Why is hydration so important for the voice?
Your Voice
Singers and professional voice users know that hydration is incredibly important in order to keep their voices in tip top shape. You can spot a singer a mile away. They’re the ones who are bundled up in the cold, with a wool scarf wrapped around their throats and a huge water bottle in hand. But why is drinking water so important for a professional voice user???
As the breath travels from your lungs through your trachea and passes through the voice box, it sets your vocal cords (a.k.a. vocal folds) in motion. Your vocal cords then vibrate, gently colliding together, hundreds of times per second - much too quickly for the naked eye to visualize without the help of videostroboscopy.
During vocal cord vibration the superficial tissue on your vocal cords (epithelium and the superficial layer of the lamina propria) moves, appearing as a glistening wavelike motion if the vocal cords are healthy and well-lubricated. Research shows that the better hydrated your vocal cords are, the greater the amplitude of that glistening mucosal wave - and the better the sound of your voice!
what causes your voice to get dehydrated?
Dehydration reduces the volume (or fullness) of your vocal cords and thickens the mucus in the voice box, increasing vocal effort and the amount of breath pressure that it takes to get your vocal cords vibrating. It sounds very technical, but ultimately hydration of the vocal cords impacts how aerodynamically efficient they are as you sing and speak.
What kinds of things can cause dehydration?
Caffeine
Alcohol
Certain Medications (decongestants, antihistamines)
Smoking
How can i care for my voice?
Drinking at least 2 liters of water daily is a wonderful way to hydrate your entire body and has a positive impact on your vocal cords! Singers and professional speakers can also use humidifiers in the home or nebulizers, which deliver water mist through a mouthpiece or a mask directly to the surface of the vocal cords.
A recent study that looked at the effect of nebulization on laryngeal parameters found that surface hydration creates better phonatory efficiency. Researchers used videokymography, a high-speed medical imaging used in laryngology, to take a closer look at vocal fold vibration. In this study, researchers analyzed the vocal fold movements of 59 participants before and after nebulization with 0.9% saline solution. Women had more positive results, but the study found that surface hydration of the vocal cords was effective in improving vocal quality in all participants.
American pop singer and songwriter Chappell Roan has been in the news lately endorsing the Vocal Mist nebulizer. (Stay tuned to my Instagram for a tutorial on how to use the Vocal Mist nebulizer and my review of the product.)
It’s important to know that there are lots of options out there for hydration: drinking water, breathing in steam from a hot shower, and using an ultrasonic nebulizer with 0.9% saline. You can find a variety of acceptable nebulizers on the market to choose from on Amazon and elsewhere. Check out the links below for a couple of options.
Plec EMRL, Côrtes Gama AC, Souza BO, Santos MAR. Effect of Nebulization on Laryngeal Parameters: Analysis Using High-Speed Digital Videolaryngoscopy. J Voice. 2024 Jul;38(4):970.e1-970.e12. doi: 10.1016/j.jvoice.2022.01.014. Epub 2022 Mar 11. PMID: 35288013.
Souza BO, Santos MAR, Plec EMRL, Diniz ML, Gama ACC. Nebulized Saline Solution: A Multidimensional Voice Analysis. J Voice. 2023 Jul;37(4):634.e1-634.e18. doi: 10.1016/j.jvoice.2021.02.024. Epub 2021 Apr 10. PMID: 33849762.
