Hydration Schedule for Quality Sleep

Sometimes, you will wake up in the morning feeling lazy and disappointed, instead of feeling refreshed and rested. Some people attribute this to bad dreams and a range of other absurd misconceptions. The truth is, you are one of those people who suffer from mild insomnia.

Quite often, you blame your inability to get quality sleep on watching late night TV, playing video games up to 2 am, work and family-related stress, or the next-door neighbor who couldn’t stop quarreling with his wife all night long.   What you don’t know is that not drinking water, and drinking water at the wrong time during the day can deny you the honor of having a good night’s sleep.

The National Sleep Foundation asserts that the level of hydration can impact the quality of sleep. Additionally, even mild dehydration could disrupt your sleep and can cause hoarseness and snoring in the morning. This is one of the major reasons why you should take a lot of water, and encourage your partner (if you have one) to follow suit!

To live a healthy life, you need to get enough sleep every day. Thanks to the things you go through, achieving this might prove to be a vicious cycle. Thankfully, experts have identified a hydration schedule, which will ensure you drink enough water during the day and fall asleep like a baby when night falls. Read on!

Wait for at least two hours after you wake up to take your coffee

Crazy, right?

When you wake up, the first thing you do is walk to your coffee maker, squeeze your favorite brew, and have your breakfast. Well, this could look fine to you, but it is against experts recommendations.

Coffee is a known diuretic, which means that it fills your bladder fast.   When you wake up, you are already dehydrated because you have stayed for about 8 hours without taking water. Therefore, taking coffee after you wake up may work against you as far as hydration is concerned.

If you do your workouts in the morning, it is recommended that you take water instead of coffee as soon as wake up. Then, you can rest for at least two hours before you feed your body with caffeine. This will keep you refreshed throughout the day, and when complemented with other elements of the hydration schedule, it will certainly increase your quality of sleep.

Drink water with all your meals

When you read the wrong blogs and websites (which are in high supply these days), you will refute this statement as soon as you read it. This is because there are individuals who purport to be “health experts” who feed their readers with the belief that drinking water with your meals may dilute your stomach acids, making it difficult for your body to absorb nutrients. Treat this as a myth!

Drinking water with your meals helps the stomach absorb nutrients and liquefy food; thus speeding up the digestion process. Also, it keeps the digestive system lubricated; therefore preventing constipation. This will give you comfort, and when the time comes for you to retire to bed, you can rest assured that you will sleep like a baby!

 Eat foods with high water content

If you can’t have enough water for some reason, and you have embraced healthy living; thus you are avoiding carbonated drinks and fruit-flavored juices, eating foods with high water content is all you need to keep you hydrated and get enough sleep when the time comes.  

There are many foods, especially fruits and veggies which contain high water content. Watermelon is one of the best fruits you need to make your best friend, especially during the summer because it contains high volumes of water which can keep you refreshed and hydrated even when your favourite 32 oz water bottle is empty. Other foods include strawberries, celery, oranges, cantaloupe, spinach, and cucumbers.

Luckily, these foods are also nutritious. Therefore, they will not only keep your body hydrated, but they will also feed it with all the minerals it needs to function.

You need to know that even with if these foods supplying your body with the fluid it needs to keep it hydrated, complementing them with water now and then will improve your sleep even further.

Don’t take caffeine for at least 6 hours before sleeping

Even if you are at work at 4 pm, and you feel the urge to take a nap but you must complete some pending work, don’t be tempted to grab a cup of coffee or any other caffeinated drink to keep you awake. Studies have revealed that taking caffeine within a period of six hours before going to bed can make it nearly impossible to fall asleep.

If all you need is to take a drink to remain awake, you can opt for decaffeinated beverages. Also, you can try other methods such as taking a walk around the building or simply walk into the next office and try having a conversation.

Take a glass of water before retiring to bed

Some people will tell you that when you take a glass of water before going to bed, you will have the urge to pee all night, and this might affect your sleep. Well, to some extent, this is true if you guzzle several glasses or one huge bottle of the fluid. However, drinking one glass before hitting the sack will do you no harm. In fact, it will prevent you from waking up in the middle of your dreams due to unbearable leg cramps or uncontrollable thirst.

If you have been wondering why you cannot get enough sleep, you have the answer — you did not have a defined hydration schedule. To you, it may be hard to believe that staying hydrated can affect the quality of sleep which is critical in human health. However, with the hydration schedule outlined in this post, you don’t have to buy sleeping pills or do all manner of things to get to slumberland. Try them out and be the judge!

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Written by HealthStatus Crew
Medical Writer & Editor

HealthStatus teams with authors from organizations to share interesting ideas, products and new health information to our readers.

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