# Sleeping and Needing to Brush My Teeth

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleeping-and-needing-to-brush-my-teeth/188494>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 14, 2003, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleeping-and-needing-to-brush-my-teeth/188494 "2003-07-14T22:16:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![xvxdarkknightxvx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/34f0e0/32.png) [@xvxdarkknightxvx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xvxdarkknightxvx)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleeping-and-needing-to-brush-my-teeth/188494/1 "2003-07-14T22:16:21Z")

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Not sure if this happens to everyone, but here goes. Whenever I take a nap, after waking up, I feel the need to brush my teeth. Even if I brushed my teeth before taking the nap, which can be anywhere from five minutes to a few hours, I’ll still feel that need to brush my teeth, meaning my mouth feels grimey. Is there a reason for this? Does everyone else experience this, too? Thanks for the help.

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**Author:** ![GilaB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@GilaB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GilaB)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2003, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleeping-and-needing-to-brush-my-teeth/188494/2 "2003-07-14T23:12:05Z")

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When you’re asleep, you put out much less saliva. Saliva normally has anti-plaque-bacteria activity, and when you’re asleep and making less of it, your mouth bacteria go crazy.

I’ve not noticed it after short naps (under 20-30 minutes), but for longer ones, yeah.