Yes, it's bad to sleep with your mouth open. Breathing and sleeping with the mouth open are signs that airway health has been compromised. These symptoms can potentially lead to other health problems throughout the body.
Known as “tongue positioning,” there is a right and wrong way. When closing the mouth, the teeth should be slightly apart while the tongue rests on the roof of the mouth but not against the teeth. Not only does this correct form of tongue positioning ensure better oral health, but it also prevents teeth from shifting.
Everyone's mouth is a different shape, but generally speaking, your tongue should lie flat against the roof of your mouth and the tip should touch the back of your front teeth. It should remain this way whether you're awake or asleep, however, there are lots of factors that can cause this to change.
The tongue is one factor that can cause obstruction and it does this by falling back into the throat during sleep. Whether you have a large tongue, weak tongue muscles or a narrow airway that's more easily blocked off, tongue obstruction may arise for several reasons.
Proper Tongue Positioning
When your mouth is at rest, your tongue should be against the roof of your mouth, but it should not be pressing against any of your teeth. Your teeth should be slightly apart, and your lips should be closed.
It is not possible to swallow the tongue. Bodily tissue firmly connects the tongue to the mouth, which prevents people from accidentally swallowing it. It is a common myth that a person can swallow their tongue during a seizure, while asleep, or if they become unconscious.
Obstructive sleep apnea occurs when the muscles that support the soft tissues in your throat, such as your tongue and soft palate, temporarily relax. When these muscles relax, your airway is narrowed or closed, and breathing is momentarily cut off.
Sleep disorders, such as sleep apnea, bruxism, and teeth clenching and grinding may cause pressure on the tongue. For example, sleep apnea may cause you to press your tongue down against your teeth to open up the airways.
Opening your jaws causes the tongue to slump backward, obstructing your airway. “Even if you don't have sleep apnea, or you have mild sleep apnea, opening your mouth makes it much, much worse.”
The teeth should not touch ever – except when swallowing. This comes as a big surprise to most people. When not chewing or swallowing, the tip of the tongue should rest gently on the tip and back of the lower incisors.
Incorrect Tongue Posture
Those who rest their tongues on the bottom of the mouth may suffer from more neck pain, jaw pain, and bad body posture overall. Additionally, bad tongue posture can change someone's appearance and make the face take on a longer, flatter shape or cause the chin or forehead to jut forward.
Having the tongue sit on the roof of the mouth is important because it ensures the lips are sealed, the jaws together, the maxilla widened and that the face will be more likely to grow forwards (which is better than the face growing down).
Elevate the head of your bed by four to six inches, or elevate your body from the waist up by using a foam wedge or special cervical pillow. Open your nasal passages at night by using a nasal dilator, saline spray, breathing strips, or a nasal irrigation system (neti pot).
Poor tongue posture can significantly affect the overall appearance of your face as it can pull the bones of your face down. The weight of gravity on the tongue, jaw, and cheeks impact bone alignment, which can ultimately affect your facial appearance.
We recommend that tongue exercises are done over a period of at least 12 weeks. In the first week, you can start with just one spot daily to get used to the exercise and to gradually change your tongue.
If you rub your tongue against your teeth at an early age, there's a good chance it will continue until adulthood unless it's treated. Tongue thrusting can cause more than just a bad bite. It can cause speech impediments, breathing problems, and chronic swelling of the adenoids or tonsils.
Facial muscle spasms lead to loss of control over facial or jaw muscles during sleep. As a result, they are a common cause of biting the tongue in sleep. Factors like anxiety, stress, nerve damage, and viruses might be responsible for facial spasms. Another name for facial muscle spasms is “faciomandibular myoclonus.”
Anxiety state: The anxiety state can be acute (reaction) or chronic (neurosis). Rubbing and thrusting of the tongue against the teeth occurs as a manifestation of anxiety in the tense, apprehensive, pent-up individual; it occurs par ticularly when the person is subject to emo tional stress.
Gravity pulls the tongue down right? Actually, your tongue should be resting entirely on the palate. Not just the tip of the tongue, but the middle and posterior sections should be resting up. Your lips should be together, and your breathing should be through the nose 95-100% of the time.
Simply put, proper tongue positioning occurs when someone gently rests their tongue on the roof of the mouth and away from the teeth. During rest, the lips should also be closed, and the teeth slightly parted.
It is important that the entire tongue presses against the roof of the mouth–Over time this can expand the palate, preventing the crowding of your teeth and opening up your sinuses.
Dry mouth symptoms may include: saliva that feels thick or stringy. a rough, dry tongue. the tongue tending to stick against the roof of the mouth.
It may sound strange and unusual, but tongue posture is a real thing, and it can cause some very real problems. 50% of Americans have incorrect tongue posture.