Water UK

Effects of dehydration

Dehydration can lead to changes in the voice. The effort required to speak (phonation threshold pressure), can increase by 23% as a result of whole-body dehydration.(1) In women, dehydration results in a delayed or smaller rise in phonation threshold pressure when undertaking a prolonged loud-reading task.(2) For amateur karaoke singers, drinking water and taking short vocal rests were found to be useful strategies to preserve voice function and quality during singing.(3)

Last updated: December 2006

(1) Verdolini K, Min Y, Titze IR, Lemke J, Brown K, van Mersbergen M, Jiang J, Fisher K. Biological mechanisms underlying voice changes due to dehydration. J Speech Lang Hear R 2002;45:268-81
(2) Solomon NP, Glaze LE, Arnold RR, van Mersbergen M. Effects of a vocally fatiguing task and systemic hydration on men’s voices. J Voice 2003;17:31-46
(3) Yiu EM and Chan RM. Effect of hydration and vocal rest on the vocal fatigue in amateur karaoke singers. J Voice 2003;17:216-27