Eli5: why do lips feel a bit glued when keeping mouth closed for a while?
In: Other
Because to a real degree they are.
Your saliva contains a lot of small proteins, which despite being small are still long enough to get tangled with other proteins. This especially happens if they stay in one place for a while and that place gets relatively dry. And when you are sleeping you produce very little saliva, so this is the kind of state your mouth can get in.
These proteins tangled togother produce and attractive force that slightly holds your job together, and it is the exact same mechanism that glue uses. The only difference is glue is made of longer chains that have more attractive power so it holds better.
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