eli5 why does your throat get dry and why is it harder to breathe when it is dry

Question

eli5 why does your throat get dry and why is it harder to breathe when it is dry

In: 1

Answer 1

Heating systems cause the air to dry. Which then dries out your throat. Theres less humidity in winter because there’s no heat outside to trap moisture. It shouldn’t actually be hard to breathe. It just feels that way because, we control our breathing at that point, to avoid the feeling of the dry air hitting our throats. So we may take shorter, more shallow breaths.

It can also dry out when you have a virus/ bacterial infection. Most of the time though, it’s just the stupid air.
Humidifiers help.