If you follow football or happen to scroll through wellness TikTok late at night, you have probably seen the headlines about Erling Haaland mouth taping. The Manchester City and Norway goal machine made waves when he casually mentioned that he tapes his mouth shut before going to sleep. Naturally, the internet went into a frenzy. Some people hailed it as the ultimate athletic biohack, while others looked at the images of a Premier League striker with duct tape across his lips and wondered if modern football had finally lost its collective mind.
As a certified functional breathwork advanced level instructor who spends a lot of time thinking about how people in Worcester and beyond breathe day and night, my phone started buzzing with questions. Clients wanted to know if they should raid their garage toolboxes for heavy-duty parcel tape. Let me save you the skin irritation right now. Please do not put duct tape anywhere near your face!
There is, however, method to Haaland's nocturnal madness. The core concept behind his routine is encouraging nasal breathing, a physiological powerhouse that science and ancient traditions alike have championed for centuries. But when it comes to practical application, strapping your mouth shut with hardware store supplies is a terrible idea. Instead, tools like Myotape offer a far safer, more refined approach to nighttime breathing retraining.
Let us dive into why elite athletes are obsessed with nasal breathing, where full mouth taping goes wrong, and how you can upgrade your sleep without waking up looking like a hostage.
The Magic and Science of Nasal Breathing
Before we talk about sticking things to our faces, we need to understand why breathing through your nose is such a game changer. Your nose is not just a facial ornament meant for holding up glasses or smelling fresh coffee. It is a sophisticated, high-tech air-conditioning and filtration unit.
When you inhale through your nose, the nasal passages warm, humidify, and filter the air before it reaches your delicate lung tissue. Mouth breathing bypasses this entire filtration system, sending cold, dry, unconditioned air straight into your respiratory tract. This can dry out your airways, irritate your throat, and trigger mild inflammatory responses.
Even more fascinating is the production of nitric oxide inside your paranasal sinuses. Nitric oxide is a powerful bronchodilator and vasodilator. When you breathe through your nose, you sweep this molecule down into your lungs, which improves blood circulation and optimises oxygen absorption. When you breathe in through your mouth, you miss out on this internal pharmaceutical boost entirely.
For athletes like Haaland, optimising oxygen efficiency is everything. If you want to dive deeper into how breathing mechanics influence your daily baseline, take a look at my guide on functional breathwork to see how small shifts in how you inhale and exhale change your entire physiological state.
Why Haaland Tapes His Mouth (And Why Snoring Hates It)
When Haaland talks about taping his mouth, his primary goal is simple: keeping his mouth closed while he sleeps so his body is forced to rely entirely on nasal pathways.
When we drop off to sleep, our muscle tone relaxes. For many people, the jaw drops open, the tongue falls backward, and they transition into heavy mouth breathing. This often leads to that delightful nocturnal symphony we call snoring. Mouth breathing causes the soft tissues in the throat to vibrate as air rushes past them unchecked.
By encouraging a closed mouth position, you keep the tongue resting gently on the roof of the mouth where it belongs. This stabilises the upper airway, reduces vibrations, and virtually eliminates simple positional snoring. It is also why many people report waking up with a moist mouth, zero morning breath, and a noticeable boost in mental clarity.
The Danger of Full Mouth Taping
Here is where the viral internet trend gets risky. If you watch videos of people copying elite athletes, you will often see them slapping a wide strip of surgical or micropore tape straight across the centre of their lips, sealing the mouth shut like an envelope.
From a safety perspective, this makes breathing experts and sleep physicians wince. If your nasal passages become congested overnight due to allergies, dust, or a slight cold, and your mouth is completely sealed shut with non-porous tape, your body faces an unnecessary panic response. While your survival instincts will eventually wake you up, it is a deeply stressful way to spend a Tuesday night.
Furthermore, pulling heavy adhesive tape off sensitive lip skin every morning is a quick recipe for irritation, chapping, and micro-tears. Biohacking should never feel like a punishment or an extreme sport.
Why Myotape Is a Safer Way to Sleep
This is precisely why breathing pioneers developed specialised alternatives like Myotape. Developed in connection with Patrick McKeown and the Oxygen Advantage methodology, Myotape approaches the issue with common sense and physiological intelligence.
Unlike standard tape that covers your mouth entirely, Myotape consists of two parallel strips connected by a gentle elastic band that frame your mouth above and below. It brings your lips together gently and reminds your jaw to stay closed, but it leaves the centre of your lips free. If you ever need to cough, clear your throat, or take a quick sip of water in the middle of the night, you can do so naturally without peeling off a barricade.
It is secure enough to keep you on the nasal breathing track through the night, yet flexible and skin-friendly enough to prevent morning discomfort. For anyone curious about exploring advanced breathing techniques without the risks of industrial-grade tape, this is the gold standard.
If you are ready to give it a try and want to support your nighttime breathing safely, you can head over to the Oxygen Advantage website to explore their products. As a certified advanced level instructor, I am happy to share my affiliate link above that means you can secure a 10% discount on your order or by simply typing the coupon code IANKERSHAW at checkout.
Bringing It All Together for Better Rest
Ultimately, mouth tape is just a training wheels tool. The goal of using a product like Myotape is to support your night time nasal breathing while you retrain your neuromuscular system so that nasal breathing becomes your default habit both day and night, even when you are not wearing any tape at all.
Combine your nighttime habits with daytime mindfulness, and you will notice your baseline stress levels dropping naturally. If you are local to Worcestershire and want to experience how deep sonic relaxation complements breath retraining, come visit me for one of our immersive sessions.
Breathe easy, sleep well, and leave the heavy-duty packing tape in the garage where it belongs.
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