Nose gets stuffed when singing

CarlRydberg

Hi y'all. New to this forum.
I'm a professional musician since som 10-15 years back. Since some years ago I've started sometimes getting a stuffed nose after a couple of minutes when singing, usually if I just pick up my guitar in the couch for some casual playing and singing, or if I'm gonna record a demo or something. If I pause for a while it goes away, but very frustrating and mood-killing of course. I can't seem to control this or pinpoint what I do that causes this. It can also occur even after warming up. A few times, to save a gig, I've used nasal spray, which works, but I know this isn't any good and of course it's been a last resort. And I don't want bad habits.
Anyone knows why and how to handle this?
Best,
Carl

HuduVudu

More air through your sinuses means more exposure to airborne allergens.

CarlRydberg

I'm not really following you, HuduVulu. Can you please explain a little further?

HuduVudu

If you have allergies (which you probably do). When you start to breath deeper from singing you will be bring more air in contact with your nose and sinus cavities. Because of the increased air flow through these places you will increase the amount of contact time airborne allergens have in those places. Also your body has a harder time scrubbing the incoming air because of the increased volume of air. Once your nose and sinuses come in contact with the allergens they are going to swell up as a part of an immune response.

The way that you will have to deal with this is to deal with the allergens. There are many possible ways to do this you will have to decide which one is best for you.