Nose Breathing or Mouth Breathing - What’s the Correct Way to Breathe?

Breathing is something that we do unconsciously, but how we breathe has a significant impact on our health. Many of us don’t realize that breathing through the nose and breathing through the mouth have different effects on the body. In this article, let’s find out the differences between nose breathing and mouth breathing, why nasal breathing is optimal, and how to optimize the way you breathe for better health. 

Nose Breathing is Optimal. How and Why?

You may have heard from medical professionals and seen research highlighting that breathing through your nose is the correct and optimal way to breathe.

What do you think the nose is for if not breathing?

Your nose is a specially designed organ. Just because you can inhale and exhale air through your mouth does not mean your nose is unnecessary!

Did you know that your body is designed for nasal breathing? Consistently inhaling and exhaling through your nose supports vital mechanisms that offer numerous health benefits. Let’s go through a few of them.

1. Nose Breathing Helps Fight Infections

When you inhale through your nose, the air is warmed, humidified, and filtered while being mixed with nitric oxide. This gas does two important functions- it kills deadly bacteria and works as a vasodilator, relaxing the airways, arteries, and capillaries to improve oxygen delivery.

Our body has a gene – T2R38 that stimulates the nose’s receptors when you breathe through your nose, which reacts with the chemicals that bacteria in the air use to communicate. It stimulates nitric oxide that kills the bacteria, so you breathe in relatively less infectious air. 

2. Nose Breathing Ensures Better Blood Flow and Lung Volume

The vasodilation by nitric oxide increases the surface area of alveoli, where oxygen is absorbed at the very end of bronchial tubes, which means more oxygen is absorbed more efficiently when you breathe through your nose. 

According to a Lancet study, nasal breathing—compared to mouth breathing—improves circulation, optimizes blood oxygen and carbon dioxide levels, slows the breathing rate, and improves lung volume and capacity.

3. Nasal Breathing Helps in Maintaining Body Temperature

A 2008 study found that the internal nose plays a crucial role in respiratory air-conditioning, supplying approximately 90% of the system’s needs while also recovering about 33% of exhaled heat and moisture. 

4. Nasal Breathing Helps in Better Brain Functions

The hypothalamus, also known as the Brain's control center, is responsible for many functions in our bodies, particularly those that we consider automatic: heartbeat, blood pressure, thirst, appetite, and, of course, the cycles of sleeping and waking. The hypothalamus is also responsible for generating chemicals that influence memory and emotion.

According to a 1993 study, the way we breathe through our nose affects brain activity. The body alternates airflow between the left and right nostrils in a cycle, and the hypothalamus controls this cycle. When more air flows through the right nostril, the left side of the brain becomes more active, improving verbal skills. On the other hand, when the left nostril has more airflow, the right side of the brain becomes active, improving spatial skills. This nasal cycle happens automatically and is linked to the body’s overall rhythm.

5. Nasal Breathing Helps During Workout

The lungs are a primary source of our energy level. They extract oxygen from the air we breathe primarily on the exhale. When you exhale through small nostrils compared to your mouth, a back-pressure is created, and exhaled air is restricted and slowed down, which is precisely the time the lungs use to absorb more oxygen. 

When you breathe through your mouth, you lose carbon dioxide too quickly, which reduces oxygen absorption. To improve your exercise performance, it’s important to avoid over-breathing or hyperventilation—both common with mouth breathing. Research shows that nasal breathing increases airflow resistance by about 50% compared to mouth breathing. This results in 10-20% more oxygen uptake. (Cottle, 1972; Rohrer, 1915)

A 1995 study published in the Australian Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport found that during exercise, nasal breathing improves oxygen extraction by the lungs. It reduces the percentage of oxygen in exhaled air (FEO2), meaning more oxygen is absorbed, while also increasing the percentage of exhaled carbon dioxide (FECO2). This helps maintain proper blood gas balance. 

The Downsides of Mouth Breathing

Breathing through the mouth, like with pursed lips, is only for emergencies. If you breathe through your mouth, you bypass many important stages in the breathing process, and this could lead to many health problems, like snoring and sleep apnea. 

When your body has less oxygen (FEO2 levels go down), you may be forced to engage your mouth in breathing as well. Remember those huge yawns where your mouth helps take in much more air than your nostrils? Those are the emergency situations we are talking about. 

Breathing through your nose helps slow down the breathing cycle to allow proper CO2 build-up and better O2 uptake. Pursed lip breathing, however, over time, weakens the diaphragm by transferring the strength to hold back breathing via the mouth instead of engaging the diaphragm. Think of pursed lip breathing as emergency breathing.

1. Deadly Bacteria Have Free Entry Through Mouth Breathing

Your nose is the only organ that is designed to properly "prepare" the air you breathe. It filters, warms, and moistens the air before it reaches your lungs. This helps protect your body from harmful particles. Surprisingly, our nose is home to around 19 species of bacteria—both good and bad. But the good news is that your nose is equipped with a defense mechanism. The good bacteria can fight the bad ones within the nose itself, saving us from ingesting a lot of harmful bacteria at the first stage of breathing-inhalation. 

When you breathe through your mouth, you bypass this important filtration system. This allows bad bacteria, including harmful ones like Staphylococcus aureus to reach your body, to reach your body. This increases the risk of respiratory infections and complications. 

Breathing through your nose also helps reduce your chances of catching a cold. The mucus membranes inside your nose trap and neutralize harmful particles before they can reach your respiratory system. The mucus, which contains immune cells, captures germs and prevents them from entering your body. Mouth breathing, on the other hand, can make you more susceptible to common colds and infections, as it doesn’t offer you the same filtration or defense.

