I Tried These Magnetic Breathing Strips and I Have Never Felt so Rested.
I’ve struggled with sleep for a while now, and I’ve been told repeatedly (and not always kindly) that I snore a little. So when a friend suggested nasal strips, I decided it was worth a try. After several weeks of using them during sleep (and beyond), I’m pleased to report that my best purchase this week was these Intake breathing strips .
Before I go any further, I want to offer a disclaimer: my positive experience has no real scientific basis. In fact, it’s almost certainly a placebo effect. While I did notice a slight improvement in my sleep metrics on my smartwatch, I haven’t conducted a controlled study on myself and don’t have a control strip for comparison. (Furthermore, I consider any sleep metric on a smartwatch to be a dubious metric .) Please take this as one person’s personal experience, not a clinical opinion. Nevertheless, I’ve never felt so well-rested.
I’ve tried cheap nasal strips with just an adhesive backing before. I like the Intake design: instead of a single strip that just sits in place, you get adhesive strips that stick to each side of your nose and a magnetic strip that snaps onto the bridge of your nose and gently pulls the strips outward, widening the nasal passage. The adhesive holds well, and the magnetic part is reusable, so you just swap out the disposable strips. Plus, that little click when the strip snaps into place is oddly satisfying. I’ve also started wearing them while running, mostly out of curiosity, to see if they’ll help me breathe better during intense exercise.
I first noticed how fashionable nasal strips had become at a Hyrox competition a few months ago. Nasal strips have been in the spotlight several times before, and now they seem to be making a comeback, being used by runners, weightlifters, and athletes across a variety of sports. This is part of a broader wave of interest in nasal breathing and breathing practices in general.
What Science Really Says
Again, I want to be careful not to exaggerate anything. Nasal strips work by dilating the nasal valve, which naturally makes breathing through the nose easier. But research shows that any positive effects reported by patients themselves are most likely a placebo effect.
An analysis of 19 studies examining nasal strips and athletic performance found no statistically significant differences in VO2 max, heart rate, or subjective assessment of exertion between people using the strips and those not using them. Regarding sleep, studies show that external nasal strips have no significant effect on subjective measures of sleep quality or nasal congestion compared to placebo strips.
So, the fact that I notice an improvement in the quality of my sleep can likely be explained by a strong placebo effect. And by the way, the placebo effect isn’t useless! I also suspect that these nasal strips help me keep my mouth closed at night, which helps with snoring. Breathing through my nose is definitely easier with them, both at night and while running, and that alone is enough to make them an integral part of my daily routine.