How to Lose Your Voice

Hoarseness or complete loss of voice occurs due to a condition known as laryngitis. There are many causes of laryngitis, which means you’ll have various options if you wish to lose your voice for any particular reason. However, you should proceed with caution—losing your voice often comes with discomfort, including soreness and/or irritation. Start with step 1 below. Note: check out the article How to Recover Your Voice After Losing It if you want to learn how to regain your voice after losing it.

Talk, talk, and talk some more. The most direct way to lose your voice is simply to use your vocal cords until they can no longer function. Activities like speaking, shouting, singing, etc., require your vocal cords to vibrate gently. Overuse can cause inflammation and hinder these activities. Try speaking loudly whenever possible. If you persist, your voice will eventually become hoarse.

• If you're looking for opportunities to speak loudly for long periods, consider signing up for public speaking classes, or simply head to loud clubs or bars to talk.

Singing. Singing can have a significant impact on your vocal cords – belting out loud or singing in a very low or high pitch has a similar effect. The risks increase if you're not a trained or experienced singer. To damage your voice, try singing at the highest volume and within a difficult vocal range.

• Obviously, you would want to maximize the effect by not warming up before singing.
• If you're embarrassed about singing loudly, you can do it while sitting in a closed room. No one will know you're singing.

Coughing. While it’s not uncommon for someone to lose their voice from a cold and excessive coughing, you don’t need a cold to cough. Continuous coughing irritates the vocal cords and can eventually cause inflammation, leading to a loss of voice. You can combine coughing with one of the other methods from this article for maximum effect.

• Just like shouting and singing, excessive coughing for an extended period can result in persistent pain and damage to your throat.

Open your mouth. As mentioned earlier, a dry throat is particularly vulnerable. To accelerate the process of losing your voice, keep your mouth open throughout the day so your mouth and throat dry out. This method is especially effective if you live in a dry climate.

• If you're worried about how you might look, you can leave your mouth open while sleeping so no one will see you.

Don’t drink water. Moisturized vocal cords are the enemy of anyone trying to lose their voice. In fact, professional speakers and singers always have a glass of water on stage to protect their vocal cords. If you want to lose your voice, do the opposite! Do not soothe your vocal cords by drinking water after speaking, yelling, or singing.

• You should be reasonable when applying this rule – don’t avoid all fluids to the point of dehydration.
• If you're looking for a liquid alternative to water that dries your throat more, try drinking something sour or milk-based (see below for more details).

Eat acidic and/or dairy foods. Some foods and drinks, especially very sour items like lemon, vinegar, etc., and dairy products, can produce mucus in your throat. While mucus doesn’t irritate the vocal cords, it can induce coughing. So, if you're aiming to lose your voice, try consuming these foods and drinks in combination with other methods mentioned here.

Drink very cold water. Some people find that very cold water also produces mucus, similar to acidic foods and drinks. Try drinking a glass of ice water to see how it affects your throat – if you notice more mucus in your throat after drinking cold water, you can use this method to induce coughing.

Screaming. The more your vocal cords are used, the more strain they experience. Screaming puts even more stress on the vocal cords than speaking normally, which can lead to hoarseness and a temporary loss of voice. For maximum effect, try screaming as loud as you can. However, keep in mind that screaming like this can cause pain and even long-term damage.

• If you're worried about disturbing others, consider attending an event where people are encouraged to scream, such as a sports event or a rock concert.

Intentionally catching a cold. People often lose their voice after catching a cold. If you truly want to lose your voice, you might consider putting yourself in a situation where you're likely to catch a cold. For example, you could spend time with a friend who's sick and sleep less than usual. Of course, deliberately trying to get sick can have many unpleasant side effects, including fever, nausea, aches, and general discomfort, so avoid the flu virus unless you're really serious about losing your voice!

• Needless to say, intentionally exposing yourself to serious diseases is never a good idea. Use common sense in this matter.

Trigger allergies. Allergies are known to cause throat irritation and hoarseness in some cases. If you have a mild allergy history and experience a sore throat from allergies, you could expose yourself to allergens to lose your voice. For example, if you're allergic to pollen, you could go to a park and smell a few flowers!

• If you have severe allergies, don’t play with fire by triggering an allergic reaction just to lose your voice. Severe allergic reactions can be life-threatening.

Don't let your voice rest. Gradually, your body will naturally heal an irritated throat. If you want to lose your voice, don’t let this happen! The less rest you give your vocal cords, the quicker you’ll lose your voice. You need to increase the strain!

• However, remember that doing this puts your voice at risk. Forcing your voice to become hoarse (especially repeatedly over time) can cause permanent damage. For example, many singers who once had strong voices lost their ability to sing after years of performing.

• If you use screaming to lose your voice, you can scream into a pillow to avoid disturbing your neighbors.
• You should limit screaming to 30 seconds at a time to avoid permanently damaging your voice.
• Instead of actually losing your voice, you could learn how to fake it.

• One condition you definitely want to avoid when trying to lose your voice is gastroesophageal reflux, a very uncomfortable condition where stomach acid rises into your throat, causing irritation. Although gastroesophageal reflux is unpleasant and no one would want to use it as a method to lose their voice, it’s important to note that if this condition happens repeatedly, it can lead to a throat disease that has a high risk of causing esophageal cancer.
• Some methods of losing your voice can be very harmful to your health, so you should avoid them, even if you really want to lose your voice. For example, smoking can make you lose your voice, but that’s a very bad idea because smoking is linked to many health issues, including cancer, heart disease, stroke, emphysema, and many other illnesses.