#1792 “I Sleep with Tape”

In our last +1, we talked about why and how “I Sleep in the Citadel!” 🎯

As you may recall, that’s a target inspired by Marcus Aurelius and his Stoic spiritual practices as articulated by Pierre Hadot in his GREAT book, The Inner Citadel.

Short story: I don’t let the little thieves of a good night of sleep creep into my mind in the middle of the night.

My sentinel is always on duty and protecting my Inner Citadel such that IF the little voices in my head start barking, THEN I execute my protocol by taking a series of rhythmic breaths (in through my nose for 6 seconds, hold for 1, back out through my nose for 7 seconds!) then focusing my mind on a series of quote-prayer-mantras until I fall back asleep.

Target swipe “I Sleep in the Citadel!” 🎯

I HIGHLY (!!!) recommend the Target and the Practice. This is one of the main reasons I can consistently dominate 90+ Oura sleep scores.

(See Sleep 101 for another 10 Big Ideas on how to take YOUR sleep to the next level.)

(And… Know that, for people getting less than the recommended 7+ hours of sleep per night, adding an extra hour of sleep is almost certainly one of THE fastest and most powerful ways to change your life.)

Now…

Today I want to chat about the Target I commit to right before I commit to sleeping in the citadel.

Here it is…

“I Sleep with Tape” 🎯

I mentioned the fact that you can learn more about this in our Notes on The Oxygen Advantage and Breathing 101 but I want to spend a moment on it now.

There are VERY few things that have boosted my sense of well-being and calm confidence and energized tranquility more than training myself to BREATHE PROPERLY.

In fact…

There might be a few things TIED for first, but NOTHING has been more life-changing for me than learning how to breathe properly and then RELENTLESSLY training myself to do so all day, every.

Period.

Now…

I used to breathe through my mouth. Most of us do.

I changed that when I read Patrick McKeown’s GREAT book The Oxygen Advantage and connected with him for some coaching sessions nearly a decade ago.

I have practiced his “breathe less to breathe right” technique EVERY MORNING since the day I first read his book and worked with him—which, again, is going on a decade now.

NOTHING, I repeat (!), has given me more calm confidence and energized tranquility than training my breath.

Note: I’ve hit my “I Practice Breath Training” Target 761 times—which is precisely how many days I’ve used the Heroic app. 🎯

Now…

Patrick tells us that we MUST train ourselves to breathe EXCLUSIVELY through our nose.

We’re supposed to do it while working out (I can still remember how impossible that was for the first x days) and all day.

AND…

All night.

One of the ways he encourages us to make sure we’re breathing through our nose at night is to wear tape over our mouths when we sleep to MAKE SURE we don’t drop the ol’ jaw open and revert to being a mouth breather.

I’ve done that EVERY SINGLE NIGHT since I read his book. It’s one of those things you couldn’t pay me to not do.

Actually…

To be more precise, I’ve STARTED every night with tape on my mouth since I read his book.

The ONLY times I didn’t end the night with tape were the few times I was sick and literally couldn’t breathe through my nose—which served as a powerful reminder of how blessed I feel to be so healthy and always deepens my resolve to do the things that KEEP me healthy.

So…

Today’s +1.

Are you a mouth breather?

If so…

Work on that.

Check out the “Breathing” category in the app where you’ll find Breathing 101 and a collection of 12 Notes along with 27 +1s on optimal breathing.

And…

If you feel so inspired and want to go to the NEXT level with this, consider getting some tape (I use simple surgical tape and prefer it to all the fancy ones out there!) and start sleeping with it.

Note: If you have some health issues that might preclude you from using tape on your mouth, be smart about it. And, don’t use it if you’re drinking or taking sleep medications, etc.

It’s Day 1.

We’re ALL IN.

Let’s go.