How To Sleep Better, Breathe Better, and Look Your Best, Too (Part Two)
In my previous post in this series, I shared some of the astounding facts about how your tongue and the way you swallow can create major impacts on your body and your health. Today, I’m writing about how you can assess your own tongue position, and giving you some of my favourite tongue exercises to get your swallowing super functional and healthy!
How’s YOUR Tongue Posture?
The obvious way to assess your habitual tongue position is simply to start noticing where your tongue rests in your mouth. If it pushes against your top front teeth or sits down at the bottom near your lower front teeth, it’s not in the right spot. Try to check into it multiple times over a day to get a true picture of where your tongue usually lives.
As well as this straightforward assessment, you can look for other clues that your tongue may have wayward tendencies.
First, try paying attention to your breath. Are your lips constantly parted? This is a common sign of mouth breathing. If you notice that you regularly breathe through your mouth, it’s quite possible that your tongue is not living in the right place.
Also, consider whether you have any of the typical symptoms related to poor tongue posture. Dental issues, including a gap between your front teeth or a cross-bite, tooth grinding or TMJD, headaches and neck pain are all possible signs.
If you find signs that your tongue does not habitually rest well behind your top front teeth, with the back pressing firmly into your palate, then I’d recommend getting further evaluated by a professional.
Hi! I’m Petra.
Tongue Exercises!
I have a list of 10-12 tongue exercises that I do daily to help me retrain my tongue and facial muscles. Here are a few of the most awesome ones for you to try.
Get Your Forward Head Back
‘Head forward’ position is not the most creative term, but it’s pretty easy to understand what it means: a position in which the head is held thrust forward of the body, and the chin is lifted into upward rotation.
When the head is constantly held forward, the weight of the head pulls on the back of the neck and shoulders, often leading to neck pains and headaches. It also makes it impossible to swallow correctly.
This simple exercise will help you slide your head back to where it belongs.
Put The Tip Of Your Tongue On The Spot
Here’s how to find the correct spot for the tip of your tongue:
Use the tip of your tongue to feel right behind your front teeth.
There is a flat area right behind the front teeth, then the ruggae (the bumpy part that almost feels like grooves in the sand on the bottom of the ocean). Feel for the most defined groove that will almost act like a step, after this the roof of the mouth should slope off into a deeper cave-like portion. Use the tip of the tongue to push into the back/top of the step. Boom! You have found the Spot.
A great way to practice getting your tongue on the Spot is to say the word ‘Boston’. The place your tongue rests when you say the ‘n’ in ‘Boston’ is exactly where you want it all the time.
As you get better at finding the Spot, you can practice keeping your tongue there more and more. Ask the tip of your tongue to start loving being on the Spot. Make your tongue get magnetically drawn there whenever your mouth is at rest (i.e. whenever you’re not talking or eating). Eventually this will become your default.
Practice A Better Swallow
To get the back of your tongue to its correct place, I like a tongue exercise called ‘the Cheezy Grin’. This one’s good because it will help you feel and sense the way the back of your tongue should move when you swallow.
Start by making your widest, cheeziest smile. Then raise your eyebrows high. Now, simply swallow (ideally without allowing your teeth to touch). Can you feel the back of your tongue pressing into the top back of your palate? Hopefully – that’s where you want it!
This is a great (albeit ridiculous) tongue exercise to work on your swallowing. Because you’re using it to retrain your brain, you’ll get far better results if you can do it frequently – ideally a couple of times an hour – until your neurology starts to get the hang of it.
Do You Have A Tongue Tie?
If you have a tongue tie, it is highly likely that your tongue doesn’t sit in the right place. You can do a basic check for whether you have a tongue tie like this:
Step One: Open your mouth as wide as you can (carefully if you have jaw/TMJ issues).
Step Two: Keeping your jaw still, reach the tip of your tongue up to try to touch the “Spot” behind your front teeth. How far does it get?
If you can touch the tip of the tongue to the Spot without having to close your mouth, congratulations on having an exceptionally stretchy tongue!
If your tongue can only reach about halfway up or lower, my amazing Oral Myofunctional Therapist, Geneva Kliman, recommends that you should start looking into getting a tongue-tie release (aka a frenectomy).
