Worship Musician Magazine September 2020 | Page 58

VOCALS
HOW DOES A LACK OF SLEEP AFFECT MY VOICE? | Sheri Gould
A good night’s sleep is healthy for many
reasons, but how does a lack of sleep actually
affect your voice? Cells regenerate during a
good night's sleep. Whether you're talking or
singing, the vocal cords need time to rest and
repair. Vocal fatigue is common with so many
singers today due to job, lifestyle, speech
patterns, etc. but for this article I would like to
focus mainly on sleep and how it affects the
quality of your singing voice.
There have been several studies done to
assess the effects of sleep deprivation and how
it affects the voice and all of them pretty much
sum things up with these adjectives: rougher,
croaky, less brilliant, weak and even hoarse.
You have probably experienced most of these
yourself after a late night or rough night up with
a baby.
When you wake in the morning your voice is
decidedly lower perhaps even sounding a
bit like you have laryngitis. The vocal cords
definitely benefit from waking up through a
gentle morning warm-up even after a good
night’s sleep. However, after a poor night’s
sleep or stretch of sleepless nights your cords
are not as “elastic” as they normally would be
and their movement is impeded-having an
overall negative affect on the mechanics of
voice production, which causes our muscles to
work harder than they need to when vocalizing.
We need to get blood flowing and the cords
moving in order to get a good response and
this becomes much more difficult when they
are deprived of proper rest.
If you sing while your voice is tired, you can
develop hoarseness. Hoarseness is a condition
when your voice sounds breathy, raspy, or
strained. It is a symptom of a condition, not a
condition itself. Laryngitis is an inflammation of
the vocal cords and is the most common cause
of hoarseness. However, vocal fold lesions such
as nodules, polyps, and cysts can also develop
on the vocal cords. These can be caused when
you strain your voice through overuse, misuse
or abuse. And I would like to clarify here that
anytime your have hoarseness it should be
addressed. It is not normal to have a rough,
scratchy or raspy voice. Any hoarseness that
does not resolve itself in 2-3 weeks should
be evaluated by an ENT doctor, preferably
someone who specializes in voice care. Also, if
your voice is fatigued, it’s important to not just
get more sleep, but to rest it during the day. In
an eight-hour day, schedule several 15-minute
periods where you don’t talk.
So, we can see that the quality of sound
produced through tired vocal cords is
compromised but is that all? Actually, no. There
are lots of other things that are affected as well.
One of the big ones is breath support. If your
body becomes sluggish because of fatigue,
taking a breath becomes more difficult, and
the in-and-out/lift of your abdominal muscles to
create support is harder to activate and sustain.
Many singers don’t take care to support their
voice properly through good breath support
when they feel great! So being tired is just one
more thing to add to the list of impediments to
good, sustained breath support. Being tired
can affect your desire (or willingness) to even
take proper care of your voice in other ways
throughout the day: hydrating, resting, avoiding
unhealthy vocal practices, speaking correctly,
etc. It becomes difficult to even find the energy
to enunciate properly (forget trying to talk-text,
even Siri can’t understand you!). In addition,
tired people are much more likely to intake
more caffeine as well, and that comes with its
own host of problems. Caffeine is very drying
to vocal cords and dry cords are much more
likely to stimulate mucous build-up on the vocal
cords.
Lastly, I would say that much of what goes into
a good vocal performance is mental as well as
physical. Being mentally “on top of your game”
is indispensable to a singer. We need all the
mental and emotional creativity we can mange
and those are often affected by the amount
and quality of our sleep. Your amygdala, the
part of your brain that triggers strong, negative
emotions, is more easily hijacked when you're
tired. And the prefrontal cortex, the part of your
brain that helps to manage these negative
emotions, can't do its job when you haven't
had enough rest. It’s important to stay objective
and reasonable. It’s easy enough for many
singers to let emotions and negative thoughts
overwhelm us when we are at our best! So
take care of your body by getting the sleep and
rest your voice needs and you will see clear
benefits—so will your audience.
God bless you as you sing for Him!
Sheri Gould
Sheri is an internationally acclaimed vocal coach.
She’s been helping artists and worshipers find their
voice for over 40 years. For help and resources visit
her site.
www.SheriGould.com
58 September 2020
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