Are you concerned with getting enough water in your day to day life?
***NOTE: Take control of how much water you drink per day with a high-quality personal water bottle. Lifestraw bottles can filter water from practically any source, giving you clean drinking water wherever and whenever you need it.
Are you looking for more ways you can fit in all the water you need to drink during your waking hours?
Is drinking too much water before bed a bad thing?
If you’re like most people who are health-conscious and trying to increase their water intake on a regular basis, you’ve probably heard that it can be beneficial to drink water before you go to bed at night. After all, if you’ve ever woken up with a dry mouth or dry hands during the night, you’re probably aware that your body can and often does become mildly dehydrated while you’re sleeping.
Drinking water before you go to sleep at night can keep you more hydrated during the night, and it can also improve your skin as well as your mood if you keep up with it in the long term. However, is it really a good idea to do this? Aren’t there some obvious and less-than-obvious reasons why you might not want to drink that much water before bedtime?
In this article, we’ll give you some information about what you can expect from drinking water before you go to bed at night. And by the time you finish reading here, you may have found that this common health fad isn’t for you.
But don’t worry! Check out the information we have at the end of the article to find out just what you can do instead of drinking water right before you go to sleep at night. By the time you finish reading through everything we have listed here, you’ll be ready to work on improving your water intake and you’ll know just what you can do when it comes to drinking water before sleep, too.
To learn more about whether or not this practice is right for you, read on.
Water at Bedtime
In this section, we’ll give you some information about what you can expect from drinking water at bedtime. Although this may be the ideal solution for some people, most will experience one or more of the negative results from the list below. Here are a few downsides of drinking too much water before bed:
1. The no-brainer
you’ll have to pee more during the night. Obviously, the more water you drink before you go to sleep at night, the more you’re going to need to get up and go to the bathroom while you’re sleeping. And if you have problems with incontinence already, this could mean more accidents or more urgent wakefulness while you’re trying to get your rest. And obviously, this doesn’t sound like an ideal situation for anyone trying to sleep peacefully through the night.
2. You could get a bladder infection
If you don’t wake up to go to the bathroom during the night, your bladder is still going to be more full of urine by the time your alarm clock goes off in the morning. Because of this, and because your body is subconsciously holding your urine until you get up, you’re more likely to experience bladder infections or other urinary tract infections. And when you get an infection like this, it’s going to be tougher to get it cleared up when you aren’t urinating the proper amount throughout the night, too.
3. Interrupting your sleep cycle too often is bad for your heart
Did you know that, after the age of 45, your risk for heart disease goes up based on the type of sleep you’re getting in a night? If you don’t get at least eight hours of uninterrupted REM sleep in a night, you’re more likely to suffer from heart problems the older you get. If you have a family history of problems like this, do yourself a favor and set yourself up for sleeping success as often as possible by cutting back on the water before bedtime.
4. You may experience nightmares or sleep paralysis if you’re already prone to these
While drinking water before bedtime probably isn’t going to give you bad nightmares or cause your first experience with sleep paralysis, if you’re the type of person this already happens to on a regular basis, you may notice it becoming much more frequent the more you have to pee throughout the night. And even if you aren’t waking up all the way to go to the bathroom, your body is processing the need to urinate as an issue and translating it to nightmares or to a sleep paralysis experience. All in all, your night’s sleep may become a lot worse when you have too much water before bed.
5. It could make you constipated
Yes, holding in your urine may also cause your body to hold in everything else, and you may find yourself suffering from constipation more often than not when you drink too much water before bed on a regular basis. It’s much better to keep things flowing properly by drinking enough water during your waking hours and allowing your body—and your digestive system—to reset itself while you’re sleeping, as it’s supposed to. Drinking enough water during the day, however, is a great way to help keep yourself more regular, especially when paired with a proper diet.
Conclusion
Do you feel like you’ve learned a little bit about drinking water before bed? This is something that works well for many people, but there are plenty of reasons why you might not want to do this. As you can see from the list above, there are several negatives when it comes to drinking water at bedtime, and not all of them are as obvious or as visible as others. Keep all of this in mind when you’re trying to decide whether or not to give this practice a try in your own life.
And if you decide you don’t want to, then make sure you know when to stop drinking liquids every day so you don’t have to worry about the problems we mentioned above. What should your cutoff time be for drinking water before bed? Is it the same for everyone? Although everyone’s body is different and you may want to experiment a little bit with this to see what cutoff time works for giving you a good, solid night’s sleep, it’s usually a good idea to stop drinking water or any other liquids two to three hours before you go to bed at night. This gives your body enough time to process the liquids and get you ready to rest.
BONUS VIDEO!
5 Tips for Drinking Water Before Bed
- Drink a glass of water about 30 minutes before bed to stay hydrated throughout the night.
- Avoid drinking too much water right before bed, as it can lead to frequent trips to the bathroom.
- If you are thirsty during the night, drink a small amount of water and avoid sugary drinks.
- Drinking warm water before bed can help relax your body and mind, aiding in better sleep.
- Adding lemon or honey to your glass of water can help improve digestion and reduce bloating.
ALSO: Consider adding herbal tea to your nighttime routine for an extra boost of relaxation!
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About The Author
Joseph Bartley
Editor-In-Chief
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Joseph Bartley, also known as the WaterFilterFanatic, is a seasoned content writer who specializes in water filtration and water quality topics. On AllAboutWaterFilters, he has written a range of water filtration system reviews, water health and quality articles, swimming pool, hot tub and aquarium filtration guides, DIY methods to assist people clean their drinking water, and much more. Joseph enjoys spending his time working with the #AllAboutWaterFilters Editorial Team to provide some of the best quality water filtration content available on the web.