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Humans are slightly taller in the morning than at night

Gravitational compression squeezes fluid from spinal discs during daytime

Throughout the day, standing and walking subject the spine to gravity, squeezing small amounts of water out of cartilage intervertebral discs. During sleep, reduced axial pressure lets discs rehydrate and expand, making a person up to one centimetre taller upon waking.

Illustration human vertebral column, skull, pelvic bone, scapula
Bobjgalindo ยท CC BY 4.0 ยท licence ยท source

Where this comes from

Encyclopaedia Britannica

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Tags: spine, height, gravity

Humans are slightly taller in the morning than at night: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?
Gravitational compression squeezes fluid from spinal discs during daytime. The figure is taken from Encyclopaedia Britannica, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a human body fact?
Yes. It sits on the Human Body shelf, one of 1,090 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
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