How to stop biting your tongue in your sleep
Ever woken up with a sore tongue? Biting your tongue in your sleep is a common problem, and it affects millions of people every year. It can be caused by stress, or grinding your teeth at night. In this article we’ll discuss a couple reasons why people bite their tongues at night, and how we can stop it.
What Causes People To Bite Their Tongues While Sleeping?
Nighttime teeth grinding, otherwise known as bruxism, is typically associated with stress. However bruxism at night can also be associated with other sleep disorders. In fact, doctors aren’t even perfectly sure what causes teeth grinding at night! What they are sure of is that it can cause damage to the enamel of your teeth, and cause tension/stress headaches in the morning. And it’s certainly a well known fact that this nighttime teeth grinding can also cause you to accidentally bite your tongue while you sleep.
How Can You Stop Biting Your Tongue While Sleeping?
Stress Reduction
Since it’s generally believed that stress is one of the main causes of nighttime teeth grinding, and thus tongue biting, stress reduction is key. Methods of relaxing like meditation and yoga can help reduce stress levels before bed. This can help stop the nighttime bruxism episodes that result in those painful tongue bites.
Mouthguard
Perhaps the most surefire method of reducing nighttime tongue-biting includes using a mouthguard while sleeping. These are typically plastic mouthguards worn throughout the night that can prevent nighttime bruxism. A lot like the ones NFL players wear, these mouth guards will stop your teeth from shifting in the night.
Exercise
Another option is to make sure you’re getting enough exercise. Incorporating exercise into your daily routine will improve overall health, and more importantly reduce stress levels at night– hopefully preventing nighttime bruxism. Plus, on the upside, you might get a little fitter in the process! Nothing to lose!
Why should you stop biting your tongue at night?
I don’t think I need to tell you, but well, it’s painful! Biting your tongue puts you at risk of further infection, and can, in really bad cases, even hurt your ability to eat and drink. Plus, these types of ailments are the worst– consistent nagging pain on your tongue is awful for speaking, eating, doing just about anything! If your tongue biting is caused by teeth grinding, it’s possible that you’re doing a ton of damage to your teeth every night, without even knowing it. If you ever wake up with headaches, this nighttime teeth grinding could very well be the cause of it! Try out a few of these methods above and see if you can stop grinding your teeth at night.