If you can get your tongue more than halfway but not all the way up, you still consider a tie release if you’re suffering in any way from the restricted tongue (with issues such as neck pain, clenching, snoring, low resting tongue posture, tongue thrust, and the other symptoms discussed in this post).
If you suspect that your baby has a tongue tie, here’s a great article with what to look for.
How To Find Help For Your Tongue!
Tongue position, breathing and swallowing are so important to your overall health! If you tried the assessments and exercises here and feel like you could use some work in this area, here’s what I’d suggest.
The exercises I’ve provided above are a great first step to help you improve your tongue position and breathing.
However, for best results, I highly recommend seeing an oral myofunctional therapist (OMT). OMTs are highly trained in helping you improve the function of your tongue, jaw and swallowing mechanics!
The problem is that oral myofunctional therapy is a relatively new field and even many dentists aren’t familiar with the value they can add to your health care.
Despite that, the first place to start asking is at your dentist or orthodontist. It’s quite possible that yours is progressive and following the latest airway research and can point you in the right direction. If not, then you’ve helped open their eyes to a new and valuable resource!
If your dentist can’t help, then you can try any of these three options:
- Online Registry Of Oral Myofunctional Therapists
- The Academy of Oral Myofunctional Therapy’s ‘Find An OMT’ link, or
- The Academy of Applied Myofunctional Sciences may also be able to help out.
If you’re in Toronto, I’ve really benefitted from working with Geneva Kliman at Dr. Janice Goodman and Associates. Geneva very kindly reviewed this post to make sure it was 100% accurate. You can get in touch with her at geneva dot omt at gmail.com. Her colleague (and sister!) Dr. Elysa Kliman is also an OMT but practices as a dentist in the same office. They’re airway superstars and I’m incredibly happy I’ve found them – I’d definitely recommend them to anyone seeking help for TMJ, grinding, sleeping and other similar issues!
Don’t Forget About The Rest Of You
Tongue position and swallowing is a game changer for the body! Isn’t it amazing how much this seemingly small thing can actually affect in a big, big way?
Incredibly, in addition to all the things I’ve listed above, your tongue position actually affects how strong your body is and your sense of balance! Your tongue truly is one of the most powerful secrets to better health! I’m continually amazed by how cool it is! And how simple but powerful the exercises I’m sharing can be.
But if you want relief from the neck and shoulder tightness that goes along with tongue stuff, there’s lots more you can do, too. I share lots of exercises and tips for the upper body in all my teaching, so make sure you hop onboard with my newsletter below. And if you want some instant upper body happiness, try this class with some of my favourite neck pain relief moves. Enjoy!
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I have recently learned about restoring natural/better tongue position in my research on holistic methods of over-bite correction. It once again reminds us how interconnected the body is and how one little thing can have such impact! I have long been subject to rather constant nasal congestion (though this is sharply reducing with reduction in sugar intake) and it is mazing how quickly shifting the tongue noticeably opened my sinus airways, making nasal breathing a breeze. Thank you for spreading this education, and for the exercises!
I couldn’t agree with you more about how striking it is that something like tongue position can affect so many other parts of the body. How wonderful that you’ve experienced such positive changes! I love being able to breathe through my nose now! I’m glad you’re enjoying the exercises!
I came across your blog a few months ago while researching TMJ. I believe you were having your tongue tie released. I am wondering if you have written about your post release experience yet. I have been looking through your blog and found a lot of other awesome information. Please let us know if you are happy with the results of the procedure.
Hi Anna – Great question! The first release was kind of disappointing but also interesting – it turns out that my tie is very far back so it didn’t really fix things. I am actually going to do a second release in just under a month, using a different procedure that is known to work better for my particular issues, and I will certainly write about that in my newsletter and social media channels – likely a blog post as well but I’m still working on that! My mailing list is best place to get updates on this.
Hi Petra
I have just found this post after suffering debilatating neck pain for the past 5 years, nearing levels of homeleessness and suicide now. I have had loads of bite splits made and I have had my tongue tie released but your post just made me realise my tonuge is not in the spot! hopefully it can get better now.. just not sure if to keep my current bite guard in or not!
This is so incredibly helpful. Thank you for generously sharing your knowledge.
This is such an unknown issue that affects so many people – as many as 3-5% of us are tongue tied! I hope it is helpful for you and those you love!
