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When I sing or speak just after waking from a long sleep, I can reach lower pitches than I can after being awake for a few hours.

Why does this happen? What happens to my body after waking that increases the pitch I can reach?

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Muscle tension? – snailplane Feb 2 at 19:55
Not because of any tension, because I can sing well. It is something like not being warmed up. But I don't know what is that my voice is in lower frequencies in that time! – Manoochehr Feb 2 at 20:04
Are you sure you can also reach higher pitches later in the day? Or just not reach as low? – slim Feb 4 at 13:24
Well, actually the default pitch in which I sing in the morning is lower than the pitch I usually sing. Yes, sure I reach higher pitches later in the day. Thanks for the edit Slim. – Manoochehr Feb 4 at 15:01

1 Answer

up vote 6 down vote accepted

I found an answer to my question here:

Our voices tend to sound lower when we first wake up for three reasons. First, fluids collect in the tissues of the throat while we sleep. It’s the same temporary phenomenon that makes our eyes look puffy when we first wake up. Second, mucous builds up overnight from lack of use. And third, our vocal chords dry out from breathing through the mouth while we sleep. Due to lack of lubrication they cant move together as well as they should to form the higher pitch.

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I also wonder if being in a relaxed state has anything to do with it. – Jordan Eldredge Feb 6 at 21:50

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