Alexis Celis

ENGL 1302-218

Dr. Sharity Nelson

14 February 2023

The Importance of Hydration

Introduction

         During the academic year, a student’s main priority is to focus on academic courses. With

this, the act of taking care of oneself is neglected. There have been studies that have proven that

hydration plays a big role in ones’ mental and physical well-being. For instance, in Popkin, et

al.’s article it states that those who are dehydrated had an increase of mood changes, mainly with

fatigue, confusion, anger, and vigor. Hydration has the possibility to increase the chance of

cognition function, health benefits, and productivity improvement.

The Experiment Method

         A four-day experiment was conducted to see if drinking the average amount of water

recommended everyday would affect a students’ performance. In the experiment there were two

volunteers: Hispanic, 18-year-old, female university students. This experiment took place on the

students busiest days of the week, Monday through Thursday. In order to stay on top of the

progress, the volunteers used a small notebook to write down their progress. The data that was

recorded was the times that they started and finished drinking the water, about improvements

they noticed, how much work they completed, and how they felt in the morning, during the day,

and at night. The volunteers drank different amounts of water daily, 64 ounces and 40 ounces per

day. The volunteers had to finish most of the water before 8pm, since they were most active
during the day. In this experiment, the volunteers were not limited to get more water, however

they were limited to only drinking water, unless necessary.

Results

         The goal of this experiment was to determine whether or not the impact of hydration in

students play a big role. The results from this experiment do in fact show an improvement in the

volunteers cognitive function, health benefits, and productivity improvement. Over the last four

days the data collected from the volunteers were similar. Yet, volunteer one showed a slight

increase of productivity improvement throughout the days. This was the effect of volunteer one

drinking more water than the volunteer two. In the procedure, there were some difficulties that

the volunteers had. The difficulties consisted of drinking a sugary drink and either struggling to

finish the water or they drank more water. By the end of the third day, volunteer 1 had felt

energized throughout the entire day. On the other hand, volunteer 2 did notice an increase in

productivity, yet didn’t feel much progress. In the figure below, the audience can see the

progress made by the volunteers throughout the four days. Within these days, the audience can

see that there is a consistency between the four days of an increase of four to five percent.

Figure 1.

Cognitive Function

According to the article on, Water, Hydration, and Health, “Water, or its lack

(dehydration), can influence cognition. Mild levels of dehydration can produce disruptions in

mood and cognitive functioning.” (Popking, Barry, and Kristen D’Anci, and Irwin H.

Rosenberg). Hydration is crucial in cognitive function. Cognitive function is what controls

aspects of “complex brain activities”, which include, “problem solving, reasoning, and problem

solving” (Brief). Students who lack in keeping up with the recommended water intake can suffer

from mood disturbances. Not only is mood affected cognitively, but visual perceptions can also

be altered due to dehydration. These visual perceptions cause students to make mistakes that

could’ve easily not been made. Because of the lack of proper hydration, this can cause a student

to stress out. Which in the long run, can lead to “anxiety, sleep deprivation, and numerous

problems” (Yang and Yang).

Benefits

In Sherry Maykrantz’s article it states that, “Colleges and universities across the nation

are facing a serious health problem, and stress is the culprit. While stress is inevitable, it is

becoming more and more prevalent among college students, creating an increasing health crisis

at our nation’s colleges and universities.” The health benefits of being hydrated can also improve

a student’s well-being. After being at the university all day, finishing assignments, going to

extracurriculars, having meetings, going to work, or the responsibility of a child can all lead a

student to immense stress. This causes the neglect to begin. Something as simple as forgetting to

drink water can affected ones health. The human body relies heavily on water because it

improves not only the oxygen in our blood, which runs throughout the body, but the fluidity of

the muscles.

