> > I don't think you can explain the curious quality of the "I-just-woke-up" vocal tone as being due entirely to a person's grogginess.
> > Wolf "puzzled" spirit
>
> I was thinking about your example of a person getting up suddenly to answer the phone. One possibility, which is usually the case with me, is that if I get up quickly I have difficulty distinguishing dream from reality for a few minutes (well, 45 minutes on a bad morning).
>

That very rarely happens to me, but when it has happened, it freaks me out. I mean, like waking up from an afternoon nap with the idea it's Tuesday morning and You're Late for Work, and it takes 20 minutes before it finally sinks in that it's actually an overcast Saturday afternoon.

I look upon this kind of reality confusion as an example of what it must "feel like" to be actually psychotic...


> There might be less bloodflow to the brain right after sleep. Someone else will have to verify or eliminate that thought.
>

I don't know. I do know from latest research that certain parts of the brain receive a HUGE boost in metabolic activity (in blood flow and electrical signalling) during sleep, while other parts go practically dead (quiescent). The April issue of Discover magazine has an article on dreaming which says "Braun and his colleagues found that during REM sleep much of the prefrontal cortex [the thinking part of your brain] is off-line, unable to carry out its waking task of censoring material, while there are high rates of activity in the complex sensory processing parts of the brain concerned with emotion and memories." So if brain activity is reversed during sleep from the normal waking pattern, then I suppose you're right -- it could take a bit of time for one's cerebral metabolics to transition to the conscious state when you can begin to think "normally."


> While writing this, my mother walked through the room. She's a nurse, so I asked her. She suggests that mucus accumulates on the vocal cords of people while they are asleep and not using their voices. The mucus would make the voices unsteady and different for a short period of time.
>
> gab"fully awake now--a rarity"by

Oh good. Does she mean mucous draining down from the nose into the back of the throat? How about gastric reflux products and the ciliary-propelled secretions from the lungs? Ask her if she thinks throat dehydration (from heavy breathing during sleep?) could also make the vocal folds less elastic, and therefore vibrate less effectively when you first speak in the morning. Ask her if she has any patients who use a humidifier in their rooms and whether THEY sound funny in the morning.

Wolf "gulp a glass of water" spirit

P.S. And wish your Mom a great day for me, too.