Nasal breathing exercises: what's been studied and what hasn't

Nearly all the research on nasal breathing exercises comes from asthma. The Buteyko method has the most trials, and they suggest it can ease asthma symptoms without changing lung function. For the question most people here care about, whether these exercises help you breathe through your nose at night or snore less, we couldn't find trials that tested it.

What counts as a nasal breathing exercise?

A nasal breathing exercise can mean several things, because there isn't one standard program. A 2020 Cochrane review of breathing exercises lists several approaches, including the Papworth method, the Buteyko technique, yogic breathing and deep diaphragmatic breathing. The review describes the training as usually focusing on relaxation, changing your breathing pattern, nasal breathing, holding the breath, and breathing with the lower ribs and belly.

So "nasal breathing exercises" covers a range of things. Some focus on breathing less, some on breathing slower, and some mainly on keeping your mouth closed.

What is the Buteyko method?

Buteyko is the best known of these approaches. It works on changing your breathing pattern and encourages breathing through the nose. A 2005 review describes it as a "package" that also includes advice about medication use, nutrition, exercise and relaxation, which makes it hard to say which part does what.

The theory behind it links carbon dioxide levels in the body to how open the airways are. The same review says the idea has some basis in experimental studies, but it isn't known whether changing your breathing pattern can raise carbon dioxide significantly. There wasn't enough evidence to confirm that this is how Buteyko works, if it works.

Buteyko also encourages nose breathing at night by taping the mouth.

What have the Buteyko trials found?

The most cited trial was published in Thorax in 2003. Ninety adults with asthma, all using an inhaled steroid, were randomly assigned to Buteyko breathing, a device mimicking a yoga breathing technique, or a placebo device. They practised twice a day at home for six months.

The Buteyko group's symptom scores improved more than the others. The median change at six months was minus 3 in the Buteyko group, compared with 0 in the placebo group. Their reliever inhaler use fell by two puffs a day. But there was no difference between groups in lung function, airway sensitivity, flare-ups or the ability to cut back on inhaled steroids.

A 2026 meta-analysis pooled seven randomised trials comparing Buteyko plus standard care with standard care alone. Buteyko improved asthma control, in both adults and children. Quality of life didn't improve overall, though it did in children and teenagers. No adverse events were reported. The authors concluded that the evidence remains limited and larger trials are needed.

What did the largest breathing retraining trial find?

The biggest single trial in this area was published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine in 2018. It recruited 655 adults with asthma from 34 GP practices in the UK, all of whom felt their asthma was still affecting their quality of life. They were assigned to one of three groups for 12 months: a self-guided DVD and booklet, three face-to-face sessions with a physiotherapist, or usual care.

The program taught diaphragmatic breathing, nasal breathing, slow breathing, controlled breath holds and simple relaxation. It also came with a daily planner and progress charts to help people fit the techniques into ordinary life.

After a year, both breathing groups scored higher on an asthma quality-of-life questionnaire than the usual care group, and the DVD group did as well as the group that saw a physiotherapist in person. There were no differences between groups in lung function or in exhaled nitric oxide, a marker of airway inflammation. The authors concluded that breathing retraining improves quality of life despite having little effect on lung function, and that it can be delivered as a self-guided program at home.

One detail is useful if you're wondering how much effort this takes. People reported very different amounts of practice, and the researchers saw no clear link between how much someone practised and how much they benefited. The study wasn't designed to work out a minimum dose, so that question is still open.

What about other breathing exercises?

The 2020 Cochrane review included 22 trials with 2,880 adults with asthma. Most of them (14) used yoga. It concluded that breathing exercises may have some positive effects on quality of life, hyperventilation symptoms and lung function. The certainty of the evidence ranged from moderate to very low, partly because many studies were poorly reported.

Humming comes up often online. In a 2002 study of 10 healthy people, nasal nitric oxide was 15 times higher during humming than during quiet exhaling. That's a measurement of exhaled gas, not a health outcome, and the authors said any therapeutic effect should be investigated.

Does mouth taping help, as Buteyko suggests?

One trial tested this directly. In 2009, researchers asked 51 adults with symptomatic asthma to tape their mouths at night with microporous tape, the way Buteyko teaches, for four weeks, and compared that with four weeks of usual breathing.

