Why do you sometimes need to clear your throat when you haven’t spoken in a while?

Question

like when your voice is raspy so you need to do that little cough to clear up your throat and your voice is back to normal, although there’s nothing in your passageway

In: Biology

Answer 1

The throat is like a slippery slide for air.

We have a thin layer of mucus there to keep things moist (yeah, I hate that word but appropriate here). It also catches dirt or dust that could sneak in when we breathe.

Even if we don’t talk for a bit, the throat continues to work. The mucus can sometimes get sticky or dry out a bit. When this happens, we get the tickle tingle or irritation feeling. To counter this, the body has a built-in cough button. This is the throat clearing sound we make. It is like a mini cough which helps push the mucus around and loosen things up. The throat feels at ease again.