2. Mouth Breathing Weakens Your Lungs, Heart, and Lot More

Some researchers have pointed out how mouth breathing and associated hyperventilation cause and exacerbate asthma, high blood pressure, heart disease, and other medical problems. 

Breathing through your mouth causes depleted carbon dioxide levels, reduces blood circulation, slows down your brain and reflexes, and even causes spells of dizziness and sometimes unconsciousness. Chronic mouth breathing also causes the muscles that open the sidewalls of the nose to weaken, causing the narrowing of airways. 

When you breathe in the mouth or over-breathe, the lungs are overstimulated with oxygen. Still, the airways become dried and vaso-constricted, so an inefficient amount of oxygen is actually absorbed through the alveoli in the lungs. 

By breathing through your mouth, you are failing your heart, brain, and all other organs by denying optimal oxygenation. As a result, even though you may have no cardiac disease symptoms, you may develop arrhythmias and other heart ailments.

3. Mouth Breathing is an Open Invitation to Snoring or Sleep Apnea

Our nasal passages have afferent stimuli—the nerves that regulate breathing. When inhaled air passes through the nose, the nasal mucosa carries the stimuli to reflex nerves that control breathing. When you breathe through the mouth, you bypass nasal mucosa, which predisposes you to loud snoring and irregular breathing. Snoring is a precursor to sleep apnea, and apnea is a precursor to low cellular oxygen, almost any illness, including heart attacks and death in one's sleep. 

Not only is snoring a major health issue, but it is also socially unacceptable. Other people may complain about the noise as it is irritating and they were unable to sleep well in the same room and in some cases the same building!

4. Mouth Breathing Causes Constriction of Blood Vessels

You may think that by opening your mouth to breathe, you are taking in more air, but in reality, you are just slowing down the breathing. When you’re inhaling through your mouth, the brain thinks carbon dioxide is being lost too quickly, and sensing this, it stimulates the goblet cells to produce mucus, slow breathing, and cause constriction of blood vessels.

The nostrils and sinuses filter and warm the air going into the lungs. An average mouth breather bypasses this. The sinuses produce nitric oxide (NO), which has anti-microbial particles and helps improve oxygen absorption in the lungs. NO is a vasodilator, meaning it helps widen blood vessels. This improves circulation, including in sexual arousal and erectile function.

5. Mouth Breathing Restricts You from Enjoying Life

Think of all the beautiful smells we enjoy with our noses. Smell influences our emotions, our memories, and many autonomic nervous system functions, often without us even realizing it. 

This is because the olfactory receptors in the nose send signals directly to the brain’s limbic system, which includes hypothalamus—responsible for regulating mood, hunger, and other vital functions. 

Each nostril functions independently and synergistically in filtering, warming, moisturizing, dehumidifying, and smelling the air. Maintaining a keen sense of smell is very important for enjoying life and for safety and social acceptance.

6. Mouth Breathing Can Affect Your Appearance!

Mouth breathing can impact facial structure and can produce an anterior open bite and a longer face. Mouth breathing is associated with poor sleep quality, and this may contribute to puffiness or dark circles under the eyes due to oxygen deprivation and fluid retention.

Mouth breathing also accelerates water loss, which can contribute to dehydration, dry mouth, and an increased risk of oral health issues like cavities and bad breath. 

What Can You Do to Break Your Mouth-Breathing Habit?

The first step is to be conscious of how you breathe while awake. Training yourself to nose-breathe while awake guides the way you breathe while sleeping. 

What you do during waking hours carries over into sleep. Any opportunity for mouth breathing—inhaling or exhaling will increase the chances of mouth breathing during waking and sleep. Studies have established that nocturnal mouth breathing is a primary cause of loud snoring. 

You can also think of using Chin-Up Strips that are safe, inexpensive, and easy to use. The best part is you can use them during the exercises shown in the Optimal Breathing Mastery Kit, as well as during sleep. 

"I am convinced improved breathing through the nasal mucosa 24/7 is a key to a long and healthy life. A life filled with energy and a great disposition which will help maintain and strengthen the relationships one needs for emotional and physical wellness."

Dale D. Miller, JD & CEO www.chinupstrip.com  

"People with chronic sinus conditions should use a sinus rinse daily as it promotes drainage of the sinuses and speeds healing of inflamed tissues...

Dr. Andrew Weil M.D. 

If you have sinus blockage and face difficulty in nose-breathing due to it, try remedies like sinus rinse before considering surgery. You can also consider other products for various ailments. 

Before You Opt for Nose Surgery, Read This

Nasal breathing is essential for optimal oxygen exchange and overall health. When you inhale through your nose, the air is filtered, humidified, and warmed before reaching the lungs, improving oxygen absorption. 

Chronic mouth breathing can lead to dental problems, poor sleep quality, and even facial structure changes. 

Many nasal blockages can be improved with natural methods, such as Optimal Breathing Exercises and Techniques, allergy management, and nasal breathing. However, in cases of severe anatomical obstruction, surgery may be necessary. Before considering surgery, it’s wise to explore non-invasive methods—but completely dismissing surgical intervention is not always justified. 

The Takeaway

Just take this quick test: close your mouth and breathe only through your nose for 30 seconds. How does it feel? If you find it difficult, you may need to unlearn and relearn to breathe right! Nasal breathing filters, humidifies, warms the air and improves oxygenation. On the other hand, mouth breathing dries out the airways, increases snoring, disrupts sleep and may even change facial structure over time. When you exercise and sleep, just try breathing through your nose. You’ll definitely notice a difference in your energy and focus. So stop breathing through your mouth today, train your nasal breathing, and experience better sleep, focus and overall health!