How We Decide What to Recommend

This site links to products and earns from some of those links. That makes it reasonable to ask how the recommendations are made. Here is the whole method.

The three tiers

Every remedy is placed in one of three tiers, and we say which every time it is mentioned.

Tier 1 — well evidenced. Randomised trials or consistent clinical guidance. Examples: positional therapy for positional snoring, mandibular advancement devices for tongue-base snoring and mild-to-moderate apnea, CPAP for apnea, weight reduction.

Tier 2 — plausible and low risk. A real mechanism, thin or mixed evidence, unlikely to hurt you. Examples: mouth tape for a mouth falling open, nasal strips for nasal valve narrowing, oropharyngeal exercises, wind-instrument training.

Tier 3 — popular but unsupported. Widely sold, no good evidence. Examples: most anti-snore pillows, most supplements marketed for snoring, essential oils and anti-snore sprays.

A commercial relationship never moves something up a tier. Mouth tape and nasal strips are tier 2 on this site, and the products we link to are tier 2 products. We would rather say that plainly than inflate them.

The apnea line

No consumer product treats obstructive sleep apnea. Every article touching remedies flags the warning signs and points at the difference between snoring and apnea.

This is why several articles on this site route to a doctor and recommend nothing at all. Does mouth tape help sleep apnea is an article about why not to buy the thing the site sells. That is deliberate.

What we do with sources

We cite specific studies with their actual limitations rather than their headline. When a finding comes from 110 people with a wide confidence interval, we say so. When a trial ran for four months in 25 patients, we say that too.

Where clinical instruments are copyrighted — the Epworth Sleepiness Scale, STOP-BANG — we do not reproduce them. Our assessments are original, built on publicly known clinical risk factors, and labelled as prompts rather than validated questionnaires. The tools

Product claims

For products we recommend, we make only claims verifiable on the manufacturer's own published material, and we are precise about what was tested.

For example: Titan publishes ISO 10993 biocompatibility data for its mouth tape showing an irritation score of 0.0 out of 8. That testing is on the adhesive, and was commissioned by the adhesive's manufacturer. The PFAS screen is on the finished tape. Both are more than the category norm, and neither means "the whole tape passed ISO 10993". We write it that way. How to read lab claims

We also say when a competitor wins. Breathe Right beats TitanAir on availability, variant range and decades of track record. The honest comparison

Commercial relationships

Titan Recovery is a commercial partner and we earn from purchases made through links to their products. Those links carry rel="sponsored nofollow" as required.

We also participate in affiliate relationships with other retailers. Full detail on the disclosure page.

Two things this does not change: which tier a product sits in, and whether we tell you a cheaper option exists. The cost calculator points out that a chin strap does the same mechanical job as mouth tape for a fraction of the price, and the strips cost article notes that a reusable dilator is far cheaper over three years.

What we are not

Not doctors. Nothing here is medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. The full medical disclaimer.

The recurring recommendation across this entire site is to find out where your airway narrows before spending anything — which frequently means buying nothing at all. Start there

Corrections

If something here is wrong, we want to know. Contact us.