Participants taped on a median of 26 out of 28 nights, and 36 of them found it very or fairly acceptable. But there was no difference in morning peak flow or symptom scores. The authors concluded that taping the mouth at night had no effect on asthma control.

That doesn't settle whether tape helps with other things, like a dry mouth. It does show that nightly nose breathing alone didn't improve asthma in that group. For what mouth taping can and can't do, see what is mouth taping.

Can mouth and throat exercises help with snoring?

Mouth and throat exercises may help with snoring, and they're a different kind of exercise from Buteyko. Oropharyngeal exercises work the muscles of the tongue, soft palate and throat rather than the breathing pattern, and there is a randomised trial that tested them on snoring.

In 2015, researchers in São Paulo published a trial in Chest with 39 adults whose main complaint was snoring. Some had no other sleep problem and some had mild to moderate sleep apnea. For three months, one group did daily mouth and throat exercises. The comparison group used nasal dilator strips and did deep breathing exercises. Snoring was measured objectively with sound recordings during a full overnight sleep study.

The comparison group showed no significant change. In the exercise group, the snore index, a count of loud snores per hour, fell by about half, and the total power of snoring dropped too. The authors called the exercises a possible treatment for the many people who snore. It's one small trial, though, and the people in it had been checked in a sleep lab first. If you snore loudly, getting checked for sleep apnea comes before any home routine. Our guide on how to stop snoring covers the other options.

What hasn't been studied?

The Buteyko and breathing retraining trials above were in people with asthma and measured asthma outcomes. In the research we reviewed, we didn't find trials of Buteyko or similar breathing exercises for snoring, for sleep quality in healthy adults, or for training someone to breathe through their nose while asleep.

That gap matters. An exercise you do while awake and paying attention may not carry over to how you breathe at 3 a.m., and we didn't find a study that checked.

Is it worth trying one?

A nasal breathing exercise is worth trying if you're curious, and a few minutes of calm nasal breathing during the day is a reasonable place to start. Just keep your expectations in line with the evidence. Our guide to slow breathing for sleep covers a related approach.

A simple way to start, borrowing from the parts the BREATHE program taught, is to sit comfortably with your mouth closed and breathe in and out through your nose, a little slower than usual, letting your belly rather than your chest do most of the moving. Keep it relaxed. If breath holds or slowing down make you feel dizzy, anxious or short of air, stop and go back to breathing normally. None of this is a medical treatment, and it isn't meant to be.

How do you carry nasal breathing into the night?

To carry nasal breathing into the night, you need more than daytime practice, because daytime practice and night-time breathing are two different problems. You can't remind yourself to keep your lips closed when you're asleep, which is where simple tools come in.

If your nose is clear and your mouth still falls open at night, mouth tape is a simple, direct tool. A strip of gentle tape across the lips gives you a physical cue to keep your mouth closed while you sleep. Our first-week guide walks you through starting slowly, and the best type of mouth tape covers what to look for. Tape isn't for everyone. It isn't suitable for children, for anyone with a blocked nose, or for anyone who may have sleep apnea.

If the front of your nose feels narrow, a nasal strip can make nose breathing feel easier while you sleep. How nasal strips work explains what they do, and mouth tape vs. nasal strips helps you decide which suits you, or whether to use both. Before you try either, take the two-minute nose test to check you can breathe comfortably through your nose with your mouth closed.

If you have asthma, keep using your prescribed medicine. In the 2003 trial, Buteyko didn't help people reduce their inhaled steroids. Talk to your doctor before changing your treatment.

If you can't breathe comfortably through your nose at all, exercises won't fix a blockage. Try our two-minute nose test, and see a doctor if your nose is blocked most of the time. If you snore loudly, gasp or stop breathing in your sleep, see a doctor rather than trying exercises or tape.

If you want to try mouth tape and nasal strips together, our pick is the Titan Sleep System, which pairs TitanAir Nasal Strips with Titan Mouth Tape.

* This content is for informational and educational purposes only and is not medical advice. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease or health condition. Talk to a qualified healthcare provider about your health.