Hostage Tape is a branded mouth tape designed to keep your lips sealed while you sleep, encouraging you to breathe through your nose instead of your mouth. Made from elastic rayon, it sticks to the skin around your lips and is marketed as a solution for snoring, dry mouth, and poor sleep quality. The product has gained popularity alongside a broader trend of mouth taping promoted on social media and in wellness circles.
How Mouth Taping Works
The concept is simple: a strip of specially designed tape holds your mouth closed overnight, forcing air in and out through your nose. Hostage Tape uses an elastic rayon material with a medical-grade adhesive that stretches slightly with facial movement. Unlike standard medical tape, it’s shaped to cover the mouth area comfortably and is marketed as facial-hair friendly, meaning it can work over light stubble or trimmed beards without ripping hair out during removal.
The idea behind all mouth tapes, including Hostage Tape, is that many people default to mouth breathing during sleep without realizing it. Mouth breathing can dry out your throat and oral tissues, contribute to snoring, and potentially worsen mild sleep-disordered breathing. Taping the mouth shut is meant to redirect airflow through the nasal passages, where air is filtered, humidified, and warmed before reaching the lungs.
Why Nasal Breathing Matters
Your nasal passages do more than just move air. The paranasal sinuses continuously produce nitric oxide, a gas that acts as a natural vasodilator. When you breathe through your nose, this nitric oxide travels into your lungs with each inhale, helping to open blood vessels in the lung tissue and improve oxygen transfer. A study published in Acta Physiologica Scandinavica found that in six out of eight healthy subjects, blood oxygen levels were 10% higher during nasal breathing compared to mouth breathing.
This difference matters because better oxygenation during sleep can translate to more restorative rest. Mouth breathing bypasses this entire system, which is one reason people who breathe through their mouths at night often wake up feeling unrested, with a dry mouth and sore throat.
What the Research Shows
Clinical evidence on mouth taping is still limited, but the studies that exist show some promising results for a specific group of people. A 2022 study of 20 patients with mild obstructive sleep apnea who were confirmed mouth breathers found that mouth taping cut their apnea-hypopnea index (a measure of how often breathing is disrupted during sleep) by 47%, dropping from a median of 8.3 events per hour to 4.7. Snoring events also dropped by 47%, from about 304 events per hour to 121. Sixty-five percent of participants were classified as “responders,” meaning their snoring decreased by at least half.
Notably, the people who started with worse snoring and more breathing disruptions saw the biggest improvements. That pattern suggests mouth taping may help most when mouth breathing is a significant contributor to someone’s sleep problems.
However, a 2025 systematic review published in PLOS One that examined 10 different studies concluded that the existing data does not support mouth taping as a sound clinical intervention for the general population with sleep-disordered breathing. The review noted that mouth taping is not recommended for people with moderate or severe obstructive sleep apnea, where it could cause harm rather than benefit.
How to Apply and Remove It
For the best adhesion, wash and dry your face before applying the tape. Moisturizers, beard oils, and lip balms can interfere with the adhesive. If you have a beard, trimming any thick hair immediately around the lips can help the tape stay in place, though it isn’t strictly necessary. When applying, stretch the tape only about 30% of its length before placing it. Overstretching makes removal more uncomfortable.
A useful trick: press the tape against the back of your hand a couple of times before putting it on your face. This slightly reduces the stickiness, making morning removal gentler on your skin. When you take it off, peel slowly and fold the tape back over itself rather than pulling straight up. Peel in the direction of hair growth. If it feels too stuck, a warm damp cloth held against the tape for 15 to 30 seconds will loosen the adhesive. A small amount of coconut oil or baby oil works too.
Hostage Tape vs. Cheaper Alternatives
Branded mouth tapes like Hostage Tape typically cost between $13 and $39 per pack, depending on the brand. Some people use basic first-aid tape or surgical tape as a cheaper alternative. James Nestor’s popular book “Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art” even suggests first-aid tape can work. The key differences with branded products are the shape (designed to fit the mouth area), the adhesive strength (strong enough to stay put all night without irritating skin), and breathability.
Not all branded tapes perform equally, though. Some products peel off within hours, while others stick too aggressively. Mouth tape should have some breathability and sit securely without causing skin irritation. If you’re trying mouth taping for the first time, it’s worth noting that generic surgical tape is a low-cost way to test whether you tolerate the sensation before investing in a specialty product.
Who Should Avoid Mouth Taping
Mouth taping carries real risks for certain people. Cleveland Clinic physicians advise against it if you have nasal obstruction, chronic nasal congestion, chronic allergies, sinus infections, enlarged tonsils, a deviated septum, or heart issues. The logic is straightforward: if your nasal passages are partially or fully blocked, taping your mouth shut leaves you with no reliable airway.
Four out of ten studies in the 2025 systematic review explicitly discussed the risk of asphyxiation when mouth taping is combined with nasal obstruction or regurgitation. This isn’t a theoretical concern. If your nose becomes congested during the night (from allergies, a cold, or positional swelling), having your mouth sealed could lead to significant drops in oxygen levels and respiratory distress. People with moderate or severe sleep apnea should not use mouth tape as a substitute for prescribed treatments like CPAP therapy.
For people who breathe easily through their nose during the day and simply tend to open their mouths during sleep, the risk profile is much lower. Starting with a daytime test while you’re awake, wearing the tape for 20 to 30 minutes to confirm you can breathe comfortably through your nose, is a reasonable way to gauge whether overnight use makes sense for you.