One possible explanation that comes to mind is that this is some neurological effect of variation in your glucocorticoid level, which exhibits circadian fluctuations. Cortisol for example, probably the most prominent and well-known glucocorticoid, typically peaks when you wake up and then decreases throughout the rest of the day.
Obviously there's not too much research on the phenomenon you're describing but this study measured the effects of glucocorticoid levels on pitch-discrimination, and it turns out there is a positive correlation between the two, with higher glucocorticoid levels leading to higher perceptual sensitivity regarding pitch. I would not be surprised if the out-of-tuneness you're perceiving in the morning stems from exactly this; in the early morning when your cortisol levels peak you may have a greater sensitivity to slight microtonality or pitch fluctuations in the music you're listening to. Hell your brain may even be perceiving how wrong most music inherently is, since strictly speaking every note in equal temperament tuning is slightly out of tune and we only use it because trying to get perfectly tuned ratios between notes creates annoying enharmonic gaps. Also most music, apart from those that use pure sine waves, will possess many timbral harmonics and inharmonics that are not in tune at all.
p
One possible explanation that comes to mind is that this is some neurological effect of variation in your glucocorticoid level, which exhibits circadian fluctuations. Cortisol for example, probably the most prominent and well-known glucocorticoid, typically peaks when you wake up and then decreases throughout the rest of the day.
Obviously there's not too much research on the phenomenon you're describing but this study measured the effects of glucocorticoid levels on pitch-discrimination, and it turns out there is a positive correlation between the two, with higher glucocorticoid levels leading to higher perceptual sensitivity regarding pitch. I would not be surprised if the out-of-tuneness you're perceiving in the morning stems from exactly this; in the early morning when your cortisol levels peak you may have a greater sensitivity to slight microtonality or pitch fluctuations in the music you're listening to. Hell your brain may even be perceiving how wrong most music inherently is, since strictly speaking every note in equal temperament tuning is slightly out of tune and we only use it because trying to get perfectly tuned ratios between notes creates annoying enharmonic gaps. Also most music, apart from those that use pure sine waves, will possess many timbral harmonics and inharmonics that are not in tune at all.
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