I taped my mouth shut to save my marriage – my heavy breathing was so bad my husband called me Darth Vader
A MUM has told how she literally taped her mouth shut to save her marriage. Jane Tarrant said her breathing was so heavy at times her husband nicknamed her Darth Vader – but a small sticky strip has since turned her life around. The 33-year-old said she used to struggle to breathe through her nose, […]
A MUM has told how she literally taped her mouth shut to save her marriage.
Jane Tarrant said her breathing was so heavy at times her husband nicknamed her Darth Vader – but a small sticky strip has since turned her life around.
The 33-year-old said she used to struggle to breathe through her nose, and often found herself feeling puffed out just walking her daughter to nursery.
She would also snore like a trooper and make strange clicking sounds at night – which drove her partner, 39, crazy – and felt utterly exhausted most of the time.
For years Jane struggled with her many ‘minor’ health inconveniences, which she first noticed aged seven, before realising she was what she describes as a “chronic mouth breather”.
After some research, Jane learned about how it’s possible to improve your wellbeing by retraining yourself to breathe only through your nose – and the rest is history.
She said: “I taped my mouth closed and have never looked back.
“When I first heard about it, I thought, ‘Oh gosh, no, no, no, no, no, that’s not for me’. But I was so committed to changing my life, I did it.”
Not only did it improve her physical fitness, meaning she could keep up with her husband on the nursery run, it worked wonders for her relationship with him and their two-year-old daughter.
“I used to snore and do this clicking thing so my husband, cutely, nicknamed me The Predator and Darth Vader,” Jane said.
Most read in The Sun
“Now I’ve changed how I breathe, I’m completely quiet, which helps day and night with him.
“I can also communicate my needs a lot better and therefore we’re able to have a better relationship because I can say what I’m actually feeling, especially during certain points in my menstrual cycle when my breathing quickens.
“Before I did breathing retraining, I couldn’t fully connect with my body but now it’s like we have an insight, like an entry point, into it that I’ve never experienced before.”
She added: “If you go to bed and you’ve got quite an overactive mind, sometimes you turn out the light and then suddenly you don’t feel so tired.
“Then you start jabbering at your partner, chatting away with all the thoughts on your brain.
“In the past, my husband would have to tell me it was time to sleep, but now we just kiss goodnight, I put my tape on, and that’s the end of the conversation.”
Jane’s small strip of yellow tape has become an everyday accessory – and she isn’t afraid to go anywhere wearing it.
She has been out on her bike, to the shops, and even to collect her little girl from nursery with it on.
‘PEOPLE THINK IT’S STRANGE’
“People thought it was a bit strange, but it worked,” she said.
“I get the feeling of being swaddled, like a real calming feeling.”
As well as improving her relationships and mental health, retraining her breathing has allowed Jane more freedom with her physical health too.
She said: “I knew my problems were more than just being a bit unfit.
“Now I can do the same 20-minute walk to nursery as fast as my husband and don’t feel as anxious, whereas before I could never keep up.
“It has just completely flipped, how such a simple thing in the day went from being such a challenging event to a sort of enjoyable one.
“I also used to sleep the whole of Sunday like I was in the this constant burnout thing, but now my brain can recover.
“I have finally found the missing piece of the puzzle.
“I’ve been mouth taping most nights for a year and a half, alongside retrained daytime nose breathing, and it has been the greatest combat I’ve found for the impact of sleep deprivation, feeling more refreshed, less anxious and less brain foggy.”
I have finally found the missing piece of the puzzle.
Jane Tarrant
Wanting to share her experience with others, Jane left her marketing job to set up LiNK BREATHING, which helps others have more awareness of their body and what it needs.
Jane, from Bicester, Oxfordshire, said: “I would say that understanding I have control over things within my own body has been the most empowering thing I’ve ever done.
“I love it, and it’s made me feel empowered in so many other areas of my life.
“I now work with a range of people with breath work, breathing techniques and full retraining.
“My mission is to lead global education on healthy breathing and breathing retraining in a simple, accessible way.”
Tips for anxious upper chest breathers
- Bring awareness to your breath at points throughout the day. See if you can consciously make it slower, quieter, lower and through the nose.
- Press your fingers into the squidgy bit between your front ribs, just below where a bra strap would sit. See if your diaphragm can push your fingers away from you with your inhale.
- If you can’t breathe in past three seconds, you likely have restricted breathing and would benefit from retraining your diaphragm.
Sun readers can get 50% off Jane’s one-hour online course for Anxious Upper Chest Breathers with code ‘SUN50’.