Taping your mouth for sleep and other dangerous trends: Why do people blindly follow them?

Taping your mouth for sleep and other dangerous trends: Why do people blindly follow them?

Dubai: An estimated 4.9 billion people today use social media, a Forbes report revealed. The Forbes report also found that on average a person spends 145 minutes (nearly 2.5 hours) on social media every day. While much of the social media use may be to connect with real-life friends and acquaintances or to deal with work-related tasks or other personal events, a lot of it is mindless scrolling with the most popular medium being short-form videos. While there is a positive impact in several areas, social media use has a proven negative effect on mental health, especially for adolescents and young adults. And ‘trends’ or ‘hacks’ are a big part of the problem, especially when they’re not backed by science, medical advice or logic affecting mental or physical health. For instance, a recent trend or hack is sticking one’s mouth shut with face tape for ‘better sleep’. The idea is that the ‘hack’ will stop snoring and thereby increase the quality of sleep. This, along with other sleep hacks, were deemed unnecessary and even dangerous by sleep specialists. However, millions are hopping on to the trend – and several others – despite this. Why? We asked experts. Dr Paul E.