Is there a connection between hydration levels & anxiety?

Staying hydrated throughout the day improves your physical health in all sorts of ways.To mention a few advantages, drinking water regularly helps your body absorb nutrients from food, supports digestion and weight loss, eases joint movement, and helps regulate proper blood circulation.

Water is crucial for sustaining your mental health, according to researchers. Your risk of developing mood related disorders like anxiety and depression, among other unhealthy mental states, may increase if you are dehydrated consistently.

Let’s dive deeper to understand dehydration’s connection to anxiety, as well as the signs and symptoms of dehydration, and hydration techniques to help increase the fluid levels in your body.

What's the connection between anxiety and dehydration?
There is evidence from numerous research works done in the past that dehydration increases the likelihood of developing mood disorders, especially anxiety.

Dehydration had a mild yet significant impact on anxiety levels in the majority of these research investigations. To comprehend the consequences of dehydration on mood, mental health, and cognitive capacities, researchers all over the world are collecting data and making their own reports on it.

Hydration Lowers the risk of mental disorders like anxiety and depression
In one 2018 study consisting of over 3,000 adults, those who had good hydration levels had a lower risk of anxiety and depression than those who were dehydrated during the study.

Though the link between dehydration and depression was stronger, researchers discovered that those who did not drink enough water experienced more anxiety related symptoms.

Hydration elevates one's mood
In a smaller 2014 study, researchers explored how increasing or decreasing water intake affects mood in people with different water-drinking habits.

They found that people who usually drink lots of water felt less calm, less content, and more tense when their water intake decreased.

When researchers increased the participants’ water intake, people in the study felt more happiness, no matter how much water they normally drank.

Tension increases with dehydration
Researchers in a 2015 study tracked mood and total water intake among 120 healthy women. They found that lower water intake was associated with greater tension, depression, and confusion.

Researchers in a 2011 study found a similar connection between increased tension and dehydration in otherwise healthy men.

Are there other connections between hydration and mood?
Yes. The amount of water you drink can influence other aspects of your mood besides anxiety. Multiple studies have found a link between drinking water and these mental health states:

• Depression
• Confusion
• Fatigue

It’s also possible that your water intake could influence your sleep. Research on this subject is mixed, but at least one study involving Chinese and U.S. adults shows that dehydration is associated with poor sleep.

Research has also shown that poor sleep can lead to more anxiety during your waking hours.

What are the signs you might be dehydrated?
Increased anxiety is one of many indications you’re not getting enough water. Here are some ways to tell if you’re dehydrated:

• Thirst
• Dry Mouth
• Skin Changes, Including Dryness/Redness
• Dark Yellow Urine
• Constipation
• Higher Blood Pressure
• Fast Heart Rate
• Sleepiness or Fatigue
• Headache or Nausea

What can you do to boost your water intake every day?

• Keep water close. Taking your own water bottle with you to work, to the gym, or on errands is a steady reminder to drink up.
• Use Nudge Hydration multiplier for effectively keeping up your water intake. Click here to know how Nudge Hydration multiplier works.
• Set alarms. Using apps and alarms to remind yourself to drink water is an easy way to keep up with daily intake, especially if you’re working to develop the habit.
• Monitor your intake. At key points throughout the day — maybe just before mealtimes — check your hydration benchmarks. Waiting until the end of the day to evaluate your intake may not leave enough time to correct a water imbalance.
• Eat water-rich fruits and vegetables. Up to 20 percent of your daily water consumption could come through the foods you eat, so including fruits and vegetables that are high in water content could help keep you hydrated.
• Aim to finish early. To avoid sleep-defeating bathroom trips, make sure you’ve met your water goals well before it’s time to turn in.

How Much water is enough water?
Nutritional therapist Karen Alexander explains: “The eight glasses a day advice that is often given, is surprisingly not supported by evidence, but can be used as a general guide – especially if you don’t get the usual thirst signals.” 

Nudge brings you an easier solution. Instead of downing so many glasses of water, you can simply choose our hydration multiplier in order to boost your electrolyte levels without being over-hydrated. Being over-hydrated and mindlessly drinking water can lead to sodium flush out from the body.

Is there such a thing as dehydration anxiety?
With enough buzz in the health industry about being hydrated, there’s a new disorder popping up in masses. Ever heard of dehydration Anxiety? It is used to describe a constant fear of not being hydrated enough that leads to anxiety. Millennial are the victims to dehydration anxiety mostly, joining clubs like Pee Clear, No Colour pee and likewise. This mindless consumption of water is not solving the problem of dehydration, but at the cost of over-hydration and hence falling prey to its consequences. Over-hydration is an imbalance of fluids. It happens when your body takes in or holds on to more fluid than your kidneys can remove. Drinking too much water or not having a way to remove it can cause water levels to build up. This dilutes important substances in your blood. One can develop symptoms like cloudy thinking, nausea and vomiting, muscle weakness, spasms or cramps and headaches. In severe cases symptoms could include mental confusion, seizures, unconsciousness and even coma.