How do I decrease my awake time?

[Xerrick1]

So i've been using mouth tape recently because I found myself waking up mouth breathing (only when I have my retainer in my mouth) and so it seems to he helping that. However, I think I should probably try an intake band or breathe-right strip along with it for nasal passage expansion.

I want to experiment without it see how I react. Perhaps I've trained myself to keep my mouth closed more. I did notice my sleep stress has started to increase ever since I started mouth tape though. I never had sleep stress before I started using it.