# are you a mouth-breather?



## odun (Nov 9, 2003)

i know the term is often used in the pejorative sense, that is not what i mean (although i think i once claimed that the state of michigan is made up of dullards and mouthbreathers, i apologize). i mean are you literally a mouth breather?

i am not, but i cannot breathe through my nose while sleeping. so i guess at night im a mouthbreather.


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## orpheus (Nov 16, 2003)

nose, unless i'm getting anxious.


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## LoneLioness (Nov 16, 2003)

yea...thanks to not having braces as a kid my jaw didn't develop properly.


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## njodis (Nov 8, 2006)

Nope.


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## Zephyr (Nov 8, 2003)

I was thinking of making a thread on this very topic.



odun said:


> i am not, but i cannot breathe through my nose while sleeping. so i guess at night im a mouthbreather.


Ditto. Usually during the day I can breathe through my nose, but at night it becomes almost impossible. It sucks because I usually wake up two or three times during the night and my mouth will be parched, which is why I have to have a couple glasses of water beside my bed. Even during the day I often fall into the pattern of mouth breathing without noticing if for awhile. I think I have allergies or my sinuses or screwed up or something.


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## mayblue (Oct 1, 2005)

Sometimes. I have allergies and my nose closes up sometimes, usually in the evening.


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## Zephyr (Nov 8, 2003)

Perrap said:


> most of the time, yes. I usually can't get enough oxygen through my nose.


Yeah it feels when I'm only breathing through my nose that I'm slowly suffocating.


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## SebFontain (Jan 27, 2004)

Depends if my nose is stuffy or not.


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## Noca (Jun 24, 2005)

my mouth


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## Chrysalii (Jun 24, 2006)

Usually unless I'm sleeping, sick, stuffy, out of breath or it's allergy season.
which is maybe half/half.


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## Inturmal (Jan 15, 2006)

I thought everyone breathes through their mouth, just as they do through their nose.
Do people "take a deep breath" through their nose? :con 
What's going on here?



odun said:


> i know the term is often used in the pejorative sense..


Really? I've never heard of that. Why is being "mouth-breather" considered a bad thing?


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## cakesniffer (Nov 11, 2003)

Only when I'm sick and can't unblock my nose. I hate breathing through my mouth, especially at night, because I wake up with a disgustingly dry mouth.


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## odun (Nov 9, 2003)

> Really? I've never heard of that. Why is being "mouth-breather" considered a bad thing?


the term mouth-breather is sometimes used to describe a stupid or ignorant person (regardless if they are an actual mouth breather)


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## Kelly (Dec 12, 2003)

*Re: re: are you a mouth-breather?*



odun said:


> the term mouth-breather is sometimes used to describe a stupid or ignorant person (regardless if they are an actual mouth breather)


I've heard that, but I've never understood why.

Proper breathing, btw, uses both your nose and your mouth. Inhale through your nose, exhale through your mouth. The hairs in your nose trap (some, not all) dirt and pollutants and stop them from reaching your lungs. They also stop them from being exhaled, so that's why you shouldn't exhale through your nose.

Just a weird factoid that I learned way back in seventh grade.

Have a nice day,
Kelly


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## Lonelyguy (Nov 8, 2003)

Only when I have a cold and I'm too congested to breathe through my nose.


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## copper (Nov 10, 2003)

When I am awake I breath out of my nose, but I tend to breath out of my mouth when asleep. It is quite irritating in the winter when my house is dry as a bone waking up in the middle of the night with that cotton ball feeling in my mouth. I should run the dehumidifier, but it is a small one and won't go thorugh the whole night without filling it. I need to buy a bigger capacity one so it can run throught the night.


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## Drella (Dec 4, 2004)

I use my nose. That's what it's there for.


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## Your Lover Scrub Ducky (Jul 26, 2004)

odun said:


> i am not, but i cannot breathe through my nose while sleeping. so i guess at night im a mouthbreather.


:ditto


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## Inturmal (Jan 15, 2006)

Drella said:


> I use my nose. That's what it's there for.


I thought it was for smelling and picking. :b 
..and doing that really cool trick where you cover one nostril and spew snot out the other, right to the ground, in front of other people. which I've never done, of course.


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## sonya99 (Sep 5, 2005)

I breathe through my nose because i can. Well, most of the time. I too hate when I have to breathe through my mouth at night because my mouth gets uncomfortably dry.

But nasal passages are funny things--people get deviated septums, broken noses that dont' heal right, chronic allergies and whatnot. Very finicky, they can close up on ya without much notice. Some of the mouth-breathers out there were former nose-breathers. So don't take that for granted, fellow nose-breathers!


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## mserychic (Oct 2, 2004)

I only breath through my mouth if I have a terrible cold and there is no way of breathing through my nose. My mouth is always dry so it's really uncomfortable to breath through it.


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## Nae (Nov 10, 2003)

*Re: re: are you a mouth-breather?*



Hypatia said:


> Proper breathing, btw, uses both your nose and your mouth. Inhale through your nose, exhale through your mouth. The hairs in your nose trap (some, not all) dirt and pollutants and stop them from reaching your lungs. They also stop them from being exhaled, so that's why you shouldn't exhale through your nose.


I thought that applies only for when you are exerting yourself and need lots of oxygen. :con

I have a big nose so I get plenty of air in & out of my nostrils when I am at rest. When I used to practice meditation I'd breathe in through my nose and then exhale out of my mouth, though.


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## njodis (Nov 8, 2006)

I try to keep my mouth shut when I'm sleeping because I have this fear that spiders are going to crawl into my mouth when I'm asleep. :lol

I have been monitoring it off and on, and I definately breathe mostly through my nose.

And yeah, I always thought that 'in through nose, out through mouth' thing applied only when you were doing something physically demanding. I remember my gym class teacher telling us to do that when we were doing laps around the track.


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## Zephyr (Nov 8, 2003)

*Re: re: are you a mouth-breather?*



Nae said:


> Hypatia said:
> 
> 
> > Proper breathing, btw, uses both your nose and your mouth. Inhale through your nose, exhale through your mouth. The hairs in your nose trap (some, not all) dirt and pollutants and stop them from reaching your lungs. They also stop them from being exhaled, so that's why you shouldn't exhale through your nose.
> ...


I don't think so. The nose is there to clean the air (as well as warm and humidify it) that we breathe in. This should be done all the time, not just when under exertion. In fact, when doing heavy exercise we need more oxygen, and at that point people usually also start breathing through their mouth (think of panting after jogging).

Like Drella said, the nose is there for breathing. Problem is, some of us can't use it that way.


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## Gerard (Feb 3, 2004)

no


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## Tungsten (Dec 11, 2005)

no, it's a good way to give yourself gas.


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## MidnightBlu (Jun 11, 2006)

Sometimes.

Hah, I was breathing through my mouth coincidentally while reading this thread.


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## millenniumman75 (Feb 4, 2005)

I have a deviated septum and allergies. I can breathe through my nose when I am quiet. Otherwise, I guess i breathe through my mouth.....especially while running.


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## sasflower (Jan 9, 2007)

Nope.


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## ghostgurl (Sep 20, 2004)

No. Even when I'm stuffed up and trying to sleep, it feels uncomfortable for me to breathe that way. Plus if you breathe through your mouth that little troll guy from the movie Cat's Eye could steal your breath. :um


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## Becky (Nov 5, 2003)

Lonelyguy said:


> Only when I have a cold and I'm too congested to breathe through my nose.


:ditto


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