day Master Your Breath Program with Breathless.
SOURCES
Douillard, J. Body Mind and Sport. Three Rivers Press. New York. 2000
James Nestor, Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, Riverhead Books, 2020
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Copyright © 2022 | Breathless
