Brian Johnson (Heroic) describes a nightly practice he calls “I sleep with tape,” endorsing breathing retraining and taping the mouth during sleep to promote nasal breathing. He summarizes a rhythmic breathing protocol (inhale 6s, hold 1s, exhale 7s), credits Patrick McGowan and The Oxygen Advantage for the method, reports having practiced breath training 761 times (daily use of the Heroic app), and says he has taped his mouth every night since adopting the method except when ill. He recommends surgical tape, warns against taping if you have health issues or are intoxicated/on sleep medications, and reiterates general sleep guidance (aim for ≥7 hours).
Questions this video answers
Inhale through the nose 6 seconds, hold 1 second, exhale through the nose 7 seconds.
761 days
The Oxygen Advantage by Patrick McGowan
If you have health issues that preclude it, or if you're drinking or taking sleep medications (i.e., impaired breathing/alertness).
Simple surgical tape.
Chapters
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another heroic one. In our last one we talked about why and how I sleep in a Citadel. As you may recall, that's a target inspired by Marcus Aurelius and his stoic spiritual practices as articulated by Pierre Hadou in his great book the Inner Citadel. Check out those notes. 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 six seconds, hold for one, back out through my nose for seven seconds, then focusing my mind on a series of prayer mantras until I fall back asleep. Target Swipe. I sleep in a Citadel. Now I highly recommend the target and the practice. This is one of the main reasons I can consistently dominate 90 aura 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 seven hours of sleep per night, adding an extra hour of sleep is almost certainly worth 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 Breathing101, 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 day. Period. Now, I used to breathe through my mouth. Most of us do. I changed that when I read Patrick McGowan'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 then 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 old 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 and always deepens my resolve to do the things that keep me healthy. So today's plus one Are you a mouth breather? If so, work on that. Check out the breathing category in the app where you'll find breathing 101 in a collection of 12 notes along with 27 ones 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 is day one. We are all in. Let's go.
