Hostage Tape - Mouth Tape for Better Sleep
We've always known mouth breathers are weirdos, but according to Hostage Tape, they are also the worst snorers. Sleep apnea and low blood oxygen levels plague them too. So maybe it's the never getting a good night's sleep issue more than the mouth breathing thing that makes them so weird. Though, also according to Hostage Tape, the latter leads to the former.
Hostage Tape was created by Alex Neist, an elephantine snorer whose health and family life were suffering because of it. Despite losing 25 pounds and fine-tuning his sleep schedule, his wife still had to sleep in a separate bedroom. Then he read Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, by James Nestor. Nestor wrote the book after participating in a mouth-breathing experiment at Stanford University Medical Center. He spent 10 days breathing only through his mouth. At the end of it he felt like his sleep, and therefore his body and mind, were wrecked. Using mouth tape, skin-friendly medical tape that forces wearers to breath through their noses, he was able to get back to normal, and then better than normal.
After trying Nestor's mouth tape method for one night, Neist noticed a drastic improvement in his own sleep, and never looked back. But he did seek to make mouth tape "more accessible...more comfortable...and more fun!" Starting, I presume, with the name "Hostage Tape."
Made of strong and flexible fabric, Hostage Tape is designed to grab your mouth as well as it grabs your attention. One of Neist's biggest selling points is that it will stay on anyone all night, even dudes (and ladies...) with facial hair, and is much more comfortable to wear and remove than medical tape. But if you're skeptical about taping your mouth shut to sleep in the first place, you could certainly test out the theory and benefits with medical tape, and use it instead if it works for you.
Anyone can use Hostage Tape, but Neist primarily designed it for bearded men with partners who borderline hate them for snoring. The tape is supposedly safe to use, even if you have a stuffy nose or deviated septum. You can read more about the science behind those assertions, and mouth taping in general on the Hostage Tape website.