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Water, dehydration and learning

Water is the most plentiful compound in our body — over sixty percent of our body mass is water. Our blood is mainly water, and our blood transports oxygen, energy and nutrients around the body. Our brain also has a large volume of water inside and around it. It uses water both for transport of various compounds as well as for protection. Water also plays a key role in cell metabolism. Water moves materials into and out of the cell.

Dehydration, or lack of water in the body, has a harmful impact on learning. Typical symptoms of mild dehydration include headaches, sleepiness and dizziness.

How much water to drink?

You may have heard of the “eight glasses a day” guideline. This guideline however doesn’t consider your own body weight or the large amount of water you get from the foods and drinks you consume each day. Let your own body signal how much water you should drink. If you need to visit the bathroom every hour, you may be drinking too much. If your urine is a dark yellow color, you may not be drinking enough. Find a balance where you visit the restroom perhaps four to five times a day, and you don’t feel thirsty.

Don’t use thirst as the trigger to drink more water though. The thirst sensation triggers only after you have already lost roughly one and half quarts or liters from normal, or around two percent of body mass. When you feel thirsty, you have already lost a reasonable amount of water.

Adjust your water intake based on upcoming events. Increase your intake before you exercise, go into a hot or dry environment, or if you are drinking a lot of coffee or alcohol. Note that coffee and alcohol usually take more water out of your system than they put in.

Stress and water intake

Also be aware that stress can increase the urge to urinate more often. Even in mildly stressful situations, such as before or during exams, the body releases hormones (such as adrenaline) to prime it for physical activity. This can increase the tension in your muscles, including the muscles around your bladder. Your nervous system can misread this tension as a full bladder, causing you feel the urge to go to the bathroom more often than you actually need to. The increased tension in your muscles can also increase the level of waste products in the bloodstream. Your body clears these via your urine. Be aware of the impact of stress and adjust your water intake according to how much you urinate, not by how many visits you make!