Norwegian soccer star Erling Haaland said recently Logan Paul’s in the podcast about the recovery method of a startling thing. He said he sleeps with his mouth taped.
– You should try taping your mouth.
– At night?, Paul asked.
– Yes, why not. Or when you work out. Seriously… I sleep with it, Haaland stated.
Breathing coach Patrick McKeown told of The Athletic in an extensive article that sleeping with your mouth taped has significant benefits. According to him, the method has been used for at least 25 years.
McKeown says one in two adults breathes through their mouths. According to him, it can be harmful to health.
The article stated that the risk of lower back pain is lower when breathing through the nose at rest.
– Breathing is slower when you also breathe through your nose. It helps to relax better, McKeown noted.
McKeown listed that nasal breathing also increases oxygen uptake from the lungs to the blood, improves memory and attention.
McKeown has worked with, among others, tennis players, cyclists and football players.
The Finnish doctor knocks out
Among other things, a sleep doctor who collaborates with NHL players, docent Henri Tuomilehto knocks out that method as a recovery method for athletes and other people as well.
– There is no scientific evidence for this. I base it on medical evidence. There must be solid evidence that I recommend something to a large group of patients.
– There is no benefit in taping that would knock others off the board. These are such flip-flops, Tuomilehto bores.
He says that many athletes have a weak foundation in terms of recovery and sleep. Tuomilehto sees that taping is tried to be considered as some kind of bypass to find a solution for one’s own sleep.
He says that in the case of Haaland, it is difficult to know the background of why the Norwegian goalkeeper tapes his mouth or nose at night.
– When you look at his face patterns, he might snore. That may be why he wears the taping at night. There are snoring rails for that, of which there is more evidence, says Tuomilehto.
– If someone feels that it is useful, I can’t say that it shouldn’t be done. However, I am not going to recommend such a thing, Tuomilehto refers to taping the mouth.
Haaland is one of the most famous sports stars of the moment. The examples of superstars can easily fuel ordinary people to wear different trends.
– People identify with him without knowing his background. It’s really dangerous, especially when we go into things like this, which are not according to any treatment recommendations.
– There may be some background that he benefits from it. The fact that the group sets out to imitate can produce the opposite result, Tuomilehto points out.
“Does not make any sense”
Haaland is not the only example of a star athlete with his mouth taped. In August, photos of the tennis player spread From Iga Swiatek hitting the ball on the practice field with his mouth taped.
Swiatek himself was puzzled by his fitness coach Maciej Ryszczuk of the developed idea.
Proponents of nasal breathing believe that it can be of significant benefit when it comes to physical fitness and high performance.
– It’s harder to breathe when I only breathe through my nose, and my heart rate rises more easily. Everything you do on the field becomes more and more difficult when you have tape on your mouth. It improves endurance and makes me do extreme things, comments Swiatek.
Tuomilehto also strongly criticized the training method in question.
– It makes no sense to train with your mouth taped shut. Humans have their own unique mechanics. Human vital functions and everything are regulated so finely that you don’t have to think about it yourself.
– A person breathes through the nose when they are at rest and the heart rate is low. When your heart rate rises, you should breathe through your mouth. Evolution hasn’t made it so that we don’t breathe through the mouth when a person is stressed.
Breathing coach McKeown believes that the human mouth is not really intended for breathing. He says the mouth is for eating, drinking and talking. The function of the nose is breathing and smelling.
Nasal tape on the back of the neck
In last winter’s World Cup skiing Iivo Niskanen attracted attention with his nose tape. The gimmick in question was used in sports, especially in the 1990s.
The tape is used to widen the upper airways. It is intended to help the passage of oxygen. This is especially the case with a stuffy nose.
Tuomilehto states that there is at least no harm from nasal tapes.
– However, the benefit is quite marginal. I bet that Iivonk’s success is based on much more than taping his nose.
– I guess he didn’t have a terribly good season, so that nose taping didn’t bring anything special at least.
However, Tuomilehto adds that Niskanen belongs to the absolute tops of his own kind, where the basics are the last. They look for nuances that can turn small margins into an advantage.
– We are talking about the sharpest peak in the world. There, everything else is top-notch. Then I understand that you can try some things.
Athletes have to do with sleep
Recovery is one of the life conditions of a successful athlete.
– During sleep, a person recovers. Athletes should invest in that. Not only quantitatively, but also qualitatively, Tuomilehto sums up.
In his own work, Tuomilehto focuses with athletes especially on how their free time supports recovery and sleep. He speaks on a general level, that the vast majority have work to do with this.
– Athletes’ understanding and choices about spending their free time and choices support the training of top athletes.
The daily life of athletes has been focused on nutrition for a long time. For example, there are nutrition coaches. According to Tuomilehto, sleep is not approached with the same professional attitude as everything else.
– Let’s eat supplements. Training is monitored with all kinds of gadgets. However, sleep is still a necessary evil.