History of Mouth Taping

Mouth Taping

History of Mouth Taping

Mouth Taping

There is not much known about the history of taping the mouth whilst sleeping, so we asked Vladimir Buteyko, Grigory Buteyko and Sergey Altukhov, family and colleague/friend of Dr. K. P. Buteyko.

Qus. to Vladimir Buteyko: “Do you know when (what year) Buteyko Practitioners started recommending using tape to keep mouth closed during the night while sleeping?”
Vladimir Buteyko answered: “In the 60’s of the 20th Century.”

Qus. to Sergey Altukhov (Buteyko Biographer): “Do you know what year Buteyko Instructors started recommending taping the mouth shut at night time while sleeping?“
Sergey Altukhov answered: “Buteyko demanded to close a mouth at night a year on from the date of his discovery in 1957! To stick a mouth for the night requirement not for all people. Only for those who it is simple not to keep it in forces closed. Dr. K.P.Buteyko’s COUNCIL started to recommend mouth at night taping in approximately 1958.”

Qus. to Grigory Buteyko: “I wonder if you can help? I’m trying to get to the bottom of the history of taping the mouth shut while sleeping.“
Grigory Buteyko answered: “I’m too young to answer this, I have first child’s memories of playing in the room where patients were trained at around 1983, when the method was already well developed and all tricks to help patients reduce depth of breathing were invented. Taping mouth and never sleeping belly up were most useful. I remember one misconception about mouth taping – many medics who heard about this teaching were appalled because they imagined “criminal movie style taping” with wide band left to right, which might be dangerous or even lethal if patient for example vomits during sleep. While KP always stressed that the tape must be only 0.5cm wide, leaving both sides of mouth open and tape itself easily removable in emergency.
The Soviet farmacies had 2 types of medical glue tape, one was wide and one was narrow, it is that narrow type which K.P. recommended, may be it was a bit wider than 5mm, but left a lot of space to the right and left of the tape, so you can easily put finger in the taped mouth both right and left)
My grandmother was very skeptical about method because she did not believe in unofficial medicine (and believed too much in official one, sadly). “I tried your father advice reducing breathing, what’s the purpose? As soon as I lose attention to it, I begin breathing like a steam locomotive again. This is not serious medicine, see I swallow a pill and I’m feeling ok”. But mouth taping was the single father’s trick she liked and used it every night for years until her death.

Be aware about only Mouth Taping

Mouth taping has took on a world of it’s own through YouTube videos and other sites. Unfortunately, it is diluted to only mouth taping due to peoples enthusiasm to help others too quickly and in doing so, YouTube viewers will not know about mouth taping only being just one breath reducing factor among many to support us while trying to normalise our breathing in the direction of reduction.
Mouth taping should always be taught/recommended in the context of normalising our breathing in the direction of reduction. Just as your doctor would help you normalise your vital signs ie. blood pressure, pulse, temperature etc.
If we do not teach/recommend mouth taping in the context of normalising our breathing in the direction of reduction, a lot of people may only try it for a short period of time and find it too uncomfortable or not get any benefit from it and just stop using it.
Mouth taping is only one breath reducing factor that helps us normalise our breathing in the direction of reduction, there are many we can apply and we can also lessen the use of breath increasing factors to help normalise our breathing in the direction of reduction.