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I don’t remember when I first heard that nose breathing is better than mouth breathing. I only know that it was a long time ago, and that the explanation had something to do with how the nose pre-filters and pre-heats the air before it reaches your lungs, which doesn’t happen when you breathe through your mouth.

That makes sense, as well as the fact that nose breathing is better for your teeth than oral breathing.

Recent research on the differences between nasal and oral breathing has added yet another interesting layer: they activate your brain differently.

And that’s what today’s newsletter is about.

When you inhale through your nose, the airflow reaches the olfactory epithelium, a collection of nerve cells in the mucus layer of your nose. These cells are stimulated by odors as well as by mechanical stimulation from the air itself. The signal then activates the olfactory bulb, a structure that transmits the signals to the brain via the olfactory tract.

When you breathe through your mouth, you bypass this system. Your lungs still receive air, and your brainstem (the lower part of the brain, right above your spinal cord) still controls your breathing, but your brain loses one source of input.

You probably remember moments in your life when your nose was blocked (by a cold, for example), and you couldn’t smell anything and food tasted bland. That’s because mouth breathing bypasses your olfactory system.

In a study using electroencephalography (a method that measures the electrical activity of the brain), researchers found that nasal compared with oral breathing led to higher power and improved connectivity between regions of the brain’s default mode network, which activates during thinking, mind-wandering, or daydreaming.

Interestingly, when they tested oral breathing and simultaneously delivered air puffs to the nose with a special device, brain activity was more similar to that observed during nose breathing. This suggests that nasal airflow itself contributed to the effect.

In another study, participants performed a working memory task during both oral and nasal breathing, while their brains were scanned to observe neural activity patterns. Brain activity during nose breathing was more widespread, and connectivity between different memory-related brain regions was also higher than for oral breathing.

However, speed and accuracy in the memory task didn’t significantly differ between nose and oral breathing, so the breathing technique had no effect on test performance, only on brain activity.

Yet another study from 2026 focused on the effects of breathing on brain states. The brain changes its state all the time, even if it doesn’t have a task. These states differ in how strong (or weak) the connections between different brain areas are at a given point in time, how active connections are within each brain region, and how quickly the brain transitions from one state to another.

The authors found that, under nasal breathing, participants spent more time than under oral breathing in a state characterized by strong connectivity both within and between brain regions. In other words, there was more coordinated activity across the entire brain. There were also fewer transitions between different brain states during nasal than during oral breathing, suggesting more stable brain activity.

The benefits of nasal breathing go beyond dental protection and filtering the air before it reaches your lungs: it also improves certain aspects of brain activity.

However, these improvements don’t automatically mean better performance on a task.

The effects reported here are from short-term interventions, and less is known about long-term effects of habitual mouth versus nose breathing. Observational work in children is inconclusive to date: One study found that habitual mouth breathing was associated with lower academic achievement, but another study didn't. Also, the cause-and-effect relationship isn’t clear in this case: Lower academic performance among mouth breathers doesn’t automatically mean that mouth breathing is the cause. Other issues could play a role here, for example allergies or disrupted sleep caused by nasal obstruction.

So while there are clear benefits to nasal breathing, many open questions remain.

Most people are naturally nose breathers, and there are good reasons to keep doing it.

If you occasionally breathe through your mouth because of a cold or during intense exercise, that isn’t a reason to worry. But persistent mouth breathing can be different, especially if it occurs during sleep and affects your recovery or if you suffer from chronic congestion.

In that case, it makes sense to discuss it with your doctor and check for allergies, structural obstruction, sleep apnea, etc.⁠⁠

What else I’ve been up to:

My new Medium article was fun to write! It addresses 5 myths from psychology & neuroscience that are either unsupported by scientific evidence or had some initial support, but were later debunked. I bet you believed in at least one of them! (I believed #4 and #5 until not that long ago, and veeery long ago I also believed #2…😬)

Not a Medium member? Read it for free here.

Hack Your Way to Restful Sleep.

Good sleep is the foundation of everything else. The free Sleep Science Newsletter by Contour Living provides tips on how to improve your sleep ergonomics, enhance recovery, and work with your body’s anatomy. Subscribe to their newsletter here.

And if you want to check out their products currently on sale, you can head to this link (affiliate).

That’s it for today!

And now?

Until next time!

Best wishes,

Patricia (Dr. Patricia Schmidt) from creatorschmidt.com

P.S.:

Disclaimer:
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