How to Sleep Better: Drink More Water

(Photo: Michael448)


I may have found an easy solution, at least for myself, for getting better sleep. I am absolutely opposed to drugs (of any kind) to help sleep.

What if a doctor would say, "Trouble sleeping? Make sure you are drinking enough water." But guess what? No $ from prescribing H2O. Not to get off topic, but here is a disturbing story about the nation's most popular sleeping drug, Ambien.

For many months, I have had spats of waking up at 1:30 am and then 2:46 am and then 3:28 am and then 5:02 am and Grrr! Waking up over and over in the middle of the night is not fun. I usually have no problems falling asleep, just staying asleep. And when I wake up, it was just for a moment or two or a few minutes and I would fall back to sleep. . . yawn . . . and then wake up again. I don't know why this is happening, I've been drinking chamomile tea and other herbal teas; and they seem to help here and there.

For a few days, I tried a Tim Ferriss's idea of an ice bath before bed. It ended up being too cold (for me) and too easy to eat ice cream instead. [I am excited to try the ice bath again in the summer.]

What I like most about Tim Ferriss is his philosophy of Lifestyle Experimentation. I can find out what works for me. You can find out what works for you. Anecdotal evidence RULES OR Being stumped means it is time to create an experiment.

One of the tools that I have been using for years is a health diary/tracker. I track my workouts, my sleep, my weight, my waist measurement. I track times when I feel magnificent and times when I feel super blah.

One thing that I was not tracking was my water intake. I thought that I was drinking enough water. Interestingly enough, my chiropractor has been asking me for months if I am drinking enough water. I would have new pains or different pains and he would always ask, "Are you drinking enough water?" My answer was always, "Absolutely, I drink tons of water."

So I decided to track REALLY and TRULY how much water I was drinking. I shocked myself. I was purposefully drinking only 3 (8 oz.) servings of water per day. It about made me cry, but I couldn't because I don't drink enough water to form tears.

There is a big lesson here in what is really "true" and what is perceived to be "true." That discussion is for another day.

The very next morning, I set my experiment to drink 8 - 10 servings of water (8 oz.) and track what happens and how I feel and how I sleep.

The first day was very easy. At the top of every hour of work, I would go get a measured 8 oz. glass of water.

And that night, yup, I slept like a log - like a baby - like before I had children. I didn't wake up until wake-up time. And I felt great all day. It was all good.

Guess what else?

The first night was not an anomaly. My sleep is now shifting to more good nights of sleep than bad nights of sleep. My bad nights of sleep are getting better. Where I used to wake up like every hour; I now only wake up once or twice - and those are the bad nights.

Here's my raw data:

Sleep Tracker
Day	Water Consumed	Rate Sleep Quality	Notes
	(8 oz. servings)	1 (bad) - 10 (good)
1	7	9.5	1st night after lots of water
2	8	9.5	great
3	8	9	great
4	8	9.5	great
5	8	8	great
6	6	4	Ate at KFC late dinner with Coke - too much food? Caffeine?
7	6	5	Hard time falling asleep but slept through
8	8	4	Hard time falling asleep and woke up lots
9	8	9	Good, back on track

I did a bit of googling with terms "dehydration and lack of sleep" and "interrupted sleep and dehydration". Some of the best results were from a google search of "drink more water and sleep better."

There you have it: A simple strategy to sleep better, naturally. And the side effect of the drinking the appropriate amounts of water are numerous. [Google search: benefits of drinking water] Compare that to the side effects of Ambien

I will continue to chart my sleep patterns as it relates to water consumption and will post it here. I would love it if you charted your sleep/water experiment and shared it in the comments.

All the best,

Jason