Parker 1

CaraNina Parker

English 1302

Section 227

February 28th, 2022

The Benefits of Drinking Enough Water

Introduction

Water makes up around 67% of the human body, yet most people are not drinking

enough water every day. Most actually drink around half of what they should be, which is

significant considering how accessible water can be in first-world countries. When people

deprive themselves of essential nutrients, they cannot expect themselves to be able to function at

their best. The benefits of drinking the correct amount of water are numerous and easy to obtain

in a short amount of time. For the most part, benefits include generally better sleep, relatively

fewer headaches, and much better cognitive flexibility overall.

Background

According to the Mayo Clinic, the average person should be drinking about thirteen and

a half cups of water a day. Essentially, the only problem with this is that the average person only

drinks eight cups a day, as reported by Watertalks. One person conducted a study on herself in

which she kept a journal for a week. On the first day, she recorded how much water she usually

drinks in a day and how she felt. She also recorded the hours she slept in her journal and time

she exercised, documenting her process. She drank the recommended amount and recorded her

subsequent feelings for the rest of the week. On the first day, she reported having "daily

headaches with a sharp pain” (Parker 1). She regularly drinks around sixty-four ounces a day,

equivalent to eight cups. She also regularly exercises every day and recorded how long into her
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workout she could get before getting tired as well as how she works out and the amount of water

she drinks at different times of the day. All of this was recorded in a journal she kept and she

made sure not to read anything on the effects of drinking more water until her experiment was

over in order to make sure that she wasn’t biased.

Headaches and Sleep

After changing her daily intake to fourteen and a half cups, recommended by an online

water intake calculator, Parker reported that she had "fewer and duller headaches” (Parker 4). A

similar study was done where it was found that, while on a sort of larger-scale there was no

significance of drinking water and the lessening of headaches, however,” 47% in the intervention

(water) group self-reported improvement (6 > on a 10-point scale) against 25% in controls"(Price

and Burls). The subject in Parker's journal also says that she had generally interrupted sleep at

night and would get tired in the afternoon and the evening. She felt this was a significant

problem. After drinking the recommended amount of water, she reported that she felt more

awake during the day and was not as tired when she went to bed.

Digestion

Another pro of drinking the correct amount of water is digesting nutrients better. Parker

found that she could exercise longer after drinking more water and a study done in Japan

confirms the same. She reported that she "did not get as tired as [she] used to when working

out”(Parker 5). This was important for Parker as she would cut her workouts short and did not

feel as productive as she could have been. The Japanese study showed through urine samples

that more nutrients were being absorbed when drinking more water (Nakamura et al.). Parker

reported being able to exercise about ten to fifteen minutes longer than the average that she

recorded the week before(Parker 8). She believes that this is significantly substantial in proving
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that she should up her daily water intake and was enough to convince her that she should keep up

with this newly formed habit.

Cognitive Flexibility

The benefits of drinking the correct amount of water do not stop at more energy and

better nutrient digestion. Another reward is better cognitive flexibility. Khan found that pre-

pubescent children achieve much more and concentrate more when drinking the correct amount

of water. The study described in the article records both IQ levels and concentration levels.

Parker achieved comparable results and reported that she could specifically pay attention better

in class and finish assignments more efficiently. She also noted that she did not, for the most

part, feel stressed in her courses as before and felt like she mostly had “much more hours in the

day"(Parker 8). Parker frequently felt that she got distracted easily in her classes and found it

hard to focus before starting the experiment. She was generally glad to discover that she could

turn to something other than medication to aid the problem (Parker 8)

Conclusion

The benefits of drinking the correct amount of water are limitless and have only begun to

be researched in-depth in a profound way. The problem is creating a control/placebo group, but

Parker seems to mostly have gotten around that by using her past self as a baseline and

journaling how she felt every day and the water intake she had for that day, which is quite

significant in terms of overcoming this widespread problem. Parker found that her short study

was very telling of the benefits of this easy trick that she feels has bettered her life. The rewards

of having a healthy water intake are essentially easy to achieve for everyone and could better the

general population if they can find a way to stick to it long enough.

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Works Cited

“Home.” Watertalks.csusb.edu, https://watertalks.csusb.edu/how-much-water-do-people-use.

“How Much Water Do You Need to Stay Healthy?” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical

Education and Research, October 14th, 2020, https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-

lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/water/art-20044256.

Khan, Naiman A, et al. “A 4-D Water Intake Intervention Increases Hydration and Cognitive

Flexibility among Preadolescent Children.” The Journal of Nutrition, vol. 149, no. 12,

2019, pp. 2255–2264., https://doi.org/10.1093/jn/nxz206.

Nakamura, Yumi, et al. “Effect of Increased Daily Water Intake and Hydration on Health in

Japanese Adults.” Nutrients, vol. 12, no. 4, 2020, p. 1191.,

https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12041191.

Parker, CaraNina. “Benefits of Drinking the Recommended Amount of Water for a Week.”

2022.

Price, Amy, and Amanda Burls. "Increased Water Intake to Reduce Headache: Learning from a

Critical Appraisal." Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, vol. 21, no. 6, 2015, pp.

1212–1218., https://doi.org/10.1111/jep.12413.