#ThinkfullyHabit: Drink to think
The benefits of drinking water is not news. Even mild dehydration can lead to poor concentration, increased response times and short term memory issues; no surprise given the brain is about 75% water. However, if we dig a little deeper we can help ourselves a little more by being mindful of how often we drink.
“A man of wisdom delights in water. ”
WHY?
Dr Caroline Edmonds of the University of East London School of Psychology, found that drinking water boosts our reaction times when we're thirsty. Drinking water results in a 14% increased reaction time and improves visual attention and short term memory too. Similarly, Professor Ron Maughan at Loughborough University found that driving while dehydrated is just as dangerous as driving while just over the alcohol limit. So, when we need to keep on task, be alert, vigilant and respond rapidly, we should never go thirsty. Being thirsty can distract us because we easily get occupied with processing the sensations of thirst rather than the task in hand.
However, if we’re not thirsty, then drinking more water doesn’t necessarily improve our cognitive performance - and gulping down large glasses of water before more complex cognitive tasks could even hamper our performance. So, it’s not just about drinking lots of water. As dietitian Sophie Medlin explains, “Ideally, we will keep hydrated through the day by having a drink on the go at all times. When we consume a large volume all at once, our body has to adjust for this." So drinking little and often rather than a big drink every now and then is best, easing back a couple of hours before bed so it doesn’t affect the quality of our sleep. Then again, the neuroscientist Robert Stickgold has been known to recommend drinking 3 glasses of water before sleep as a useful way to wake up multiple times in the night to help recall dreams, but, well, that’s another story…
REFERENCES
Edmonds CJ, Crombie R and Gardner MR (2013) Subjective thirst moderates changes in speed of responding associated with water consumption. Front. Hum. Neurosci. 7:363. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2013.00363
https://www.lboro.ac.uk/media-centre/press-releases/2015/april/54-dehydrated-drivers.html