Why You’re Taller in the Morning and Shorter At Night

September 19, 2021

Finger pointing at vertebral disc in the lumbar spine, the anatomical structure responsible for why you're taller in the morning and shorter at night.

A fascinating natural phenomenon occurs each night we go to sleep. We all get a little taller. And as the day goes on, we all get a little shorter. Even though what happens is complex, the explanation is relatively simple.

You probably don’t feel taller in the morning after waking from a good night’s sleep, but you’ve actually grown. The reason lies in the vertebral column, specifically in what is known as the nucleus pulposus, or the inner part of the vertebral disc. The discs in the spine are composed of a gelatin-like material that provides cushioning and protection to the spine. It’s your body’s shock absorber, and with the pounding your vertebrae take during the day with walking, running, bending, lifting, and sitting, it needs time to rest and rejuvenate.

Human vertebrae anatomy diagram.

During the night, when there is no load placed on your spine, fluid is slowly diffusing into the discs in a passive process called imbibition. Without forces compressing the spine, which includes gravity when you’re standing or sitting, discs grow in size due to osmotic pressures. An analogy to consider is that of a balloon with extremely tiny holes in it that is filled with gelatin and water sitting in a tub of water. When the balloon is compressed, water seeps out, decreasing the volume in the balloon. When the compression is released, the reverse happens. Each disc goes through this process at rest and increases in height by a small amount.

The vertebral column is made up of 24 vertebrae (7 cervical vertebrae, 12 thoracic vertebrae, and 5 lumbar vertebrae), and between each vertebra is a disc, 23 in all. The height of the spine increases when you add up the amount that each disc increases in size at night. This makes you about one and a half to two centimeters (around 0.5 to 0.75 inches) taller in the morning. As the day progresses, the discs slowly lose some of their height due to compressive forces, and you’re back to being shorter at night again. The discs can be reduced by up to 15% from compressive forces that happen during the day.

While we get shorter at night and taller in the morning every day, we do shrink over the span of our lives. You weren’t just imagining things when someone you knew who was much older appeared shorter and shorter as they aged. The reason for this is the water content of the discs typically decreases with age. This results in a much narrower disc that doesn’t have the ability to “refill” fully. As before, when you add this up across the entire vertebral column, the loss of height becomes significant. Add to this the natural changes in the curves of the spine as we age, and the change in height becomes even more significant.

Spinal diseases of the spine diagram showing disc protrusion, herniated disc, degenerative disc, and osteophytes.

There are other types of disc problems that can also affect changes in height or give an idea of the health of the discs. One of the common questions asked for someone with back problems is if they have pain or stiffness in the morning after waking. Since the disc is at its fullest point during this part of the day, this can help test the indication of a bulging or herniated disc. Often the pain subsides as the day goes on since the pressure in the disc is decreased and the protrusion of the disc on the nerves in the spine is also reduced.

Even if there isn’t a problem present, many people are just stiff in the morning. Again this is because the disc is at its fullest pressure, and as you begin to move and compress those discs, the stiffness decreases. Of course, there can be other things in play and in the mix, such as ligament, muscle, or soft tissue tightness of the back and neck. A degenerated disc or a thinning disc can also cause problems in the spine and with how well the disc fills at night.

So why do the discs go through this every night, you may ask? The diffusion of fluid provides nutrients to the nucleus pulposus, the central part of the disc, and the fibrous rings that surround it to keep the material in place called the annulus fibrosus. A lack of motion and physical activity decreases disc nutrition, but too much overload on the disc can also lead to those other disc problems mentioned before.

So there is a fine line to walk with disc health. Modern stressors contribute significantly to problems of the discs in the back. Excessive sitting, low amounts of physical activity, and poor posture all reduce the health of the discs. Loading of the spine and movement allows unloading later on and the ability for the discs to revitalize themselves. So keep moving to make sure you keep growing by the time the sun comes up in the morning.

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About the author 

Daniel Ganninger - The writer, editor, and chief lackey of Knowledge Stew, the author of the Knowledge Stew line of trivia books, and editor of Fact World and the Knowledge Stew sister site on Medium, our ad-free subscription sites (you can find out how to join below). I hope you find things here to annoy those around you with your new found knowledge.

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