Breathe Better, Digest Better, Sleep Better: Myofunctional Tools to Calm Your Whole Body
Thank you to Melanie Yukov, INHC, MS, CCC-SLP for this valuable contribution to the blog! She is a speech pathologist, community herbalist, and Integrative Nutrition Health Coach. Her practice is Root 2 Rise Wellness.
If you’ve tried every supplement, meditation, and gut protocol and still feel tense, bloated, or wired at night — your mouth might be the missing piece.
Myofunctional therapy (also known as orofacial myology) helps retrain the muscles of your mouth, jaw, and face. It ensures proper tongue posture, lip closure, nasal breathing, and healthy patterns for swallowing and speaking — all of which influence your gut, sleep, and stress response. Let’s explore how this often-overlooked approach can shift your entire body toward balance.
Why Nasal Breathing Matters
The way you breathe affects every system in your body. When you breathe through your nose, you produce nasal nitric oxide, an odorless gas that:
Acts as a vasodilator, helping regulate blood pressure
Improves oxygen delivery to cells
Reduces inflammation
Supports immune and nervous system function
In contrast, mouth breathing bypasses this healing system — and often leads to:
Poor sleep quality and snoring
Tooth decay and gum inflammation
Low oxygenation
Fight-or-flight dominance (stress overload)
Your Tongue and the Vagus Nerve
Your tongue plays a powerful role in stimulating the vagus nerve — the “wandering nerve” that connects your brain and gut. This nerve carries about 80% of information from the gut to the brain, making it a key player in digestion, hormone balance, immune health, and relaxation. But here’s the catch: if your tongue isn’t resting in the right place, that communication can break down.
Self-Check: Where Is Your Tongue Right Now?
Is the tip touching the roof of your mouth just behind your upper front teeth (the “spot”)?
Are the sides comfortably inside your teeth, or pushing against them?
Is your tongue symmetrical and lightly suctioned to your palate — or flaccid and low?
A low or forward tongue is often linked to:
Mouth breathing
Snoring and sleep apnea
Speech issues (like a lisp)
Poor swallowing and digestion
Forward head posture and jaw tension
Mouth Habits That Sabotage Sleep and Gut Health
Let’s take inventory:
Do you breathe through your mouth while reading or exercising?
Do your lips rest apart instead of together when awake?
Do you snore, drool, or wake up with a dry mouth?
Do you grind or clench your teeth?
These are all signs of oral dysfunction and often signal a body stuck in sympathetic (fight-or-flight) mode.
Even mouthguards — while helpful for tooth protection — don’t retrain function and may worsen mouth breathing by blocking space in the upper palate.
What Myofunctional Therapy Can Help With
By retraining the muscles of your mouth, face, and airway, myofunctional therapy can support:
Deep, restorative sleep
Healthy digestion and gut motility
Nervous system regulation
Speech clarity
Jaw, neck, and facial pain
Asthma, panic, or hyperventilation
Efficient chewing and swallowing
3 Myofunctional Tools You Can Try Today
First myofunctional tool you can use today: Keep your tongue tip resting on the spot (roof of the mouth just behind your top front teeth) and lightly suction the whole tongue to your palate throughout the day.
Tongue Posture Reset
Second, Nasal Breathing Practice
Pay attention to your breath. If you’ve been cleared by an ENT (no obstruction or enlarged tonsils), try mouth taping at night using a small piece of 3M tape placed vertically across the center of your lips to encourage nasal breathing.
Third, Humming or Bee Breath before meals
Take a light breath in through your nose, then exhale with a long, relaxed “hummmm” sound. This tones the vagus nerve, relaxes the body, and prepares your system for optimal digestion.
Herbal Support for Nervous System Balance
As a Community Herbalist, I love incorporating herbs to enhance myofunctional work. Try:
Nervines like lemon balm, passionflower, and linden tea for calming the nerves.
Muscle relaxants like blue vervain, wood betony, and skullcap tinctures to ease tension.
Grounding practices like standing barefoot on the earth, gentle qigong, or slow 5–6 count breathing to reset your nervous system.
And, Facial massage — especially the masseter muscles pictured below (jaw muscles) — using your index and middle fingers in small circular motions, 3x each direction
Facial Massage, especially the masseter muscles, enhances myofunctional work. Try using your index and middle fingers in small circular motions, 3 times in each direction.
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“After just 4 weeks of breathwork, gentle myofunctional tools, and emotional support my blood pressure dropped from 220/120 to 97/65. I began sleeping deeply for the first time in years and felt truly grounded in my body.”
Final Thoughts
The body is wise and deeply interconnected.
Even small shifts in how you breathe and use your mouth can ripple outward — leading to calmer days, better digestion, and truly restorative sleep.
Start with just one tool today. Small steps build lasting change.
Ready for Deeper Support?
I offer integrative coaching sessions that combine:
Myofunctional therapy
Nervous system healing
Herbal wisdom
Let’s get to the root together. Learn more and book your free discovery call at Root2Rise Wellness.
Disclaimer: This information is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical care.
