Avoid Dehydration at Work and Stay Sharp
Author: Gemma Kirkpatrick // Category: Water For HealthIt can be more difficult than you think to stay properly hydrated at work. With the ever present temptation that coffee and vending machines invoke, it canbe really hard to force oneself to make the right choice in drinking water. There are, however, steps that people can take to ensure that they’re well hydrated during the working day.
To start, it is important to understand how much water is enough for proper hydration. While there is no single formula that accurately assesses everyone’s individual needs, a good daily guideline is somewhere between 8 and 10 cups for women and 12 to 14 cups for men. This may seem excessive, but in order to properly function and replenish itself, this is what the body needs.
Once the individual has decided how much water your body requires, you should do a little maths to find out how much of that should be consumed on the job. Starting with 24 hours, you should first subtract how many of them are spent sleeping. Then, you should divide the amount of hours spent from the commute to work until the time you get home by the latter difference calculated. This number represents the percentage of the required intake that should be consumed at work.
E.g., a woman who spends seven hours asleep is therefore awake for 17 hours a day. If she spends nine hours at work, that constitutes 53 % of her waking hours, therefore she should be aiming to drink around five of her recommended nine cups of water whilst at work. It is important to sip water throughout the day rather than drinking vast amounts in one go, as this results in most of it being eliminated as urine rather than used for hydration.
Once you’ve determined how much water is needed during the day, a couple of ways to ensure proper hydration at work is to install water coolers, and /or purchase a large travel mug or bottle. Not only do water coolers at work encourage staff to regularly drink water, making use of a travel mug / water bottle means you can make fewer trips back and forth to the chiller.
Dehydration at work plays a huge factor in reduced productivity, lack of concentration and general poor health amongst staff. Following even just a few of the tips above could make all the difference for your workplace.
The Waterpoint are a UK based supplier of water coolers for offices, schools and homes with depots all around the country.