If you’re in the middle of a long day on the job, you might grab a cup of coffee for a caffeine boost to carry you to the finish line. But did you know that a coffee beverage might not be the pick-me-up your body needs?
Instead of chugging loads of caffeine to make it through the daily grind, you’d be better served by making the switch to water. H2O can benefit your day to day life at work without any of the same drawbacks you can expect from caffeine, such as jitteriness, anxiety, and sudden crashes. Think of water as one of the many solutions of how to stay healthy in the workplace.
What precisely can water do for you that caffeinated drinks or other sugary drinks can’t? How will it help improve your workday flow? And why should you start thinking about your water intake? We’ll answer all these questions and more in our guide to the best benefits of drinking water at work. Let’s dive in!
#1 You’ll Have Fewer Headaches
No one enjoys developing a headache near the end of the workday, but it’s an unfortunate reality for many of us. Whether you’re staring at a screen all day, coping with deadline-related stress, or dealing with frustrating coworkers, there are many reasons why a day at the office can end with a headache. It’s also possible that your headache is caused by mild dehydration. Dehydration caused by a headache occurs when the body loses fluids and electrolytes. The symptoms are similar to that of a migraine, which is a sign that your water consumption is low. One solution is simply to up your fluid intake by drinking more water whether that be from a refillable water bottle or frequent trips to your office bottleless water dispenser.
But the positive news is that you can avoid this cycle by drinking more water. Since dehydration is a major cause of headaches, drinking more water can potentially:
- Help relieve headache symptoms
- Prevent you from having more headaches in the future
- Reduce your stress levels, also eliminating a future cause of headaches
Studies have shown that people that prioritize staying hydrated every day see meaningful reductions in the frequency of their headaches. This makes it a smart idea to consider keeping a bottle of water on you at work or drinking from the touchless water dispenser at your office.
#2 Your Stress Will Decrease
As we mentioned, drinking water can help diminish stress, which is one of the root causes of headaches and a host of other unpleasant symptoms.
Dehydration causes stress by:
- Releasing cortisol – When you become dehydrated, your body releases cortisol, a stress hormone. And once cortisol is released, you’ll notice your stress levels rise.
- Constricting your body’s blood vessels – Dehydration also affects your circulatory system. When you don’t drink enough water, your blood vessels begin to shrink and constrict. As your blood vessels tighten, your stress increases.
No one enjoys having unnecessary stress in their lives, but fortunately, drinking water is an easy and relatively free way to keep stress at manageable levels.
With the help of a water refill station at the office, you can quench your thirst and drink clean, tasty, and safe water with ease. Knowing you don’t have to worry about contaminants like lead or mercury will bring your stress down even more.
#3 It’ll Boost Your Productivity
While high-caffeine drinks such as coffee or black tea have long been seen as the go-to beverages for improving productivity, it’s time to correct this perception.
Dehydration is as big a threat to productivity as sleepiness, even though it’s less talked about. Its symptoms include:
- Confusion
- Impaired physical ability
- Dizziness
- Increased sleepiness
- Mental fog
Any one of the above symptoms can mess up your workday and limit your productivity—and without enough water, you might experience quite a few! Dehydration doesn’t have to be serious for you to start feeling the effects. Losing just 1-3% of your body weight in water can have a noticeable impact on your brain.
Don’t let your workday flow and productivity be interrupted by something you can easily resolve. Make sure you’re consuming your recommended daily water intake, either from your water bottle or your workplace’s purified tap.
#4 It’s Good For Your Diet
Utilizing your office drinking water can also help you achieve your health and fitness goals. It’s easy to fall into the trap of reaching for tasty—but high-calorie—coffee drinks in the morning and during your lunch breaks. But if you’ve been drinking any of the following drinks, you might be consuming more calories and sugar than you thought:
- Mochas
- Frappes
- Pumpkin spice lattes
While all of these drinks are incredibly tasty, starting your day off with them isn’t a sound way to achieve your goals for weight, shape, or heart health. After all, loading up on sugar and fat early in the morning isn’t exactly beneficial for your overall wellness. Studies have also shown that drinking water aids in weight loss because staying hydrated suppresses hunger, and makes exercising easier. So if you want to lose weight, you should be drinking adequate water.4
Instead of reaching for your frappe first thing in the morning or going to a coffee shop to top off during your lunch break, drink a glass of water. It’ll keep you hydrated and alert without all the fat, calories, and sugar you’d otherwise be consuming.
