Aims. We investigate the variation in the solar hydrogen Lyman α (Lyα) to Lyman β (Lyβ) line ratio as a function of the solar activity by taking into account new results obtained by SoHO/SUMER and TIMED/SEE. Methods. We reanalyze data of quiet and active regions previously collected with the LPSP multichannel instrument on OSO8. We then re-examine data obtained on the solar disk with SUMER and compare them with previous data. In a second step, we use the full Sun H