Sara4321 wrote:
This has nothing to do with the fact that the reflex to breathe through your mouth during sleep when the nose is blocked does not happen during sleep.

The body will continue to try and breathe through the blocked nose instead, resulting in hypoxia and then death.

Quite possibly one of the singularly most stupid claims I have ever read. My ex used to snore nasally like a tractor. I'm not sure I could come close to the number of times I pinched her nose to force her to mouth breathe instead (the most efficient way of shutting her the fuck up without risking being elbowed in the face for trying to roll her over or wake her up).

Also, do you understand how reflexes work? They are involuntary actions the body does according to specific stimulus. That knee tappy thing doctors do isn't to see if you can feel the tapping, it's to elicit a reflex response from your nervous system. Mouth breathing to increase oxygen intake, both awake and asleep is a reflex action. Of course, reflex responses can be compromised by ingesting system depressants such as alcohol and sleeping tablets together.

So in your nasal passage occluded by tampons scenario...the reflex response from the body in not receiving sufficient oxygen, would be to mouth breathe. However, if that response was compromised in some way.....getting there yet?

When I'm feeling blocked, I always breathe through my eyelids.

https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/233fe0d1-c ... 3c46ec838f

This discussion reminds me of an old joke.

If you're standing on the Southern border of Norfolk and take a few steps across it, you're in danger of Suffolkation.

I'll get my coat.

Matt_B wrote:This discussion reminds me of an old joke.

If you're standing on the Southern border of Norfolk and take a few steps across it, you're in danger of Suffolkation.

I'll get my coat.

I think you mean you'll get your coates.

Cito di Pense wrote:When I'm feeling blocked, I always breathe through my eyelids.

https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/233fe0d1-c ... 3c46ec838f

If you can't breath, just pop the eardrums with a pencil and presto! New airway!

*Disclaimer

Having only just looked through this thread, allow me to risk muddying the waters a bit, but hopefully also reassure Sara.

Aged almost 60, I've had lots of bad colds in my life, and been very blocked up with some of them. Never died in my sleep so far.

However, I vividly recall a very frightening experience aged 16. I'd got into a fight, got my nose busted, and I was in hospital after an operation to get it fixed.

They'd packed both nostrils hard - obviously to stop everything moving about while it all started to heal. So I was breathing exclusively through my mouth.

Firstly I'd say that the extent to which my nose was blocked far exceeded anything I've experienced with the very worst of bunged up colds.

After I'd been mouth breathing for a few hours, it started feeling as if the back of my throat was starting to swell, and it was getting harder to breathe. I tried sipping water, but that didn't work. I have no idea what the actual problem was, but it became so hard to breathe through what seemed to be a smaller and smaller passage that I got really frightened and called the nurses.

They didn't believe me initially, but I absolutely insisted they remove the packing from my nose, at least for a while. If they'd refused I'd have pulled it out myself.

With the packing gone, airflow was restored, I breathed through my nose, and gradually (I tested it from time to time) the throat swelling, or whatever it was, subsided too. Next day they put in some much gentler packing that still let me breathe through my nose.

Conclusion? Had I been soundly and artificially asleep as a result of a mixture of sleeping tablets and alcohol, yes, I reckon possibly I might have suffocated, although I cannot know for sure that the airflow available via mouth breathing would have dropped so low as to kill me.

So do I think it's plausible that a combination of sleep apnea, blocked nostrils, sleeping tablets and alcohol could result in death? Definitely.

Do I think it's likely that you're going to die in your sleep from a bad cold? Definitely not. Millions of people have bad colds, get very blocked up just like you, Sara, but they don't die. If they did, don't you think it would be a well-known risk?

This is simply not true. If you have a blocked nose, try sleeping with your mouth taped shut. The body will quickly adapt, and you will figure out how to breathe through your nose.

quas wrote:...try sleeping with your mouth taped shut.

Jesus wept.

Quas, you are not medically qualified and should not be using a sceptics forums to promote potentially unsafe practises that are totally unevidenced and have not been the subject of serious study or regulation because you saw them on Youtube.

At best taping your face can damage the skin of your lips, and your facial hair. At worst for groups with certain types of breathing problems it may cause respiratory distress. As you would know if you strayed as far from social media as google.

Thommo wrote:

quas wrote:...try sleeping with your mouth taped shut.

Jesus wept.

Thommo wrote:Quas, you are not medically qualified and should not be using a sceptics forums to promote potentially unsafe practises that are totally unevidenced and have not been the subject of serious study or regulation because you saw them on Youtube.

At best taping your face can damage the skin of your lips, and your facial hair. At worst for groups with certain types of breathing problems it may cause respiratory distress. As you would know if you strayed as far from social media as google.

Well, on the plus side: at least promoting clueless cack on a skeptic's forum isn't likely to result in any harm coming to anyone. But yeah, quas definitely doesn't seem to grasp the idea that something being on YT confers precisely fuck-all in terms of identifying its truth value.

Thommo wrote:Quas, you are not medically qualified and should not be using a sceptics forums to promote potentially unsafe practises that are totally unevidenced and have not been the subject of serious study or regulation because you saw them on Youtube.

