Many of us drink things other than water, especially in the morning. The first thing we might reach for is coffee, tea, or orange juice, but we should really be giving out bodies some unadulterated water the first thing after waking up.
What happens to the body at night
Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night completely parched? This is a common occurrence for many of us, and for others it might happen every night, which leaves some of us to leave bottles or cups of water by the bedside. The fact is that when we sleep, our bodies become dehydrated, so it should be an indicator that your body needs water when it wakes.
Your body goes 6, 8, or 10 full hours without any fluid intake when you’re sleeping, and since a huge percentage of our bodies are made of water, that means that you could be losing water through sweat and normal bodily processes while sleeping. Our bodies need water to function, and we should give that to it when it needs it!
What happens when you drink water to start the day?
Starting the day with a glass of water can help do the following:
- Fire up your metabolism — a study shows that drinking specifically cold water can help increase your metabolism by up to 24% for up to 90 minutes.
- Rehydrate you — remember your body just went about 8 hours without any fluid intake!
- Help get your day started by increasing brain function — Rehydrating your body can help keep the water levels in your brain from dwindling. Your brain needs lots of water to function: it’s about 75% comprised of water. Lift that morning brain fog by drinking a glass of water!
- You’ll eat less — if you’re looking to lose weight, water is actually an appetite suppressant, and can help you on your weight loss journey.
You may also want to compare what you might be trading off with coffee in the morning:
- Caffeine is a diuretic, meaning that it doesn’t let you retain as much water than if you had just only been drinking water. While a cup of coffee a day isn’t going to dehydrate you, drinking something that keeps you from rehydrating when you need it most might not be the best.
- Caffeine can interfere with the production of cortisol, which can actually wake our bodies up. Check out this video that explains:
How much water should you drink?
If you consider most health officials recommend drinking eight 8 ounce glasses of water a day, you could easily drink 8 ounces of water to give your body a good kick-start for the day. For reference, 8 ounces is one cup, which isn’t much at all — 4 ounces less than a standard can of coke.
Do you drink water when you get up? How has it affected your day to day routine? Let us know in the comments below!