In this article:
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🧑🏫 What is nasal breathing?
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👍 The good reasons to breathe through your nose
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👄 The consequences of mouth breathing
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➡️ How to promote nasal breathing
What is nasal breathing?
More than just a nose: an essential organ
Let's start by laying the foundations! The nose, composed of bone and cartilage and two symmetrically constructed nasal cavities, isn't just there to look nice in the middle of your face. This essential part of the respiratory system fulfills three distinct roles:
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😮💨 Respiratory function: the air inhaled through the nose travels straight to your little lungs. But the nose isn't just there to allow air in! It filters oxygen much better than the mouth, and it regulates the temperature (around 37 degrees Celsius) and the humidity of the inhaled air so that it is not too irritating for your mucous membranes.
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👃 Olfactory function: the lining of your nostrils allows odor molecules to reach the olfactory nerve cells (nearly 5 million olfactory neurons in your lovely nose!). And smell isn't just for realizing it's time to take a shower: it is also an essential mechanism for the sense of taste.
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🦠 Immune function: The nose breathes, it smells, and it protects? This precious organ is a protective barrier against impurities, dust, and allergens. The mucus and hairs that populate your little nose help block foreign bodies during inhalation to protect your airways.
Breathing in a few words:
Breathing is an unconscious act, but it can be controlled. We are sure that most of the time, you don't even think about it, but you're probably focusing on it just by reading these lines!
The main function of breathing is the supply of oxygen because without it, life is short. Inhalation, exhalation: the mechanism is quite simple.
What happens when you breathe?
During inhalation, air enters through the nasal passages, passes through the trachea, and continues its journey via the bronchi to reach the pulmonary alveoli. This is where the exchange between inhaled air and the blood in the capillaries located near the lungs occurs: oxygen from the air passes into the blood, and carbon dioxide (CO2) from the blood passes into the lungs to be evacuated during exhalation.
The movements of your upper body also play a role in breathing:
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During inhalation, your intercostal muscles contract to help your rib cage open so that air can enter your lungs. Likewise, your diaphragm descends to make room for air to inflate your lungs.
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When you exhale, the diaphragm relaxes and rises to help your lungs empty more easily. The volume of your rib cage decreases and the pulmonary air pressure increases, which causes air to be expelled through the airways.
💡 Good to know: your lungs are not muscles! Their movement is facilitated by a whole system (rib muscles, pleural membranes, diaphragm) around them.
The good reasons to breathe through your nose
Nasal breathing is the one most adapted to our organism, the one physiologically considered normal. Basically, your body is designed to breathe through the nose and not the mouth. But what does all this mean in practice?
🌬 Better air quality
As we said, the air filtered by the nose is richer in oxygen, its temperature is regulated, and the wonderful hairs protruding from your nostrils serve to filter impurities.
Thus, air inhaled through the nose will be healthier. Since the supply of oxygen to the blood is improved, nasal breathing is also the most suitable if you play sports.
⎸ Good posture
When you breathe through your nose, thoracic breathing comes into play, which influences your posture: thanks to the strengthening of the diaphragm, your spine is better aligned, which prevents cervical pain and back problems. It is therefore the way of breathing that most respects the natural posture and alignment of the body.
🧪 Nitric oxide production
The nasal mucosa also plays a role in the release of nitric oxide (NO), a gas produced in the sinuses and the endothelial cells of the nose's blood vessels. It has several important functions: regulation of blood vessel dilation, blood pressure, and nerve signal transmission. It therefore has an impact both on the quality of the air reaching your lungs and on reducing stress levels and preserving the cardiovascular system.
🧘♀️ Stress reduction
Breathing well also means fighting against anxiety! Indeed, nasal breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which regulates stress but also sleep.
Breathing through the nose also stimulates the production of serotonin, a neurotransmitter linked to the sensation of well-being and improved mood.
