Why does breating through your mouth cause your throat to dry?

Question

Why does breating through your mouth cause your throat to dry?

Answer 1

Likely it results from 'tidal' air flow.  When you breathe in most (but not all) of the air enters the lungs and becomes saturated with moisture (breathe on a cold mirror and you can see the condensation).  However, Some of the breath remains within the mouth and windpipe and does not become saturated.  Unsaturated air is breathed in and some unsaturated air is breathed out with the net effect of drying the mouth and throat, especially if breathing is slow and shallow at night while sleeping.  Breathe deeply and slowly let the air out against your wrist and note that the warmest and most humid air arrives last.  Of course the dryer the air in the room the more apt it will result in a dry throat and mouth (compared with hot and humid summer air).  Some people wrap their pillows in a taped plastic bag to avoid dust, pollen and dust mites forming a cloud about the head every time they turn over and this may avoid an allergic reaction that closes up the nasal passages resulting in open-mouth breathing.

Answer 2

As taught in chemistry, all liquids have a certain vapor pressure. It is a principle of chemistry that a liquid will not always remain a liquid at any given moment - at all times, some molecules of the liquid will gain enough kinetic energy to change to the vapor form, evaporating, while some molecules of the vapor will lose energy and condense back into the liquid form. Assuming that this liquid is in a closed environment, meaning no other things are present, then the vapor will keep condensing, keeping the total volume of the liquid the same. However, breathing creates an open environment. These molecules that are changing to vapor are no longer able to condense into the liquid and combine with the original amount. Instead, these molecules are taken into the lungs and exhaled out with each breath, causing the liquid lining the windpipe to slowly dry out because the molecules that changed to vapor are no longer present, while the liquid is constantly evaporating.

Answer 3

because when air enters ur mouth it directly goes into the throat.example:

if you have a very thin layer of water or a liquid on a dry surface and you blow a lot lot of cold air on it you will see that the water slowly disappears.it is because the thinner the layer of liquid the faster it dries.

the air dries the water!

Answer 4

This is actually quite common -- I get them a lot myself in the winter, especially in cold weather when I forget to fill up the humidifier tanks with water. If the air is dry, your throat can dry out a bit with your breathing and become sore. Solution: drink plenty of fluids and make sure your house is humidified properly. (I have noticed that furnace humidifiers do not do a very good job of keeping the house properly humid. Even with a furnace humidifier you may still need table-top humidifers to stay comfortable.)  

Answer 5

I have a friend who snores really bad and has woken up with a swollen uvula, dry scratchy throat & bad breath.  For that I told her to check out www.bad--breath.net   Maybe they have answers for the dry mouth & throat too.

Answer 6

This is one of the functions of your nose and sinus cavities - to warm and humidify the air passing through it, so it doesn't dry your throat.