If your voice gets hoarse at the end of the day, let me tell you why this is happening
and what you should be doing about it.
Hi!
I am Katarina, speech language pathologist and here on this channel, I share practical
tips about using your voice in a healthy way.
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If you experience hoarseness occasionally in the evenings, or if your voice gets hoarse
every day after talking, you should know that it does not have to be that way.
In fact, it should not be that way.
Speaking shouldn’t feel painful and you shouldn’t end up with a hoarse voice at
the end of the day even if you talked all day.
So, why is this happening to you?
That strained, raspy, husky, rough or breathy quality of voice that gets worse as the day
goes by usually indicates a functional problem.
For example, the muscles in and around the larynx squeeze or constrict, they get tired
and therefore they are unable to make a clear tone.
Worsening hoarseness with voice use usually does not indicate a structural change on the
vocal folds, like vocal nodules or cysts.
But sometimes, post-nasal drip or other medical conditions can cause hoarseness that gets
worse throughout the day because the tissue of the vocal folds gets more and more irritated.
Generally speaking, there are two main reasons why you may end up with a hoarse voice in
the evening:
Reason #1: Voice Use for Too Long
If you use your voice for long periods of time, longer than what your voice is conditioned
to right now, you can experience hoarseness of voice.
Every time you speak, the vocal folds touch each other hundreds and thousands of times.
With every contact, cells from the most superficial layer of the vocal folds are lost.
But vocal folds are a wonderful human organ able to self-repair very fast.
It takes only five days to completely renew the superficial layer of the vocal folds,
if you give your voice a chance to heal.
However, if you continue using your voice without breaks, the vocal folds simply don’t
have the power to restore and repair on the go.
The other problem is that if your voice gets hoarse towards the end of the day, the muscles
in your body may try to help or compensate and you continue speaking with less efficient
motor patterns that can become habitual with time.
And that’s how strain or tension slowly creep in without you noticing.
There are 2 things that I recommend if you need to use your voice for long periods of
time regularly.
One: schedule voice breaks into your day.
Know exactly when and how you are going to use your voice throughout the day and make
sure that you schedule times for vocal rests into your day to give your voice a chance
to repair.
For example, if you know that you will be talking to 5 clients on Zoom, and give a 2-hour
long presentation in the evening, schedule silent periods between your clients and before
the presentation.
Second: improve vocal endurance and stamina with regular vocal exercises.
You can do any type of SOVT exercises, like straw phonation, lip trills, cup phonation,
humming, any exercise that you like.
Train your voice twice a day for about 10 minutes, once in the morning and once in the
afternoon.
In this way, you will build up endurance and you will be able to use your voice for longer
and longer.
Reason #2: Too Much Muscle Work
Motor patterns that lead to unwanted constriction, tension and strain at the level of the larynx
when speaking can lead to more pronounced hoarseness at the end of the day.
Muscle over-work can come from any part of the body, including your breathing muscles,
postural muscles, neck muscles or muscles in and around the larynx.
There are no quick fixes for this.
And vocal rest will not solve this problem.
The solution is a process that involves education, exploration and finding the best ways to produce
sounds without tension.
It may include working with breathing, vocal fold closure, resonance of the vocal tract,
alignment of your whole body and others.
I personally like to work with individual vocal structures in isolation as much as possible.
For example, we can explore vocal fold closure that is not affected by muscle work in other
body parts.
Let me show you what I mean.
First, just breathe normally.
Your vocal folds are open because the air is coming in and out.
Now, breathe in and as you are exhaling, stop the airflow by closing the vocal folds.
Do you feel your vocal folds closing?
Maybe you feel a build up of pressure under the vocal folds as you close them.
Good.
We can close the vocal folds with minimum effort and we can do that with a lot of effort.
So, let’s try that.
Breathe in and hold your breath with a lot of effort.
Where do you feel the muscle work?
You probably feel a lot of tension all over your body, including your larynx.
If I made a sound with this vocal fold closure, it would sound strained and forced.
Now, on the other hand, can you hold your breath with minimum effort?
If we start a sound with this vocal fold closure, the sound would be very different, right?
And the great thing is that we can isolate the work of several parts of the vocal mechanism
and train making sounds and speaking without creating tension and strain.
If you are experiencing vocal strain, tension or even pain when speaking, and you are ready
to work with me towards a free, strong and confident voice, you can apply to our Vocal
Freedom System coaching program.
Check out the links in the description below this video.
Here is a reminder: if your hoarseness lasts for more than 2 weeks without the presence
of an acute infection, such as a common cold or flu, go and get your voice properly evaluated
by a laryngologist to prevent a serious vocal problem.
If you are dealing with excessive tension that may be causing hoarseness, I also made
a video, in which I walk you through 7 steps that lead to a strong voice without tension.
If you want to know what body, voice and mind factors you need to consider to finally free
your voice, click the link in the description below this video.
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Check out my other videos right here below.
I’ll see you soon.
Bye.