In November 2010 I attended a Conscious Breathing course, and since then I have taped my mouth shut basically every night. In addition to having enjoyed better sleep, the tooth right next to my upper front teeth has straightened! It used to be completely crooked and I didn’t like to smile because of how odd it looked. But, now, the tooth has twisted itself back into place, which I assume is due to taping my mouth shut at night.

It also goes hand in hand with what I learned in the course, that your tongue and lips are powerful muscles that strongly affect the positioning of your teeth. Nowadays my whole family, my partner and three children, aged 7, 9 and 11, tape their mouths shut at night.

Burst of energy with nasal breathing when running

I also do a fair amount of running, about 50-60 kilometers a week, and I am trying to practice nasal breathing more and more. It feels really nice to breathe through my nose, but for the time being I’m not able to do it properly when I’m running fast.

I do, however, clearly note that when I’m running quickly and huffing and puffing through my mouth, and then take a few breaths through my nose, I calm down and get a burst of energy that makes me feel I can carry on just a bit more.