What are the signs you aren’t drinking enough water?

Most families in North America don’t drink enough water, but they also don’t know how to tell when they’re dehydrated. There are plenty of signs, and here are the most obvious. 

Most of us don’t drink enough water. We down a glass usually when we feel thirsty – one of the first signs your body uses to tell you it doesn’t have enough water to work right.

There are other signs too. Signs most people don’t recognize as symptoms of dehydration. If you know the signs, you can learn to drink water at the right times and avoid putting that unnecessary dehydration stress on your body for good.

What are the clearest signs of dehydration?

Headaches are common, but shouldn’t saddle you daily:

lot of headaches are triggered by dehydration.

Water helps maintain blood flow and regulate the body’s inflammatory responses:

When your body is short on water, you can experience a sharp headache that amplifies with body movement. And it gets worse when you overheat – which your body is more susceptible to when dehydrated. It’s a terribly snowball effect.

So whenever you feel a headache coming on, down a tall glass of water. 

Pay attention to your pee:

When you drink the right amount of water, you will pee (approximately) 7-8 times in a day, and the color will be generally clear.

When dehydrated, you pee less and the color is much deeper.

If you catch yourself thinking, “hey, self, you haven’t had a pee in quite a while,” it’s time to grab a drink.

You hit a wall and all you want to do is nap:

​A lack of water in your body leads to bouts of severe fatigue.

Water helps deliver oxygen to cells all over your body, and a lack of oxygen leaves your muscles tired and your brain foggy.

People often combat this with coffee or an energy drink, which certainly helps with the immediate fatigue, but doesn’t adequately address the lack of water in your whole body system.

Water on its own is better at alleviating these symptoms over the remainder of the day, while other drinks give a quick fix followed by a magnified crash later in the day.

Your skin looks dry and tired:

The best moisturizer for any part of your skin is water.

No, you don’t need to rub a bunch of water over your face to give it a bright, healthy look.

Drinking water allows your body to send the hydration to the places that need it, including your skin.

Daily water intake maintains the natural production of oils and carries away natural toxins that contribute to premature skin aging.

Oily skin isn’t necessarily the goal, but it’s actually healthier than dry skin.

Dry mouth and lips:

You’ll probably notice a dry mouth and cracking lips before you notice any other symptom of dehydration.

A good lip balm can help maintain the moisture in your lips, but it has to be replenished, and that only comes from water.

You might actually notice your own bad breath first.

Saliva helps keep microorganisms in your mouth under control. When your saliva production drops, bacteria appear and turn your mouth a bit funky.

Filtered water is always best:

Tap water is often contaminated by lead from older municipal or residential pipes and a high level of chlorine added to remove most bacteria, but it self potentially harmful.

Both take away from the health effects of consuming the right amount of water.

Keep your water safe, clean and healthy with an Everpure PBS400 water filtration system. It’s one of the the most popular home water filtration system we carry (and for good reason, it’s affordable, effective and extremely easy to replace filters when needed).