If you've got a real thirst-on, then you might have slipped into the first stage of dehydration. This kind of mild dehydration can have a number of quite significant impacts on you.
Technically, thirst = a 1% loss of water in your body. This may not sound much but this means that your memory function, attention-span, concentration and reaction time can decrease by about 10%.
Dehydration effects not only impair people physically, they can also lead to cognitive decline. Just two hours of dehydration can have an impact on your body and brain in a number of ways.
Dehydration effects you need to know about
1) Adversely effects your mental performance
One of the most common side effects of dehydration has to do with your brain power. Water is essential for the well-functioning of every cell in our body, including the ones in our brains. So, if you’re finding it hard to focus or navigating complex tasks is more difficult than usual, check your water intake. All you might need to sharpen your focus is a quick run to the water dispenser to fill your water bottle.
2) Impair your hand-eye motor coordination
Dehydration can also affect your hand-eye coordination – one more reason to drink plenty of water during your workout. So, the next time you’re feeling at a disadvantage on the tennis court, remember that making yourself drink more water might be the solution.
3) Reduce alertness & increase tiredness
The lack of water will make our brain want to slow down and use as little resources as possible. Combat this dehydration effect by making sure you’ve got a daily water intake goal and start aiming for it as soon as you wake up.
4) Make you light-headed or give you a headache
Wondering if dehydration can cause dizziness and headaches? It turns out that pestering migraines can also be a result of a lack of hydration. So, the next time you’re feeling a splitting headache take over, it might be because you skipped one or two glasses of water. How amazing that sometimes all we need to feel better is just a glass of crisp, pure water you can pour straight away from your dispenser.
5) Make you irritable or more aggressive
Feeling annoyed at everything and everyone? We’ve all been there… Although we can’t promise that chugging water will fix all the problems, it will definitely help put you in a better mental space to deal with them. That’s because another common dehydration effect is irritability. We’re serious when we say hydration is the key to happiness!
6) Make you feel like you can't summon up any effort
It’s happened to all of us. You’ve got so many things to do, but so little oomph to see them through. There are many reasons for a lack of motivation, but you should know that a side effect of dehydration is increased lethargy. When your body doesn’t have enough water, it will tend to keep resource use at a minimum, so naturally, there won’t be much spare energy left for all the amazing things you want to do throughout the day. Head for your water system to rehydrate and you might feel a difference.
How to combat the effects of dehydration
Glugging anything from a small glass of water to a full water bottle can have an immediate alerting and revitalising effect. It can even help to relieve headaches caused by mild dehydration within half an hour. Don't forget to keep hydrated throughout the day. Here are the best hydrating drinks you can choose.
If you get lots of headaches or migraines - drinking an extra litre of water a day has shown to help reduce their duration and intensity.
If you're not feeling 100%, you don't necessarily need to reach for tons of supplements or miracle health cures - you might just need to drink a bit more water and add more hydrating foods to your diet. Check out all the benefits of drinking filtered water.
