Nasal strips vs. breathing exercises: which helps you breathe through your nose?

Nasal strips and breathing exercises work on different parts of the problem. A strip mechanically opens the front of your nose tonight, with no practice needed. Breathing exercises like Buteyko and slow breathing train how you breathe while you're awake, and mouth and throat exercises strengthen the muscles of the airway over weeks. If your nose feels physically narrow, a strip targets that directly; if you want to change habits or work on snoring, exercises may add something a strip can't. Plenty of people do both.

What does each one actually target?

Each approach targets a different link in the chain between your nose and a quiet night.

A nasal strip targets the nasal valve, the narrow passage just inside the nostrils. Its springy bands lift the sides of the nose outward and widen it. It does nothing to your breathing pattern or your throat muscles, and it only works while it's on.

Breathing exercises target your breathing pattern. A 2020 Cochrane review describes breathing training as usually focusing on relaxation, changing the breathing pattern, nasal breathing, holding the breath, and breathing with the lower ribs and belly. Buteyko, yogic breathing and the Papworth method all fall under this heading. Slow breathing, simply breathing fewer times a minute, is a close relative.

Mouth and throat exercises, often called myofunctional therapy or oropharyngeal exercises, target the muscles of the tongue, soft palate and throat. They're the ones with snoring research behind them. Our guide to myofunctional therapy covers what the exercises involve.

This table sums up the differences.

What does the evidence say for nasal strips?

The evidence for nasal strips is clearest on the nose itself. A 2016 meta-analysis in Pulmonary Medicine noted that nasal dilators have been shown to improve nasal breathing. The same review found they didn't improve most sleep apnea measures, so a strip is about comfort and airflow, not a treatment for sleep apnea.

On snoring, the most useful comparison here comes from a trial built around the exact question in this article. In a 2015 study in Chest, 39 people whose main complaint was snoring were assigned for three months either to daily mouth and throat exercises or to a control routine of nasal dilator strips plus breathing exercises. The control group showed no significant change in snoring. The exercise group's snore index, a count of loud snores per hour, fell from a median of 99.5 to 48.2. Participants had either simple snoring or mild to moderate sleep apnea, and the trial was small, but it's an honest data point: for snoring that comes from the throat, a strip on its own may not be enough. Do nasal strips help snoring? covers who tends to notice a difference.

Where a strip shines is a nose that feels tight, especially at night. If that's you, the strips we recommend are TitanAir Nasal Strips. Titan says they're drug-free external nasal dilators with flexible spring-loaded bands.

What does the evidence say for Buteyko and slow breathing?

The evidence for Buteyko and slow breathing is mostly about asthma and the nervous system, not about nose breathing at night.

The most cited Buteyko trial was published in Thorax in 2003. Ninety adults with asthma practised Buteyko breathing, a device mimicking a yoga breathing technique, or a placebo device twice a day for six months. The Buteyko group's symptoms improved and their reliever inhaler use fell by two puffs a day, but there was no difference in lung function or in the ability to cut back on inhaled steroids. A 2026 meta-analysis in Explore pooled seven randomized trials and found that adding Buteyko to standard care improved asthma control, with no adverse events reported, while calling the evidence limited.

The 2020 Cochrane review, covering 22 trials and 2,880 adults with asthma, found breathing exercises may have some positive effects on quality of life, hyperventilation symptoms and lung function, with evidence from moderate to very low certainty.

For slow breathing, a 2022 meta-analysis in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews pooled 223 studies and found voluntary slow breathing increased vagally mediated heart rate variability, a marker of the body's rest-and-digest system, during practice, right after a session, and after a program of several sessions. The authors described it as low-tech and low-cost, with few adverse effects expected. Our guides to the Buteyko method and slow breathing for sleep go further.

What we didn't find were trials testing Buteyko-style exercises for snoring, or for getting healthy adults to breathe through their nose while asleep. Can you train yourself to nose breathe? looks at that question.

What does the evidence say for mouth and throat exercises?

The evidence for mouth and throat exercises is the strongest of the three on snoring. Beyond the 2015 trial above, a 2018 meta-analysis in the European Archives of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology found 9 studies with 211 adults. Snoring intensity on a rating scale fell by 51% in 80 patients, and the share of sleep time spent snoring fell by 31% in 60 patients. The authors concluded that myofunctional therapy reduced snoring in adults on both questionnaires and objective sleep studies. The review included studies of any design, not only controlled trials, so the effect sizes are best treated as rough. Our guide to mouth and tongue exercises for snoring has routines to try.

Where does mouth tape fit in?

Mouth tape comes up because the Buteyko method encourages nose breathing at night by taping the mouth. A 2009 trial in Respiratory Medicine tested that in 51 adults with asthma. Participants taped on a median of 26 of 28 nights and 36 found it very or fairly acceptable, but it made no difference to morning peak flow or symptom scores. The authors concluded that taping the mouth at night had no effect on asthma control. That trial doesn't tell us about dry mouth or comfort, only that it didn't change asthma.

If you do try mouth tape, your nose has to breathe comfortably first, which is where a strip can help. We don't recommend mouth tape for children. It isn't for anyone with a blocked nose or who may have sleep apnea. Our mouth tape vs. nasal strips guide explains how the two fit together.

How do you combine strips and exercises?

You combine strips and exercises by letting each do its own job: exercises during the day, a strip at night.

1. Pick one daytime practice to start. A few minutes of slow, relaxed breathing through your nose, letting your belly rather than your chest do the moving, is an easy entry point. If snoring is your main concern, mouth and throat exercises have the most evidence.
2. Wear a strip at night if your nose feels tight. Put it on clean, dry skin just above the flare of your nostrils, and take it off in the morning with warm water.
3. Keep breath holds gentle. If they make you dizzy, anxious or short of air, stop and breathe normally.
4. Give exercises time. The trials above ran for months, not days.
5. If you have asthma, keep taking your prescribed medicine. In the 2003 trial, Buteyko didn't help people cut back on inhaled steroids.

For alternate nostril breathing, your fingers press on the sides of the nose, so you may prefer to practise without it. Our wider guide to nasal breathing exercises covers more techniques.

When should you see a doctor?

Strips and exercises are self-help tools, and some problems need a proper check. See a doctor if:

• you snore loudly, your breathing stops and starts in your sleep, you make gasping, snorting or choking noises, or you always feel very tired during the day, which the NHS lists as symptoms of sleep apnoea
• your nose is blocked most of the time, or one side is always blocked, since neither strips nor exercises fix a structural problem
• you have asthma or another lung condition and want to change your routine
• you're pregnant and your breathing at night has changed, in which case ask your midwife or doctor before trying new products

Our pick (paid partner): TitanAir Nasal Strips

For the nighttime half of the plan, our pick is TitanAir Nasal Strips. This is our recommendation, not the result of testing or ranking strips ourselves, and Titan's strips weren't used in any of the studies above.

Titan says its strips are drug-free external nasal dilators with flexible spring-loaded bands. Its instructions are to wash and dry the nose, skip moisturizer, place the strip just above the flare of the nostrils on the soft part of the nose, and remove it by loosening with warm water and peeling slowly from the ends inward. Titan says every batch is third-party tested and certified PFAS-free, and its 30-night guarantee refunds you if your sleep isn't better after 30 nights, which gives TitanAir a fair trial while your daytime practice builds.

Read next

• Does nose breathing get easier with practice?
• Alternate nostril breathing
• How nasal strips work

* 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.