The best times to drink water

Your body tightly regulates its water balance, so drinking too much water at any one time isn’t good. It’s best to space out your water intake and drink it consistently throughout the day.

That being said, there are certain times of day where it would benefit you greatly to drink water.

Drink a glass of water when you wake up

Make sure that you have some water before you have coffee, tea, or any other drinks. You wake up already dehydrated after being asleep for hours. So drinking water at this point can help you to get up to your baseline of hydration before anything else in your day increases this dehydration. 

Have a glass of water with every meal

Drinking water with your food helps with your digestion. As food moves through your digestive system it absorbs water for its waste processes. Without enough water this can’t happen efficiently.

Your mid-afternoon slump

All of us have experienced the mid-afternoon slump that leaves us reaching for that cup of coffee or a sugar hit. The root cause of this might actually be dehydration. Trying to counteract this slump with coffee or sugar can do more harm than good. 

The coffee or sugar that you have had instead of water could cause your body to become even more dehydrated, leaving you in even more of a slump. When you are dehydrated, your brain function and sleep can be impacted. Not only this, but the caffeine and sugar that you’ve consumed can take at least six hours to leave your system, which, again, can affect the quality of your sleep. 

Before you go to sleep

Have a sip or two of water before you go to sleep. Don’t drink too much, otherwise you’ll have to get up at least once in the night, which will disturb your sleep. If you need to have a glass of water, have it at least an hour before you go to bed so that you can still get a high quality of sleep. It’s always a good idea to have a glass of water by your bed just in case you get thirsty during the night. 

After your adjustment

Drinking water after your adjustment is so important in helping your body to heal. Your spinal discs contain water, and when you move this water is pushed out. The more dehydrated you are, the less water there is in your spinal discs. It’s their water content that contributes to their strength and flexibility that helps to support your spine. Not only this, but your adjustments are designed to help increase mobility in your joints. Your discs need this mobility, and a consistent supply of water to remove any toxins and receive the nutrients they need to heal. Drinking water complements your chiropractic care.

By sticking to these times of day to drink water, it will help you to reach your daily water goal. To calculate how much water you should drink each day use this: For every 35kg of body weight, drink 1 litre of water.

If you are still struggling to hit your daily water goal, we have written a blog on our top tips for increasing your water intake. Water is vital for your health, so make sure you are hitting this number.