I seem to have healed sleep apnea by using nose dilator and mouth tape for 30 nights

I seem to have fixed my life long sleep apnea in one month using a nose dilator and mouth tape.  Sharing in hope it will help someone.  It seems most people I know have sleep apnea- there's probably some reason for this related to how we moderns live.

In short: I had sleep apnea / mouth breathing and couldn't get enough air through my nose to consistently breathe with just the nose.  I used a nasal dilator and taped my mouth shut every night for a month straight ~6 months ago, and since then my sleep apnea seems healed.

Specifically: After doing this I have breathed mostly through my nose at night, stopped snoring, don't get dry mouth or need to drink at night, and gone from needing ~8-9 hours sleep to ~6-7 and also feel more rested in the morning.  I also now can get enough air through my nose to exclusively use the nose when I want to, where before this was impossible - if I taped my mouth shut before I would not get enough air and have to rip the tape off within a few minutes.

Story:  Since I was a teenager up to age 33ish I have been a mouth breather and snorer, and had not the best sleep, usually waking several times each night to pee, getting dry mouth and needing to drink water at night.  I think for much of my life but at least in recent years, I would need 9-10 hours in bed to get ~8 hours of sleep and still feel not fully rested in the morning.  This was normal so I didn't know what could be.

I remember as a teen a doctor wanted to do surgery to fix my deviated septum and I didn't want to do it (I suppose I've always been skeptical of modern medical practice) so I wasn't made to.  

I had used a nose dilator here and there after a friend turned me on to it 10 years ago, and I would notice I was able to get more air through the nose, but hadn't combined it with mouth tape that worked until recently.  Without the mouth tape, my default breathing through the mouth continued.

I had tried other mouth tape that kind of worked but usually came off during the night and never was successful.  I'm not trying to be a 3m ad, but 3m micropore tape is what worked for me - it was cheap so I didn't mind using plenty (3-4 inches each night) to make sure the mouth was sealed, and it was easy to remove without ripping facial hair out.

So, with the woodyknows medium-size dilator and mouth tape every night for ~30 nights, I slept well and had all those benefits.  The best part was after I stopped using it the benefits continued - which suggests to me that my nose has adapted / reshaped itself slightly, to where it can get enough air in, and the body has learned a new habit of breathing through the nose at night.

Exception would be when I have bad congestion in the nose which I did have for a about a month in early spring this year.

There are many kinds of dilators out there, everyone's nose is different so if one doesn't help much, I recommend trying others.  Some are external like nasal strips, and some are inside the nose.  It would be worth a LOT of diligent experimenting to get these kind of benefits.  

I imagine it's possible my nose wasn't in the worst shape so it didn't take much to fix it.  But, since I wasn't able to get enough air through the nose to use it exclusively for even five minutes, I think it was pretty bad.

It took me 30 nights, and it's possible I didn't need to even use it that long.  But I'd recommend going as long as you need to especially if you get any benefit each night that you use it.  For some people it may take longer.  You might be able to accelerate the healing/adapting process a lot by using it during the day too if you want, just take the tape off to eat and drink.  A few times I've fasted and kept it on a long time which kept my mouth from drying out.

Relatedly - my mom also had sleep apnea her whole life and seems to have mostly fixed it using a CPAP machine, but she has to use the machine every night to keep the benefits and it was a lot more expensive and I imagine less pleasant.

I hope this helps someone.  I'd be curious to hear if it does or doesn't work for anyone else, and what exactly you tried.

Here are images of what I used.  Again there may be other brands / types that are better for different people I'm not attached to these.

That's cool!  I hope it continues longterm, and I hope it can help others too.  I'll tell my father about it since he has that, he elivates the head of the bed to assist, can't use the machine because it causes other problems for him, so I'll let him know about your success.

I had a pretty similar experience with nasal breathing, although I wouldn't personally assume the sleep apnea itself was cured without testing.

What surprised me was how much better I slept once I could consistently breathe through my nose at night. I use RhinoGear nasal strips and they made a noticeable difference for me because they stayed on all night instead of peeling off after a few hours. Even if someone still needs medical treatment, improving nasal airflow can make a bigger difference than people expect.

A year later my sleep apnea still seems to be better most of the time.  There have been a few times I've had congestion perhaps from allergy to plants or pollen or something, where I could barely breathe through my nose and did not sleep as well.  I imagine my nasal breathing capacity could still be improved even if it's a lot better than it was, and maybe it's possible with more improvement I could continue nasal breathing even with some congestion.  I recently spoke with a breathwork teacher and was recommended to keep using mouth tape and also look into the "mewing" exercises for opening up the nasal breathing capacity - which I did, and I'm very interested in that.  I've been practicing resting my tongue on the roof of the mouth rather than the bottom of the the mouth where it had normally been, and also closing my lips, although that feels less natural still.  I do often notice my tongue resting on the roof of the mouth though, which is new and exciting.  

Mark A Ferguson wrote:although I wouldn't personally assume the sleep apnea itself was cured without testing.

How would you test for it?

I sometimes record my sleep to see if I snore.  Lately the couple times I did it there were a few minutes of snoring near the beginning of sleep but most of the night seemed to be consistent quiet nasal breathing.  The main thing I go by is if I wake up after 6-7.5 hours feeling well rested and without a dry mouth and without having drunk any water.  But I'm curious what it would mean to still have sleep apnea without any of those symptoms.