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

I imagine it’s a mix of debris/dust from nasal inhalation and saliva drainage sitting in some cilia near the top of the trachea/vocal folds and blocking some airflow/impeding your vocal cords from contacting. Interesting question in general actually.