💡 Good to know: the nose is also connected to the brain by specific sensory receptors that send signals to the limbic system of the brain, the seat of emotion regulation. One more reason to relax by breathing through your nose!
😴 Quality sleep
This is an effect directly linked to stress reduction, but that's not all!
Studies have proven that breathing through the nose rather than the mouth improves sleep quality, particularly for people prone to sleep apnea. Since the air is of better quality and less irritating to the lungs via nose breathing, it’s easy to see why nasal breathing helps you sleep better!
The drawbacks of mouth breathing
But can't we also breathe through the mouth? Sometimes we don't have a choice, like when the nose is stuffed up. But it should be avoided as much as possible, because while breathing through the nose has heaps of beneficial effects, for mouth breathing, it is the exact opposite.
Poorer air quality
Unlike air inhaled through the nose, the air you breathe through your mouth is less filtered: it will therefore contain a lower concentration of oxygen and more unwanted particles. Your lungs, blood, and muscles will therefore be less well-oxygenated.
In addition, the air will be drier and less suitable for the mucous membranes of the airways, but also for those of your mouth, leading for example to chapped lips and dry mouth.
Increased risk of respiratory conditions
By inhaling through the mouth, you also breathe in foreign particles that are usually filtered by the nose. Thus, you expose yourself to a higher risk of catching a cold, sinusitis, or a lung infection.
Mouth breathing also leads to other annoyances like snoring and increases the risk of sleep apnea.
More frequent dental problems
Mouth breathing also risks battering your dental health, with delightful effects such as bad breath, the appearance of cavities, or gingivitis. Nice.
In children, it can even go as far as hindering the proper development of the jaw and teeth. This is because when breathing through the mouth, the tongue is no longer pressed against the palate as it should be, but rather is in a low position, which leads to both a deformation of the palate and the jaws. These issues can be avoided and corrected by consulting a pediatric dentist regularly to detect the bad habit of mouth breathing.
💡 Good to know: in children, mouth breathing often occurs in cases of swollen tonsils, recurring allergies, or sleep apnea, which are reasons to consult a healthcare professional.
Disturbed sleep
Apart from sleep apnea, which can be promoted by mouth breathing, sleeping while breathing through your mouth simply decreases your sleep quality. Indeed, mouth breathing disrupts the proper sequence of sleep cycles (especially deep sleep, which is essential for restorative rest). The consequences: you are less rested, more tired during the day, more irritable, and have trouble focusing properly.
💡 Good to know: in certain circumstances, however, it is advisable to breathe through the mouth, especially during exhalation. This is the case in practices such as yoga or meditation, where mouth and abdominal breathing is often used.
How to promote nasal breathing
So, breathing through the nose is good; through the mouth is not good.
By the way, a little cultural tidbit: if someone calls you a mouth breather, it means they are calling you an idiot. No really, mouth breathing only has drawbacks.
But then, how do we encourage nasal breathing, especially when we sleep?
As always, prevention is better than cure, and this starts in childhood. It is easier to identify and correct mouth breathing in a child than to repair the damage in adulthood.
Sometimes it is necessary to retrain your breathing by making an appointment with an ENT specialist and/or a speech therapist in order to correct your breathing. They can show you simple breathing exercises.
Finally, you can eventually be prescribed devices such as nasal dilators if you suffer from nasal congestion, for example: by slightly spreading the nostrils, they will allow you to breathe more easily through your nose.
Final word: why is it better to breathe through your nose?
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👃 Nasal breathing is the best adapted to your body: the nose filters air better, which allows for better oxygenation, good posture, and can even have an effect on anxiety and sleep.
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👄 Conversely, mouth breathing leads to a whole host of problems regarding teeth, sleep disorders, infections, and respiratory disease. It's a tendency that is easily corrected in children, but is more problematic if it persists into adulthood.
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➡️ Breathing exercises, consulting a healthcare professional, or using targeted treatments (both for prevention and cure) can help you breathe better through your nose.
