The human body is made up of approximately 60% water which plays an essential role in how the body functions and keeping it healthy. Nonetheless, many of us are still not drinking enough water and are, as a result, experiencing symptoms of dehydration.
Did you know that approximately 1 in 5 GP visits are for tiredness and fatigue? And, 1 in 10 of these visits are thought to be caused by dehydration. This shows us that there is a distinct correlation between dehydration and tiredness. Let’s delve deeper...
Symptoms of dehydration
Dehydration is often found as the root cause of a range of health conditions and can express itself through various symptoms. Feeling dehydrated and tired all the time? This is a key symptom, caused by a drop in blood pressure which occurs when there is a lack of fluid in the blood. Subsequently, this causes your heart rate to increase and blood flow to the brain, and other important organs, to slow down. This means they will not receive the oxygen and nutrients they need, which all contributes to making you feel more tired.
In the same way, a drop in blood pressure can contribute to feeling lightheaded or ‘woozy’, as the brain needs enough blood to function properly. To counteract this, it is also important to replenish electrolytes, as well as fluids, as they are also vital to brain function. We recommend drinking SOS, an electrolyte drink medically proven to hydrate the body and replenish all essential electrolytes.
A dehydration headache is also common. When there is less fluid in the blood, the brain can temporarily contract, causing it to shrink and pull away from the skull, resulting in pain, otherwise known as a headache.
Additionally, dehydration can cause a variety of other symptoms, such as:
- Constipation
- Strong-smelling and dark yellow pee
- Dry mouth, lips and eyes
- Dry skin
- Rapid heart rate
- Low blood pressure
- Rapid breathing
How does dehydration affect sleep and tiredness?
Hydration plays a key role in almost all bodily functions, including sleep and daily energy levels. Dehydration can make you feel sluggish throughout the day and have significant adverse effects on your sleep, contributing to sleep deprivation and conditions such as insomnia. Both can have both mental and physical effects, impacting on your daily life, work productivity and sport performance.
Blood volume
When you’re dehydrated, the lack of fluid can cause a drop in blood volume. The body is required to work much harder when blood volume is low in order to push blood around the body and deliver oxygen and nutrients to our muscles and organs.
Muscle tiredness
Dehydration can cause your muscles to feel tired and not function to the best of their ability. This is due to an imbalance of salts in the body. This can affect your day-to-day life and have a significant impact on your sport performance. In order to prevent this, you should ensure you are not just replacing the water lost but the electrolytes too.
Dry mouth
As mentioned before, a common symptom of dehydration is a dry mouth and you’d be surprised as to how much this can affect your sleep. A dry mouth and nasal passage can disrupt your sleep causing irritation and snoring, which also causes unpleasant hoarseness when you wake up.
Muscle cramps
Dehydration is also a common cause of muscle cramps and this is no different at night. Night-time leg cramps can be painful and disrupt your sleep, so to prevent these, you need to ensure you are properly hydrated before you go to bed.
Body temperature
Hydration also plays a key role in regulating body temperature as water plays an important part in blood circulation and thermoregulatory functions in the body. Research has highlighted a link between different insomnia symptoms and abnormalities of body temperature rhythm. Notably, sleep maintenance insomnia is associated with an elevated core body temperature. This means when your body temperature is higher, you are more likely to experience disruptions to your sleep quality.
How to tackle dehydration tiredness
The most effective way to combat feeling dehydrated and tired all the time is to rehydrate and replenish your electrolytes.
The body is constantly losing fluids and electrolytes throughout the day from sweating and urination. In order to maintain a healthy body, it is important that we replenish those lost on a daily basis. Trying to stick to the daily recommended amount of water and following a healthy diet will help with this, however, sometimes water alone is not enough. The body loses water and electrolytes more quickly than the body can naturally replace, so consuming oral rehydration powders, like SOS is recommended.
SOS Hydration contains a powerful mix of electrolytes which nourish the body and rehydrates quickly. SOS allows you to absorb three times more water than just drinking water alone, making it a great solution for tiredness caused by dehydration.