Do You Breathe Through Mouth When Asleep? Expert Tells Why Nasal Breathing Is Crucial For Rest And Recovery

Getting proper sleep is very important for the healthy functioning of the body. However, many breathe through while asleep. It is difficult understand how you switch to oral breathing from nasal while sleeping. If you are one of those who breathes from the mouth, then it's a problem that needs to be addressed. A person starts using the mouth to inhale and exhale if the nasal passage is blocked. Nutritionist Pooja Makhija, in a new Instagram post, decodes this issue and explains about breathing from the mouth in detail.

In the caption, Pooja states that the body's autonomic nervous system has 2 main branches — sympathetic and parasympathetic. While the sympathetic branch is responsible for our “fight or flight” response, the parasympathetic branch takes care of the “rest and digest, tend and befriend” response.

“Basically, the sympathetic branch gets you fired up and primed for movement, and the parasympathetic branch puts the brakes on and chills your body out,” Pooja says in the caption. She adds, “Mouth breathing biases your body towards a sympathetic state, where as nasal breathing activates the parasympathetic response. If the body is stuck in this state due to chronic stress and breathing dysfunction, it won't effectively rebuild tissue from all of the HIIT workouts you are doing.”

Then she goes on to say that as a large portion of this recovery process happens while we're sleep, it is especially important to breathe in a way that shifts our nervous system state into “rest and digest” mode. “This is why nasal breathing is so important for weight loss!” adds Pooja.

She suggests everyone to have good quality Vitamin C supplements (and foods), curcumin (opens up sinus blockages), and zinc-rich foods and supplements. However, she stressed the need to speak to a nutritionist for exact doses and duration.

Take a look at the reel here: