How to stay hydrated at your desk
Saturday, May 12th, 2012It can be difficult to stay properly hydrated at work. With the ever present temptation that can machines invoke, it is hard to force oneself to make the right choice in drinking water. There are, however, steps that people can take to ensure that proper hydration is achieved.
To start, it’s important to know just how much water is needed for proper hydration. While there’s no single formula that accurately assesses everyone’s individual needs, a good daily guideline is somewhere in the region of eight to ten cups for ladies and twelve to fourteen cups for guys. This may seem like a lot, but in order to properly function and replenish itself, this is what our bodies need every single day.
Once you’ve has decided the quantity of water your body needs, you should do a calculation to find out how much of that water should be consumed during your working day. Begin with 24 hours, now subtract deduct the number of these that are spent in bed, sleeping. Next, divide the total number of hours spent travelling to your place of work until the time you get home by the latter difference calculated. This total represents the percentage of the required intake that you should aim to drink 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 it is determined how much water is needed on the job, 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.