#5 Drinking Water Gives You More Energy
If you’re prone to feeling tired by the time the clock hits two, making it through the workday is probably a slog. After you’ve finished another round of afternoon meetings and completed your post-lunch paperwork, you’re probably looking to head back home so you can take a well-deserved rest.
Rather than assuming this cycle is the only way to make it to 5:00 PM, you might find that drinking a couple of extra glasses of water throughout your day is a beneficial solution to flagging stamina.
Since dehydration is known for making you feel tired and lethargic, a lack of water can pretty clearly decrease your energy levels. Even if you are experiencing mild dehydration, it’s a sign that your cells are failing to produce energy (such as ATP), leaving you feeling fatigued. But if you make sure to stay hydrated with your daily recommended intake of 64 ounces of water, you’ll notice:
- Less fatigue
- Less general tiredness
- An improved ability to concentrate
- An increase in alertness
So why wait to boost your energy levels? Drink a few glasses of water and shake off the sluggishness that’s been dominating your workdays. Soon, you’ll be crushing your early morning and late-afternoon meetings with a new sense of alertness.
#6 You’ll Notice Improved Focus
If you’re someone who regularly misses the little things, forgets deadlines, or generally feels like you’re not “detail-oriented,” then this tip is for you. Drinking water and staying hydrated can help boost your brain to focus more on those smaller elements you’re prone to forgetting.
Even though all your organs need water to function properly, your brain is especially sensitive in this regard. Sufficient water (or lack thereof) can significantly impact how well it works. Going about your regular activities without stopping to replenish your fluids will affect your brain’s functions at the end of the day. You don’t even need to do anything strenuous to feel the effects of dehydration.
If you make sure to drink water and stay hydrated, your brain will be able to do its best work, helping you focus on:
- Important deadlines
- Key meetings
- Important paperwork
We all want to live our most focused lives, and fortunately for you, there’s a simple way you can. Bring your water bottle to work with you and put your unfocused days behind you.
#7 Staying Hydrated Also Puts You In A Better Mood
Waking up on the wrong side of the bed is the worst. And while starting your day in a grumpy mood is annoying by itself, some bad mornings seem to infect the rest of your day as well.
Water can help you kick the blues.
Studies support this benefit. In fact, one study found that the more water you drink, the bigger the improvement you see in your mood. It also found that drinking more water made its participants:
- Less depressed
- Less tense
- Less angry
- Less confused
This study demonstrates that there’s no need to assume you’ll be stuck in a negative mood forever (or at least until your next vacation). Instead, you can defeat your morning blues by drinking a steady stream of water over the course of your day.
It’s finally time for you to embrace the good mood that you’ve earned.
Get the Water You Deserve with FloWater
It’s clear that proper hydration comes with major health benefits that can improve your workday, but drinking straight tap water can be less than appealing. It’s important to find out where the water comes from to know whether it’s safe to drink. One way of knowing for sure is finding out if the establishment that supplies it follows OSHA drinking water requirements.
That’s where FloWater comes in. Employing the help of an innovative water dispenser will turn that plain water into fresh, clean water that you’ll actually want to drink. Need proof? Eight out of ten people polled said they thought FloWater tasted better than bottled water. FloWater also makes your water cleaner by bringing contaminants like Arsenic, Mercury, and Lead to undetectable levels.
We’re not saying drinking water will solve all your work-related problems—it can’t get rid of your one coworker who chews gum too loudly—but it can help with a lot of them. So drink up in support of your overall health. Try FloWater today and notice the difference!
Sources:
National Headache Foundation. Drinking More Water May Help Ease Headache. https://headaches.org/2012/10/15/drinking-more-water-may-help-ease-headache/
Healthline. 7 Science-Based Health Benefits of Drinking Enough Water. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/7-health-benefits-of-water#2.-Significantly-affects-energy-levels-and-brain-function
NIH. Habitual total water intake and dimensions of mood in healthy young women. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25963107/
Hub at Work. Yes, drinking more water may help you lose weight. https://hub.jhu.edu/at-work/2020/01/15/focus-on-wellness-drinking-more-water/.
