It’s Half-Term and Halloween, Don’t Scream!

Associated with every festive, seasonal and celebratory event throughout the year is higher demand on our voices and our childrens’ voices and this often involves shouting and screaming. As we party, socialize, work in a vocally demanding career and perhaps entertain children this half-term we run vocal marathons on a daily basis. Some more than others! There is no better time than Halloween to consider how you use your voice and how you can protect it against overuse and potential damage.

Consider this….how often do you raise your voice/yell/shout/scream? Take yesterday as an example. Think back over your schedule and estimate the number of times you used a voice that was louder than average. It’s midday and i can already count three occasions during my morning. Calling loudly up the stairs to my husband in the shower, getting my son’s attention at the new play barn we visited in Hungerford, shouting suddenly to warn him against putting his fingers in the door hinge (my son that is!). These are normal everyday reasons to raise my voice and it can be done safely if you know what you’re doing and you’re aware of not making it a habit. A scream might be a sudden response to danger or fear or even pain. A shout might be a response in a noisy environment when you can’t be heard or across a large distance. But these vocal activities should be occasional not habitual.

When you shout or continually raise the volume of your voice for extended periods of time your two vocal cords are brought together with increasing force and intensity. The sensitive surface layers of the vocal cords can become irritated and the muscle activity involved in this type of voice use can cause the throat to ache and the voice to sound tired, hoarse and strained. Think about how your voice sounds and your throat feels after a long demanding vocal day at work or a long conversation with friends at a noisy party or after a few big nights out in a row.

This is a normal larynx (voice box), the glossy, smooth white vocal cords look healthy. Consider those small vocal cords vibrating together more than 100 times each second when you talk and then consider how much you talk throughout your day. It’s hard work and it can easily become a much less healthy picture if the demand on your voice is too high.

So what can you do at your Halloween party this weekend to protect your voice? Here are a few of my top tips (which i of course endeavour to follow as much as possible):

• Wrap up warm if you’re out and about in the cold weather. Wrap a warm scarf around your neck.
• Limit the amount you talk in a noisy room, around noisy children, above the car radio. If you feel your voice strain during a conversation in a noisy room, suggest that you move into a quieter place to continue. Turn the radio down during a conversation.
• Try and avoid shouting (and whispering) altogether. Instead, get closer to the person and face them directly as you talk in a normal volume.
• Drink plenty of water in regular sips to keep your mouth and throat hydrated. Alongside alcoholic or caffeinated drinks, sip on an equal amount of water, especially whilst in conversation.
• Rest your voice if it sounds hoarse the next day. Give it a break, it deserves one. If you’d run a marathon the day before, you’d be resting with your feet up…wouldn’t you?
• Avoid clearing your throat and coughing as this is another way of bashing your vocal cords together.
• Avoid smokey, dusty and dry environments.
• Don’t keep making excuses. Of course it’s easier just to talk and not think about it but to protect your voice it needs to be considered as a muscular instrument which needs rest and some TLC.

With all that said, successful voice care has to fit in realistically with your lifestyle. Only we can chose how or how not to care for our voices. We only have one voice that needs to last our entire lives. Protect it, don’t neglect it!

Happy Trick or Treating…..