Hydration is vital for vocal health, maintaining flexibility, and preventing vocal fatigue. Singers need balanced fluid intake, humidity, and steam inhalation while tailoring hydration to lifestyle, environment, and personal needs.
(3-minute read time)
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“Hydration is the process of supplying sufficient amounts of water to the body. Hydration boasts boundless benefits including skin appearance, energy levels, physical fitness, and overall health.”
Justin Stoney
Why is it that your vocal coach often asks you about how much water you’re drinking? Is it really that effective in helping the voice? The body? The brain? Can I count juice, soda, tea and coffee as part of my daily intake? Does caffeine and alcohol really cause dehydration?
What do you need to understand more about your body and your lifestyle to determine the right amount of fluid intake each day? This blog aims to answer common questions about hydration in a quick to read format.
WE ARE MOSTLY WATER!
“The mucous membranes of the whole vocal tract need to be kept moist, to repel bacteria and to maintain health and flexibility.”
Christina Shewell
- Human bodies are 65-70% water. Water helps flush toxins from the cells of your body.
- We use and lose a considerable amount of body fluid every day, so that loss needs to be replaced.
- Body systems work more efficiently when supported by good systemic hydration. Your vocal folds prefer a humidity rate of 65-70% (minimum of 40% maintains vocal health).
- Healthy, thin, mucus in the upper respiratory tract helps the body defend itself against infection.
- Hydration helps ward off vocal fatigue by ensuring the soft tissue in the vocal folds remains responsive and efficient. Vocal folds vibrate and rub against each other hundreds of times per second. To manage that friction, a quantity of thin lubricant is necessary. Approximately 99.9% of the time, the lubricant required is composed almost entirely of water.
HOW DO WE HYDRATE OUR BODIES?
TOP TIP
Your priority is to know your own body, hydration needs and daily patterns so you can answer this question:
What amount of fluid intake is right for you?
Shewell proposes three primary sources to consider:
- Water intake
- Steam inhalation
- Room humidity
Secondary sources include:
- Other beverages
- Water content in food
HOW MUCH WATER IS ENOUGH?
“Singers to not need to drink a greater quantity of water than average people.”
Claudia Friedlander
This means that we are talking about a lifestyle of hydration that every human needs to thrive. As singers, we are simply more often acutely aware of how dehydrated we are.
Taking some of the following variables into account, many nutritional and health sources recommend a total beverage consumption of between 2.5-3.5 litres per day. Before being alarmed by that, there are a lot of variables involved and each one of us needs to work out what is right for us.
Lifestyle variables include:
- how much you exercise
- the amount of “wet” foods you eat
- the voice use in your daily life
Personal variables include:
- how much you sweat
- your gender
- medical conditions and associated medication
Environmental variables include:
- the level of humidity in your environment (indoors and outdoors)
- your city’s elevation above sea level
- pollutants in the air we breathe
WHAT IS STEAM INHALATION?
Steam is water in the form of vapour – air particles laden with moisture. If you have ever noticed the need to blow your nose following a lovely hot shower, you have experienced the benefit of steam inhalation. The water vapour has entered your upper respiratory tract and changed the consistency of your mucus so that it is thinner, less sticky, and able to move more freely around your body.
Because the voice relies on thinner, healthy hydrated mucus for its optimal function, many singers and professional voice users take advantage of portable steam inhalers, which range from portable plastic devices to electric appliances, or even pocket nebulisers.
“Professional voice users, including voice practitioners, public speakers and performers, should own [a steam inhaler] because they can be an effective help for the inflamed or dry mucus membranes that occur when the voice is strained with fatigue, over-use or an infection.”
Christina Shewell
DESIRABLE ROOM HUMIDITY
Inhaling dry air will dehydrate the soft tissue lining of your upper respiratory tract, setting you behind and counteracting your other hydration efforts. Depending on the humidity of the town you live in, plus the space you live, sleep and work in, your hydration levels will rise and fall.
Some environments can be predictably very dry, especially if they are air conditioned. Hotel rooms, airplane cabins and theatres are good examples of such spaces.
Potential remedies for a low humidity room are:
- using a humidifier (particularly during sleep)
- boiling a kettle of water
- placing a shallow bowl of water on a bench
HOW DO YOU KNOW?
You’re dehydrated if…
- You feel a need to clear the throat frequently.
- You have some post-nasal drip or other cold-like symptoms.
- You can hear a sizzling sound when that thick mucus gets between the vocal folds during singing or speech.
- You might observe blobs of white, thick goo in your throat.
- Your urine is dark in colour.
- Singing feels like more of an effort, particularly initiating sound.
You’re hydrated if…
- You experience a clear and flexible tone.
- There is an absence of sniffles or any desire to cough.
- Inside your mouth is a healthy pink colour covered with a thin, shiny water secretion.
- The surface of your throat’s back wall is irregular and dotted with small bits of orange/pink tissue.
- Small blood vessels are visible.
- Same shiny wet look from normal, thin watery saliva.
- Your urine is pale in colour (allowing for some medication and vitamins that can discolour urine).
Other causes of dehydration
- Ironically, over-hydration can lead to dehydration, although it is rare. So don’t go overboard.
- Most medications have a dehydrating effect on your larynx and throat. Sometimes this extends to your mouth and nasal cavity too. (This includes medicated lozenges.)
- Travelling, particularly in airplanes.
- Alcohol and other recreational drugs.
Don’t stop here. Click on this link for more ideas on building Hydration Habits.
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SOURCES
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Franca, M. C., & Simpson, K. O. (2013). Effects of the Interaction of Caffeine and Water on Voice Performance: A Pilot Study. Communication Disorders Quarterly, 35(1), 5–13. https://doi.org/10.1177/1525740113487554
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