Hi Petra, this is an amazing info! My 1yr old has a slight tongue tie. Yet he nurses ok, sleeps ok n eats ok. Midwife nor osteopath suggest correction. After examining my older kids tongue placement, jaw width and teeth placement, one may have a slight tongue tie n other lip tie. Do you have any suggestions how to have it reviewed? Correct? I am have been teaching them how to “park their tongue into garage” for now. Any recommendation or contact would be really appreciated!!!
I’d always suggest going to a certified Oral Myofunctional Therapist who’s on the AOMT website for an assessment of this nature.
Thanks for this article. Visited the dentist who said I was swallowing wrong and my teeth are being pushed forward because of it. My tounge position is most definitely wrong and I need to retrain both my resting and swallowing positions. So thanks very much for the excersies I will be starting the today to start to correct! How quickly did you to get your tounge to start sitting in the right place?
I am glad these are helpful! I’d definitely recommend working with an oral myofunctional therapist for the best results – they’ll help you figure out exactly what is and isn’t working with your tongue position. It’s not a fast process to change this for most people and for me I needed to get a tongue tie release in order to be able to retrain properly, so I’d say I’ve been working on it for just over a year and I’m pretty close to where I need to be. My OMT says a year is about what you should expect so I’m right on track 🙂 Good luck and I hope it goes well!
Hi Petra! Amazing work! I am kinda confused on the ‘spot’ some say that the tip of the tongue should be in the incisive papilla, while you said it should be way behind. Thanks!
Yah, people do seem to say both. I have worked with two OMTs who both say it’s really just behind the rugae, so that’s what I go with.
So the tip of the tongue should be on the spot where the palate starts elevating?
I don’t know that I’d describe it quite like that. What I do in my own body is place the tip of my tongue right behind the Omega loop on my ALF appliance. Super not helpful unless you have an ALF, I know, but here’s a pretty good picture: http://caugheydds.com/newsite/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/apnea-patient-with-ALF-in-mouth.jpg
Hi Petra fascinating article! I was wondering do you keep the soft palette (hard palette?) closed or open with tongue in position? It seems that when I press the back of my tongue against the palette it tends to pull the palette closed. Thanks!
Hmmm. I’m not sure that I understand your question. Can you describe what you mean by an open or closed palate?
Boy that’s a tough one for me to explain but if you google lifting the soft palette you will see that soft palette control is used heavily among vocalists. I can drop mine or raise it at will. Dropping it so it meets my tongue cuts of air to the mouth. Does that make sense? It is subtle, but as even as I press my tongue upward I can still control the soft palette independently and I was wondering if I should drop it or raise it?
Ok, I have looked it up and that’s super cool! Unfortch I absolutely have no idea how to answer your question though – I haven’t ever heard of this. I’ll try to ask my OMT about it next time I see her though.
There are so many different head configurations with so many ways that the parts can adapt. Some people have very large protruding tongue, some have wide flat tongues, mouths can vary tremendously in size and shape, sinuses have different dimensions, faces can be broad, flat, angular, long, and even the muscles of the throat have large variations. What makes you think that there is only one optimal tongue position?
That’s a great question! I’m basing my knowledge of tongues and tongue position on information I’ve received from dentists, Oral Myofunctional Therapists and general research. One reason that mouths and faces vary so much is because we’ve all had different histories – different tongue positions, different feeding as babies, different habits such as thumb sucking and pacifiers, and different diets while our mouths and faces developed. These and other mechanical inputs change how the face is shaped (as other inputs such as shoes and chairs change how our bodies are shaped). It’s my belief that when the tongue is supporting the bones of the skull by resting in the jaw as described, we get optimal breathing and facial development inputs.
Hi there, this is a very interesting post. I’ve been having some dental and tmjd issues in the last months… oddly enough my tmj’s don’t seem to have any bad signs of wearing off; however I do have lots of trouble eating and swallowing. Even though I do not have an open bite I do have bad tongue habit until my dentist told me I’ve somehow developed it.
I have a question regarding this optimal tongue position, does it also applies for when you’re sleeping? I mean you obviously can’t control what your mouth does while sleeping but should this also be the way you have your tongue when you try to sleep? It may seem a dumb question but for me it’s very important to know because I’ve had my jaw locked after sleeping a couple of times in the past and ever since then I have terrible levels of insomnia out of fear from my jaw/mouth not being in a good position… I also can’t get a mouth guard at the moment to help with the tmj problem since I’m wearing braces.
