I’m sure you’ll agree that few things are as refreshing as a cold glass of water. Yet, many of us fail to drink enough of it each day. By not consuming enough of this essential resource, we unknowingly harm our bodies over time. If you notice any of the following signs, a simple glass of water could make a big difference.
Signs that you’re not drinking enough water
1. Your Mouth is Dry
This may seem like common sense, but the full impact might not be so obvious. Naturally, when you experience that dry, unpleasant feeling in your mouth, your instinct is to reach for something to drink. However, sugary beverages provide only a short-term fix to a deeper issue. Water, on the other hand, helps hydrate and lubricate the mucus membranes in your mouth and throat, ensuring long-lasting moisture through continuous saliva production even after your initial sip.
2. Your Skin is Dry
Your skin is the largest organ of your body, so keeping it hydrated is essential. In fact, dryness is often an early indicator of dehydration, which can escalate into more serious issues. When your body lacks sufficient water, it produces less sweat, making it harder to flush out dirt and oil that build up throughout the day. To help prevent breakouts and maintain healthy skin, your first line of defense should be drinking more water.
3. You’re Overly Thirsty
We’ve already covered dry mouth, but thirst is more than just a parched tongue. Anyone who’s ever had a hangover knows that overwhelming need for water upon waking up. Alcohol dehydrates the entire body, and drinking water immediately triggers a “YES, PLEASE!” response from your brain until your fluid levels are restored. Pay attention to what your body is telling you—it knows exactly what it needs!
4. Your Eyes Are Dry
By now, it’s clear that drinking water impacts far more than just your mouth and throat. Insufficient hydration can lead to dry, bloodshot eyes—much like the aftermath of a bad hangover. Without enough water, your tear ducts dry up, and while you might think, “So what if I can’t cry?” the consequences go beyond that. Proper eye moisture is essential, especially for those who wear contact lenses regularly, as dryness can cause irritation and even long-term damage.
5. You Experience Joint Pain
Our cartilage and spinal discs are made up of about 80% water. This is an absolute necessity to keep our bones from grinding against each other with every step we take. By keeping your body hydrated, you ensure that your joints can absorb the shock of sudden movements, such as running, jumping, or falling awkwardly.
6. Your Muscle Mass Decreases
Your muscles, also, are comprised mostly of water. Obviously, less water in the body means less muscle mass. Drinking water before, during, and after a workout not only keeps you hydrated and comfortable, it also brings water to the right places in your body, and decreases the chance of developing inflammation and soreness related to exercise and weightlifting.
7. You Stay Sick Longer
Drinking water allows your body to continuously flush out toxins. Your organs work to filter our certain waste products like a machine, but if you don’t fuel the machine with water, it cannot work properly. What ends up happening in a dehydrated body is organs start to pull water from stored areas like your blood, which leads to a whole new set of problems.
8. You Feel Fatigued and Lethargic
As we just mentioned, when a body is dehydrated it “borrows” water from your blood. A lack of properly hydrated blood leads to a lack of oxygen being brought throughout the body. Of course, a lack of oxygen leads to sleepiness and outright fatigue. A lack of stamina means you’ll start to experience that 2PM crash earlier and earlier in your day (and remember, coffee won’t help in the long run).
9. You Experience Hunger Pangs
When you’re dehydrated, your body might start to think it needs some food. This happens throughout the day, and overnight when you wake up craving that midnight snack. However, eating food creates more work for your body, whereas drinking water purifies and your organs and supplies it with the fuel it needs to go through the other processes a body goes through.
10. You Experience Digestive Problems
We spoke before about the mucus in our mouth and throat, and how keeping hydrated allows the membrane to function correctly. This also applies to the entire digestive system. Without proper hydration, the amount and strength of mucus in the stomach lessens, allowing stomach acid to do some major damage to your insides. This leads to what we commonly refer to as heartburn and indigestion.
11. You Experience Constipation
Staying hydrated helps lubricate the digestive system. During the process of dehydration, the colon uses up the water that would have been used by the intestines in the next step of the digestive process. Without going into too much detail, I’ll let you figure out what a lack of lubricant in the intestines leads to.
12. You Experience Reduced Urination
Believe it or not, if you’re not taking a trip to the restroom 4-7 times a day, you’re probably not drinking enough water. And when you do go #1, it should be a light yellow or clear color. If it’s a darker yellow, your body is telling you it’s lacking proper hydration. In extreme cases, dehydration can lead to urinary tract infections, in which case you should consult a doctor right away.
13. You Experience Premature Aging
The amount of water our bodies retain naturally decreases as we age. Obviously, what this means is that, as we get older, we should consciously increase our water intake. While premature aging is more evident on the outside, the damage it does to our insides will ultimately be felt over time. To decrease the risk of running your body raw, it’s important to continue to drink water throughout your lifetime.
14. You’re reading this and have got this far
If you clicked on this article, chances are you thought to yourself “I don’t think I drink enough water.” The European Food Safety Authority and many others recommend that women should drink about 1.6 litres of fluid and men should drink about 2.0 litres of fluid per day. That’s about eight glasses of 200ml each for a woman, and 10 glasses of 200ml each for a man. However, the amount a person needs to drink to avoid getting dehydrated will vary depending on a range of factors, including their size, the temperature and how active they are. So, for example, if you’re exercising hard in hot weather you’ll need to drink more.
All drinks count, including hot drinks such as tea and coffee, but water, milk and fruit juices are the healthiest. It is best to avoid alcoholic drinks. Also, try to avoid sugary, soft and fizzy drinks that can be high in added sugars. These can be high in calories and bad for teeth.