For what it's worth, Ali Abdaal (the Youtuber) is a doctor. Most people recommend that you cut a hole in the middle of the tape, just in case. I frequently have a blocked nose due to my severe allergies. I'm too lazy to cut a hole on my tape, and 10+ days of this experiment later, I'm still alive.

At best taping your face can damage the skin of your lips, and your facial hair.

If you use industrial grade duct tape, you could probably peel off your face! The Youtube thumbnail shows Ali with a duct tape over his mouth for dramatic effect, but in the video he actually uses some sort of medical / surgical tape which peels off easily.

Anyway, OP's post and thread title are misleading since Mark Gleeson didn't die because he slept with a blocked nose, but he slept with his nose plugged with tampons. Plus, there's a myriad of other contributing factors such as sleep apnea, alcoholism, sleeping pills, etc. For normal people without sleep apnea, it's safe to sleep with a blocked nose, even if you have your mouth taped shut.

quas wrote:

Thommo wrote:Quas, you are not medically qualified and should not be using a sceptics forums to promote potentially unsafe practises that are totally unevidenced and have not been the subject of serious study or regulation because you saw them on Youtube.

For what it's worth, Ali Abdaal (the Youtuber) is a doctor.

How much exactly is a sentence worth?

If I write: he's not a doctor.

Is that sentence worth as much as yours?

Presumably, the worth of your sentence would be predicated upon something like a certificate to practice, and a contemporary and relevant position in a medical institute?

quas wrote: Most people recommend that you cut a hole in the middle of the tape, just in case.

Most people being... doctors?

quas wrote:I frequently have a blocked nose due to my severe allergies. I'm too lazy to cut a hole on my tape, and 10+ days of this experiment later, I'm still alive.

Despite going out of your way to make it harder, your body still managed to not die. Congrats!!

Meanwhile, it's best not to block your airways under any circumstances. I think that's a statement all medical practitioners should readily agree with. ABC.

Though I'm certainly no expert, it's my understanding that introducing obstacles towards the body's capacity to inhale and exhale isn't really the safest thing to do.

quas wrote:

Tosh. Is that a British word for crap? The thumbnail shows him with a roll of cello tape, but that's not what he actually uses to tape his mouth shut. Deceiving and irresponsible.

The_Piper wrote:
Tosh. Is that a British word for crap?

The only word that captures the same kind of feeling is 'balderdash'!

Hey friends, I'm Ali, a YouTuber, podcaster, soon-to-be author and ex-Doctor working in London, UK.

From what I can piece together, he would've completed his medical degree in 2018 - from his brand website!

Jun 26, 2017
Exams are a game

I’m writing this with 2 days to go until my final exam in my penultimate year of studying Medicine.

And in recent FB post:

12 November
Here’s what 5 years of building a ‘personal brand’ has taught me:

While there's no doubt some overlap, 2018 + 5 = 2023. When exactly was he a junior doctor? My experience with junior doctors is that they don't have time to sleep, eat, let alone 'build a brand'.

Back to Thommo's comment, which is what we're here on this website for at the end of the day; not uncritically swallowing supposed facts from questionable sources merely on authority alone.

Most people recommend that you cut a hole in the middle of the tape, just in case.

Just in case of.... suffocating in your sleep?

Kinda feel like doctors aren't going to be recommending such a course of action.

And my did I laugh when you said to cut a hole in the tape... you know how you could achieve the same effect? By not taping your mouth!


https://health.clevelandclinic.org/mouth-taping/

Mouth Taping: Is It Safe?
Mouth taping isn’t a recommended treatment for sleep apnea or snoring

Keeping your mouth shut isn’t easy, but a viral TikTok trend is out to change your mind about that. Known as mouth taping, the idea is to literally tape your mouth closed while you sleep to improve snoring, allergies and bad breath brought on by sleeping with your mouth open. But does it work — and is it safe?

Sleep medicine specialist Cinthya Pena Orbea, MD, talks about why you should be skeptical of mouth taping and when clinicians tend to put it to good use.

...

“Most of the evidence is anecdotal. There is not strong enough evidence to support that mouth tape is beneficial,” says Dr. Pena Orbea. “Mouth taping is not part of our current practice to treat any sleep disorder. Nonetheless, in patients with sleep apnea, we may recommend mouth taping or to wear a chin strap to decrease an air leak while you’re using a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine at night.”

...

Mouth taping isn’t recommended because there’s not enough scientific evidence to support the anecdotal benefits behind this viral trend. If you’re concerned about improving your snoring, bad breath, sleep apnea or any other breathing or sleep-related conditions, you should talk to a healthcare provider to figure out safer alternative treatments.

Remember the theme, kiddies! Don't get your medical advice from TikTok.

quas wrote:I'm too lazy to cut a hole on my tape, and 10+ days of this experiment later, I'm still alive.

Perhaps use a buttplug too then, to make it a little bit more like the scientific type of experiment. If you can talk out of your arse, you can probably breathe through it.