Anyway, sorry for the long question! Thanks for posting this
Hi Andy – it’s a great question! Yes, your tongue should be in the top of the mouth when you sleep. That’s one of the keys for opitmizing your airway and preventing sleep disorders due to breathing. I’d definitely recommend that you consult a good Oral Myofunctional Therapist to help you practice tongue position – the stuff you practice in the day becomes a default and your tongue will eventually live in a better spot at night. Insomnia is NOT helpful as I’m sure you know!
Hi! Thanks for replying.
I will try to monitor my tongue posture as much as possible during the day and while falling asleep, I also wonder if this is the optimal position for example while exercising, since I guess most people when being tired forget to breathe properly until calming down.
Hopefully I will be able to consult a Myofunctional therapist soon
The OMT work is helpful because you get to practice the position very consciously so it gets increasingly habitual for your brain. Plus they can help diagnose anything else that needs to get cared for, such as (in my case) a tongue tie. I’m not an expert on tongue position and athletics, but you might find this article interesting: http://zhealtheducation.com/episode-191-get-stronger-immediately/
Can i improve eyes asymmetry with correct tongue posture?
I have no idea! Depends first of all on if your particular issue was created by tongue posture, and also on what you do to change it. Changing facial structure in adults is much harder than in children. For me, for instance, I’ve had a tongue tie release, I’m doing OMT work to change my tongue posture and I have an appliance called an ALF that’s re-shaping my palate. I haven’t noticed much visual difference on my face despite all this, though my dentist thinks there has been. But there are techniques that I believe do create visual difference such as the Turner Cranial Technique – a manual therapy approach – and appliances like the ALF that I have (less visual change) and the AGGA (more visual change). Typically all this stuff takes time, dedication and exploration, so best of luck on your journey!
Hii…
Superb info… really informative…
. i do not have an access to OMT. I tried to perform the test, described here for tongue tie… and found out that my tongue goes half way up….
My question is…. without having tongue tie release…. (as I don’t have an access to OMT…)… can I still practice tip of the tongue on roof of mouth all the time??
I have overbite (occlusion) and when I practice keeping tip of the tongue on roof of my mouth… my overbite disappears (teeth get symmetrical) posture improves… like leveled shoulders, leveled pelvis etc.
Without tongue tie release… is it ok to practice tongue on roof of mouth all the time??
I have postural issue.. like uneven shoulders etc…. but no sinus, no pain in neck and shoulders etc.
Thanks….
Hi Nicky – I’m so glad you found it helpful. Honestly, I don’t really know if just putting the tip of your tongue on the spot without doing the accompanying release and OMT work will be helpful. I always think it’s useful to experiment – give it a try and see what happens. Of course back off if it doesn’t feel good and consider sticking with it if it seems useful. Not sure what your situation is, but OMTs are available over Skype and they’re really the ones qualified to answer your questions here!
Thanks much… ‘ really appreciate your prompt reply….I will follow up on your advice… thanks:)
I am so thankful for this. You are blessed! I feel like I’ve read a lot of stuff on “mewing” but this is by far the best article and comprehensive on the subject (with part 1). Thank you for sharing your knowledge, please know that’s it very appreciated.
I’m so glad to hear that! I haven’t heard the term ‘mewing’ before – is that a reference to Dr. Mew?
Hi Petra, as a body worker who had sustained a severe spinal injury and done the “impossible” in getting basic recovery of body function – the importance of tongue posture makes a ton of sense to me. Yours is the first article I’m reading on the topic and I’m excited to check it out, especially as it’s something I can do even if the rest of me is too fatigued or in prohibitive pain. Quick question though, I have a weirdly long tongue (I can literally touch my tongue to the tip of my elbow) so when the tip of my tongue is at the “step” the rest of my tongue is starting to curl under, instead of just hanging out in the back of the mouth, unless I push pretty hard. Do you have any feedback as to how a super long tongue should rest / support the palette? Thank you so much for this very well laid out article, appreciate your time!!
Danny D
Hmm. I’m pretty sure you’re going to want similar tongue posture as everyone else. Oral Myofunctional Therapists are trained to assess and help improve tongue posture and swallowing so I’d try the AOMT to find a provider in your area.