Ask the Strategist: Will Magnetic Breathing Strips Help Me Stop Snoring?
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In our advice column, “Ask the Strategist,” we take your most burning shopping questions and survey friends, call up experts, and draw on our own personal experience to answer them. If you have an online-shopping question of your own, please send it to strategist@nymag.com with the subject “Ask the Strategist.” We’re here to help.
Are those magnetic breathing strips legit?
Until a reader wrote in with this question, I wasn’t really familiar with magnetic breathing strips. But they are marketed quite heavily online. When I mentioned the idea of testing them to my husband, Sam, his immediate reaction was, “The ones from the YouTube commercials?” He’d been seeing lots of ads for magnetic, anti-snoring nasal strips made by a brand called Intake Breathing. I’m a light snorer myself, so I requested some to try firsthand.
Nasal stripsare oftenrecommended to people who snore; they’re typically adhesive strips, kind of like a Band-Aid, that are meant to lift the nostrils and increase airflow through the sinus passage. Intake Breathing’s strips function similarly. You still stick something to the outside of your nose — in this case, a pair of small stickers that are embedded with magnets. But the strip itself is a hard plastic band, also embedded with magnets. Once you’ve got the stickers in place on either side of your nose, you attach the magnetic band and feel your nostrils flare open as the magnets click together.
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A starter kit comes with four different band sizes. I went with the medium and got to sticking magnets on my nose. The brand recommends you remove oil from your skin for best adhesion and provides two small disposable alcohol wipes; once those are gone, you’ll need to either wash your face or find your own wipes.
Placing the stickers wasn’t too tricky, except for the fact that I have a nose piercing right in the spot where you’d want to have a sticker. So I had to finagle it a bit on the right side of my nose and prevent the whole magnet system from sticking to or irritating my nose ring. Attaching the band to the stickers is easy enough, although adjusting it requires care; the connection between the magnets on the stickers and the magnets on the strip is much stronger than the adhesive holding the stickers to your skin.
The strip wasn’t particularly uncomfortable, but it was noticeable — similar to the feeling of glasses resting on your nose bridge. The first time I slept with the strips, my breathing did seem slightly easier, and my nose definitely felt more open. However, after trying them for a few nights, I don’t think they made a huge difference in my snoring.
Apparently, that’s par for the course with nasal strips, magnetic or otherwise. I askedDr. Carleara Weiss, who has a doctorate in nursing focused on behavioral sleep medicine and circadian rhythms, about whether nasal strips are considered an effective treatment for snoring in the first place. Weiss says that, since the function of nasal strips is mainly to increase airflow through through your sinuses, they don’t typically address the cause of snoring in the first place. “Snoring is caused by a vibration on the throat, mouth, and nose, and nasal strips work only on the nose,” Weiss explains. While there is some research to suggest they can help you breathe more easily when you’re congested, for many snorers, opening the nasal passages won’t work as a general treatment for snoring. And because snoring can be a symptom of other issues, likesleep apnea,it’s probably worth speaking to your doctor if it’s a persistent problem.
If you like nasal strips generally, the advantage I see with the magnetic ones is that the strip is much sturdier than a simple adhesive. The magnets also seem like a stronger way to lift the nostrils up and out. I didn’t have any issues with the Intake Breathing strips staying attached, but my husband also tried them and his ended up falling off. I’ll also say that if you have pets or little kids, you’ll need to be careful about where you store and dispose of the magnetic stickers. They’re small and could easily be swallowed — there is a small warning about this on the box — so I was careful to throw them away in a trash can with a lid, where my cats couldn’t find them.
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