Staying hydrated also strengthens the immune system. By strengthening the immune

system, it allows the prevention of infections or illnesses. Having an illness will cause a student

to miss class and if that student isn’t properly hydrated then said student won’t be able to recover

sooner, and workload will pile up.  This plays a large role in the understanding of why water is
so important to humans. “Water is the largest constituent of the human body. It accounts for

more than 60% of the human body's volume. Water is essential for cellular homeostasis, playing

important roles in physiological and biochemical functions. Many factors impact daily hydration

needs and our ability to hydrate.” (Douglas, Kalman and Lepeley, Anna). Knowing that water is

essential, it is important to maintain a healthy cycle of being hydrated.

To continue, sleep is another one of those things that students have trouble with.

However, studies show that when hydrated it is faster to fall asleep. This is mainly because water

is the crucial ingredient to maintaining homeostasis, which helps regulate the brain and maintain

that healthy cycle. The benefits of staying hydrated also improve productivity. In detail, when

hydrated the nutrients from the water flow into the bloodstream through systemic circulation. By

staying hydrated those nutrients flow to the brain and allow us to focus more and not get as

distracted. The history of why being hydrated is so important is essential to understand because

in the end it will improve one’s overall well-being.

Conclusion

Overall, the experiment confirmed the hypothesis in part. The increase in productivity

increased, cognition, and health benefits. However, in this experiment, there was some negative

feedback from the volunteers. The students stated that they had to urinate more during class time

and during assignments. This was a distraction that both students faced, causing them to miss

parts of the lecture and time off from assignments that they normally wouldn't miss. The positive

feedback did, however, confirm the hypothesis. The students’ productivity, cognition, and health

benefits increased. As opposed to the article on hydration with student in Mali, there was a

difference between that experiment and the one conducted here. The article states that “A pilot
study was conducted to adapt field measures of short-term cognitive performance and hydration,

to evaluate levels of hydration, and to investigate the impact of providing supplementary

drinking water on the cognitive performance of pupils attending water-scarce schools in rural

Mali” (Chard, et al). The students in Mali had limited access to water, whereas here in the United

States water is mostly accessible for everyone. Another factor to consider is in Mali, the

experiment done was on children. Whereas in the experiment that was conducted, the data was

based on how the volunteers (college students, age range of 18) felt and how the improvement of

academic performance increased. The experiment confirmed that the hypothesis on the

importance of hydration, in part mainly because due to this experiment only being 4 days, the

data given was not completely reliable, making this debatable of the placebo effect and the fact

that it is mainly loyalty based.

 
 Works Cited

Brief, In. “Cognitive Function in Brief.” Linus Pauling Institute, 28 Apr. 2017,

lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic/health-disease/cognitive-function-inbrief#:~:text=Cognition

%20basically%20means%20using%20your,problem%20solving%2C

%20andmultitasking). Accessed 3 Feb. 2023.

Chard, Anna, et al. “The Impact of Water Consumption on Hydration and Cognition Among

Schoolchildren: Methods and results from a crossover trail in rural Mali.” Plos One, vol.

14, no. 01, 2019, pp. 01-09. PLoS ONE,  https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0210568

Douglas, Kalman, and Lepeley, Anna. “A Review of Hydration.” Strength and Conditioning

Journal, vol. 32, no. 2, 2010, pp. 56-63. Strength and Conditioning Journal,

https://doi.org/10.1519/SSC.0b013e3181c21172

Maykrantz, Sherry. “Self-leadership and Stress Among College Students: Examining the

moderating role of coping skills†.” Journal of American College Health, vol. 68, no. 1,

2020, pp. 89-96. Taylor & Francis, https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2018.1515759

Popkin, Barry M, et al.“Water, Hydration, and Health.” Nutrition Reviews, vol. 68, no. 8, 2011,

pp. 439-458. National Library of Medicine, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1753-

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Yong, Yang, and Pingzhan Yang. “Effect of College Students’ Academic Stress on Anxiety

Under the Background of the Normalization of COVID-19 Pandemic: The Mediating and

Moderating Effects of Psychologicla Captial.” Frontiers in Psychology, vol.13, no.1,

2022, Frontiers,  https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.880179