Reasons for Snoring and Sleeping with Mouth Open

In dental surgery, I see many signs and reasons for snoring. As a professional, the direct evidence of open mouth sleep can actually be found with a quick dental exam. The noticeable signs for patients are often different, they often describe tiredness and low energy, as well as, restless sleep.

As I explore here, snoring is actually more dangerous than many people realize:

Snoring has a close link to sleep apnea symptoms. There are some warning signs that your dentist will identify about snoring. They may link to a sleep disorder like obstructive sleep apnea.

 

Dental sleep apnea symptoms can include:

• Teeth grinding

• Sleeping with mouth open

• Small, narrow jawbone crooked teeth and high palate

• Jaw pain or temporomandibular dysfunction (TMJ)

• Increased teeth sensitivity or tooth aches

• Unexplained oro-facial pain

• Dry mouth

• Progressive gum disease

• Reflux or GERD

• Enamel erosion

If you add snoring to any of these conditions, you should see your dentist, GP, or sleep physician to get a sleep test.

 

Lack of oxygen and causes of snoring

Not ALL snoring is harmful. So when is snoring normal and does snoring cause lack of oxygen and sleep disorders?

Studies suggest that 60% of men and 40% of women snore when they reach their 60s. 35% of people who snore have obstructive sleep apnea. The primary sleep apnea symptoms are pauses in breathing during sleep. They’re related to snoring and lack of oxygen to the brain during sleep.

The reasons for snoring stem from the relaxation of throat muscles when you sleep. Less airway volume can mean that the relaxed throat vibrates when you breathe. It’s the universal cause of snoring (harmful or normal).

Not all snoring is sleep apnea. Breathing noise or ‘snoring’ can be normal.

But sleeping with mouth open and pauses in breathing may or show sleep disorders. If you sleep on your back, your tongue falls into your airway.

If pauses reach a duration of 10 seconds, it’s called an ‘apnea.’ That’s where the term sleep apnea comes from, and it’s different to the normal causes of snoring.

 

Is sleeping with mouth open normal?

For optimal breathing, we should be breathing through our nose. Sleep apnea is your body experiencing breathing dysfunction during sleep.

Nasal breathing prevents oxygen deprivation. Nitric oxide is produced in the nasal sinuses. It acts to increase blood flow and deliver oxygen to the lungs. Air is also warmed and moistened in the nasal sinuses. When you breathe through your mouth, you provide cold, dry air that may cause lack of oxygen.

The tongue is one of the main factors in snoring and sleeping with mouth open. It can also reveal sleep apnea symptoms.

Your tongue both contains and connects to the largest group of muscles in the body.

It sits like a sling in your lower jaw bone. But the muscles of the tongue support the airways with connections to the jaws, neck, and base of the skull. It attaches to the hyoid bone (which is a floating bone that supports your airway).

When you go to sleep, the primary muscles of your tongue and your throat relax. They are paralyzed during the deep (REM) cycle of sleep. Only your eyes and diaphragm remain ‘awake’ during this period of sleep.

For you to keep your airway open, support muscles for the throat must hold firm.

The normal posture of the tongue is to sit against the top of your mouth. This position turns on the muscles that support the throat and airways.

Sleeping with mouth open is a sign your tongue is not supporting your airway. The tongue can then fall back into the airway, blocking normal breathing.

Mouth breathing can also cause lack of oxygen and sleep apnea.

 

Tongue exercises to stop sleeping with mouth open

One way to prevent snoring and sleep better is daytime breathing and tongue habits. Daytime mouth breathing fails to turn on your throat muscles. These are the muscles that hold the airway open at night.

Strengthening the muscles in your tongue can improve snoring and sleep apnea symptoms.

To strengthen your tongue, complete these exercises twice per day. They will help to hold your tongue at the top of your mouth at rest. It will teach these muscles to keep the airway open at night.

In each of these exercises, the base of your tongue and sides should feel tired. It’s a sign you’re exercising the right areas.

 

To prevent snoring:

In bed prop yourself on your side to prevent your tongue falling backward. The goal is to avoid sleeping with mouth open.

 

Tongue exercises to improve snoring:

1) Hold your tongue behind the back of your front two teeth. The spot is just in front of two rough lines on your palate. Press with upward force and hold for 3 minutes. Complete twice daily.

2) Tap tongue behind back teeth to this same point making ‘tut tut noise.’ Complete 20 times and repeat five times per day.

3) Move tongue backward against the palate, from the spot behind your front teeth. Push against the top of the palate and move towards the back of the mouth as far as it will go. Repeat ten times, twice a day.

4) Hold a spoon at the top of your mouth, or you can also use a paddle pop stick. With force, hold for 2 minutes and repeat two times per day.

Have you tried these exercises yet? Did they improve snoring in yourself or a loved one? I’d love to hear your experiences in the comments below.

For more information on Dr. Lin’s clinical protocol that highlights the steps parents can take to prevent dental problems in their children: Click here.

Want to know more? Dr. Steven Lin’s book, The Dental Diet, is available to order today. An exploration of ancestral medicine, the human microbiome and epigenetics it’s a complete guide to the mouth-body connection. Take the journey and the 40-day delicious food program for life-changing oral and whole health.

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