Gulp Loud When Drinking? 9 Tips to Gulp Quietly

Last updated: October 4, 2023 at 14:49 pm

You wake up in the morning, pour yourself a cup of coffee, and when you take your first sip, your partner rolls over and asks you if you need a straw. You’ve been told that you make an atrociously loud gulping noise when you drink – and it’s not just at home.

It happens at work, with family… anywhere you have to consume a liquid. Gulping is an embarrassing problem, but we’re here to help!

Why Do We Make Loud Gulping Sounds?

The gag reflex is the weird gulping sound you make when you swallow your coffee or juice. It is typically triggered by large amounts of food or liquid in the back of the throat. When we’re young, our gag reflex is much more sensitive than when we’re older, so we make those gulping sounds more often as children.

But it also seems to be pretty standard for us to make those noises even as adults. We’re trying to get a drink down too quickly or distracted by something else while drinking.

Either way, there’s no need for alarm! Gulping is normal and nothing to worry about unless you start doing it every time you swallow or drink something.

Also read: How to Sneeze Quietly: 6 Ways to Control the Noise

9 Do-Able Tips to Gulp Quietly

Remember these tips to swallow quietly when drinking water or any other beverage.

1. Drink With a Straw

If you can’t stop gulping your drinks down, try using a straw. Straws force you to drink slower, and they also help separate the sound of the liquid hitting the cup from the air moving in and out of your mouth. The best straw to use is a reusable metal; these are available at most grocery stores and online.

Another benefit to using straws is that they will prevent you from spilling any drinks or getting stains on your clothes. They also make it easier to take sips while driving or lying down without hurting your neck.

Consider investing in a water bottle that has a sip-with-straw lid. The water bottle will force you to drink more slowly and help keep your gulping noises under control.

2. Don’t Lift Your Head With Every Sip

Raising your head while drinking allows excess air to enter the throat, which causes the gulping noise. You will also swallow faster if your head is up, which increases the likelihood of a loud gulp or slurp.

A simple way to stop drinking with loud sounds is to keep your chin down while drinking. By keeping your chin down, you will also be able to drink slower and not raise your head after every sip.

If you do happen to lift your head after taking a gulp, take note of it and try to lower your chin the next time you drink. The more you pay attention to it, the more likely you will correct yourself and eventually learn how to keep your head down while drinking.

3. Hold the Cup or Glass Tightly

Holding a glass cup more firmly helps reduce the amount of space inside, reducing the volume of liquid that can be swallowed. This act will cause less air to be sucked in as you drink, reducing gulping noise.

Hold it with both hands to get a solid but gentle grip when drinking from a cup. Use your thumbs and first fingers wrapped around the base of the cup, and your second and third fingers curled around its edge.

When drinking from a glass, hold it by its stem (if there is one) or place the thumb and first finger firmly on opposite sides of the rim.

4. Use a Reusable, Non-Plastic Cup

One of the most common causes of loud gulping noises is plastic cups. Plastic is thinner than other materials, such as glass or ceramic, and it can’t muffle gulping sounds. At the same time, they’re being sucked into your mouth. Try to avoid drinking from plastic cups by purchasing reusable, non-plastic cups. Some options include:

• Stainless steel water bottles and tumblers. These are durable and usually insulated to keep your drinks cold or hot for a more extended time. You can purchase these at most retail stores or order them online.
• Ceramic mugs. Typically these work well, especially when filled with hotter liquids rather than room temperature. If you like drinking hot beverages, get a ceramic mug instead of a plastic cup to avoid making noise as you drink from it. You can purchase ceramic mugs at most retail stores and online retailers.
• Glass tumblers and mason jars. Glass is thicker than plastic and stainless steel, so drinking from Glass can help prevent noisy gulping noises from occurring. You can purchase these at most retail stores or online retailers.

If you can’t stop using plastic cups, try not tipping your drink back too far while you’re drinking. This act will help prevent large amounts of liquid from rushing into your mouth all at once. You should also take small sips when possible, so the liquid doesn’t make a loud noise as it comes in contact with the bottom of the cup.

5. Learn How to Breathe While Drinking

Many people take shallow breaths when they drink because they are too focused on their drink and not breathing correctly. If you keep practicing this lousy habit, it will become a habit and cause you to swallow hard whenever you drink.

Loud gulping noises when you drink are often caused by a lack of oxygen in your lungs. When there is not enough oxygen, your muscles tense up and contract to try to breathe in more air, which can cause you to swallow hard.

To prevent this from happening, try taking a deep breath before drinking. At a restaurant or bar, try taking small sips of your drink at first until you feel comfortable with the amount of liquid entering your throat.

6. Savor Each Sip for a Moment Before Swallowing

When you gulp something down, the liquid in your throat is under a lot of pressure. The pressure causes the gulping noise.

To swallow quietly, you want to avoid the liquid gathering at the back of your throat. Instead, you want it to flow down and across your tongue before swallowing it.

The best way is to drink it in small sips, which you savor each one for a moment before swallowing it. Another tip is to put your lips close to the cup when you drink so no air bubbles reach your mouth.

7. Drink Water in Short Bursts

The best way to stop gurgling is to prevent it from happening in the first place. You can control how fast you drink water to avoid making gulping sounds. It might be hard for people who are used to consuming large quantities of water at a time, but it’s not impossible.

Drinking water in short bursts helps you avoid gulping, which is the leading cause of gurgling sounds while drinking water. Gulping occurs when you try to consume large amounts of water at once, and little air escapes your throat while swallowing at the same time. The air gets trapped in your throat and stomach, which causes gurgling noises as you continue drinking.

If you’re used to drinking large quantities of water, try breaking up how much you drink into smaller increments and take breaks between each sip or swallow.

8. Finish Chewing Before Drinking

If you’re eating a food that requires chewing, such as nuts, finish chewing before drinking. Chewing produces extra saliva and air in your mouth. If you consume right away, the excess liquid and air pass down your throat noisily.

The extra saliva might help your food go down more quickly, but the sound will be loud enough to disrupt others around you. Even if the food is soft enough, you don’t need to chew it. Finish swallowing before taking a sip of liquid.

Make sure your mouth is empty before you take a bite or drink some water or juice – that way, your next sip will be silent instead of full of those annoying chewing noises!

9. Watch Out for Carbonation

Carbonated beverages like soda and sparkling water can produce bubbles when you drink them, leading to noisy gulping. To avoid this problem,

To prevent the bubbles from going up into your mouth, tilt your head back slightly as you lift your glass to drink. Tilting lets the bubbles rise toward the top of the glass instead of toward your mouth.
Another way to stop yourself from guzzling down your soda is to pour yourself only a small amount at a time. When you do this, you drink slower and more carefully, but you also enjoy more glasses of soda.

Conclusion

Some people have a condition called aerophagia, which causes them to swallow air and make loud gulping noises when they drink. When someone is diagnosed with this condition, they should seek medical advice.

If you don’t have aerophagia or another issue that causes it, follow the simple ways above to stop gulping when drinking.