Stuffed nose when laying down. Mouth breathing throughout the night

sleepless1

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May 3, 2018
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Why is this? I don't think it is allergy related. I made my room allergy proof (only a bed and cotton sheets, hardwood floor that I mop constantly) also my nose is never stuffy in my room otherwise.

I wake up with a dry mouth every morning and have 3 cavities.

Currently: put bricks at the base to invert my bed so that I sleep somewhat inclined, eucalyptus nasal spray before bed, humidifier, spray pillow with eucalyptus, Xylotol gum patches (supposed to increase saliva production) and all this is doing nothing.

My nose gets plugged thoughout the night and I mouth breathe throughout.

What is causing this and what can I do to fix it?
 
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Low CO2 levels.

Tape your mouth at night with first aid tape. You CAN breathe through your nose. Your body will never let you asphyxiate.
 

tankasnowgod

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Jan 25, 2014
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Low CO2 levels.

Tape your mouth at night with first aid tape. You CAN breathe through your nose. Your body will never let you asphyxiate.
Agree with this.

I formerly thought mouth taping was a bit silly, and avoided doing it for a long time. Last fall, I decided I should at least give it a try for a few weeks, and see how it goes, and would stop if anything went wrong, or felt off.

Well, nothing went wrong, or was even that awkward about it, once I did it for a few nights. I don't think I've missed a night doing it since I started.

I think I breathe through my nose all the time now, save maybe a bit when talking or eating.
 
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My husband bought this chin strap to keep him from mouth breathing, and it worked well.
 

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burtlancast

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ceileachair

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It can be difficult to go straight mouth breathing to nose breathing with a blocked nose sometimes. I find doing alternate nostril breathing (or Nadi Shodhana) for a few minutes is very helpful to unblock the nose and get into the rhythm of nose breathing.
 

Jasjeet

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have you tried mewing? that seemed to work for me, along with drinking more water, cutting out dairy and removing histamine rich food as much as possible
 

PeskyPeater

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It can be difficult to go straight mouth breathing to nose breathing with a blocked nose sometimes. I find doing alternate nostril breathing (or Nadi Shodhana) for a few minutes is very helpful to unblock the nose and get into the rhythm of nose breathing.
I see, what about when your nose is not stuffed, do you hyperventilate when at rest?
 

PeskyPeater

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have you tried mewing? that seemed to work for me, along with drinking more water, cutting out dairy and removing histamine rich food as much as possible
Sound like typical hypothyroid issue if you ask me. Remember it's not the milk, it's you your gut and thyroid. Histamine needs to be broken down by the natural barriers, enzymes that are dysfunctional in hypothyroidism.
 

JamesGatz

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Anything that causes you stress/makes you hypometabolic will cause this mouth-breathing issue, to name a few examples:

Even if your sheets are cotton, if the fill of your pillows and mattress are polyester (nearly all of them are) - this will bring you stress (if the problem immediately happens when you go to lay down but never happens when you aren't on your bed), I suspect this is the issue.

If you sleep in total darkness, this can bring you stress

and so on... just about anything stressful will cause this
 
B

Blaze

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Why is this? I don't think it is allergy related. I made my room allergy proof (only a bed and cotton sheets, hardwood floor that I mop constantly) also my nose is never stuffy in my room otherwise.

I wake up with a dry mouth every morning and have 3 cavities.

Currently: put bricks at the base to invert my bed so that I sleep somewhat inclined, eucalyptus nasal spray before bed, humidifier, spray pillow with eucalyptus, Xylotol gum patches (supposed to increase saliva production) and all this is doing nothing.

My nose gets plugged thoughout the night and I mouth breathe throughout.

What is causing this and what can I do to fix it?
Great responses from everyone and that youtube video on how to unblock the nose was very interesting, thanks for posting that.

The chinstrap device was great also.

As to the cause, Agree that low CO2 is a very high probability and the other idea that rises when I think about your post is excess histamine being released by your white blood cells in response to a perceived allergen. It looks like you already had the same idea when you took steps to make your bedroom allergy proof. The other allergens that could provoke this might be certain foods or eating too close to bedtime leaving undigested food to sit in the gut being slowly and poorly digested overnight due to the body's low metabolic rate. Since from your post I think it's clear you infer that this only occurs at night I would logically tie the symptom to the low at rest metabolic rate and gut bacteria. Digestion and gastric emptying are very slow during sleep except when you are dreaming. For some reason REM sleep brings digestion and metabolism back up again for brief moments during the sleep cycle. So, try not eating maybe 4 hours before bed and just have something easy to digest instead like orange juice or milk or soda. The soda's carbonation might also assist with the CO2 if that is the issue.

Don't forget to post back when you find what works.
 
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Nicky

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Nov 19, 2019
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There's a book you need to read called Breathe by James Nestor, a lot of issues you have sounds like the structure of your face, mouth, seriously affects how you breathe .
 

-Luke-

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Sep 21, 2014
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Agree with this.

I formerly thought mouth taping was a bit silly, and avoided doing it for a long time. Last fall, I decided I should at least give it a try for a few weeks, and see how it goes, and would stop if anything went wrong, or felt off.

Well, nothing went wrong, or was even that awkward about it, once I did it for a few nights. I don't think I've missed a night doing it since I started.

I think I breathe through my nose all the time now, save maybe a bit when talking or eating.
Yes, I avoided it too, thinking I needed to fix the stuffed nose first. But it was the opposite.

First I woke up sometimes in the morning with the tape wrapped around my finger. I removed it in my sleep. But that became less and less and eventually stopped altogether.

What generally helps me - during the day - with a stuffy nose is to slow down my breathing and to hold my breath after inhaling. This brings me to 1-2 breaths in a minute. And I notice a difference after a few minutes.
 

NanMitch

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Feb 7, 2022
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Mirchigan
Why is this? I don't think it is allergy related. I made my room allergy proof (only a bed and cotton sheets, hardwood floor that I mop constantly) also my nose is never stuffy in my room otherwise.

I wake up with a dry mouth every morning and have 3 cavities.

Currently: put bricks at the base to invert my bed so that I sleep somewhat inclined, eucalyptus nasal spray before bed, humidifier, spray pillow with eucalyptus, Xylotol gum patches (supposed to increase saliva production) and all this is doing nothing.

My nose gets plugged thoughout the night and I mouth breathe throughout.

What is causing this and what can I do to fix it?
I cut our cow dairy products and this problem disappeared. Switched to goat milk.
 
M

member 14952

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Me too. If I were to drink some cows milk right now, I would get the same breathing problem. I actually tried to introduce some A1 milk yesterday and had that response too. Goat dairy is smoother for me.
I cut our cow dairy products and this problem disappeared. Switched to goat milk
 
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