Early Hydration Experiment
There’s an audio version of this blog post if you prefer to listen.
In my previous blog post, I covered the health benefits of a hydrogen water bottle (a popular new bio-hacking tool) and mentioned my early hydration experiment.
In this blog post, I’ll expand on that experiment in more detail.
This experiment can be done with or without a hydrogen water bottle.
It’s important to know that I had been using my EVOLV bottle for a month before I started this experiment so it wasn’t new to my system.
Early Hydration Experiment
Ever since I discovered Tim Ferriss and read his book, The 4-Hour Workweek, I’ve been fascinated by the idea of “optimizing” for better performance.
Over the past 8 years, I’ve experimented with many different routines, diets, supplements, workouts, etc.
All with the goal of optimizing my health and lifestyle.
So when I learned about the health benefits of hydrogen-rich water, I had to purchase one of these bottles for myself and test it out.
The results from that test are in my previous blog post.
After a month of using the hydrogen water bottle and tracking my energy levels, I noticed a significant increase in my overall energy and mood (roughly 10%) but still wanted to push those numbers further.
To do this, I would need to experiment with my water intake. But how?
The more I thought about hydration … the more I realized how important it was for a healthy, functioning body and mind.
On a normal day, I wake up around 6:30 and go for my morning walk on the beach right away so I start my day with movement, grounding, and sunlight. 🌞🏖️ This means I’ll only drink 1-2 cups of water in the first hour after waking up.
But then I had a thought…
What if drinking more water earlier was better for the body and brain?
What would happen if … instead of just drinking 1-2 cups of water within the first hour after waking up … I would drink 3-4 cups of water? 🤔
I was curious to know the answer and figured it wouldn’t hurt to find out.
Worst case scenario: Nothing would be different, I would just pee more.
Best case scenario: The extra water helps my body flush out old toxins through pee, and gives my brain and organs an extra boost of energy.
Since there wasn’t much to lose, I decided to start the early hydration experiment right away.
The plan was to …
record my energy levels with 1-2 cups of water every day (Week 1)
record my energy levels with 3-4 cups of water every day (Week 2)
compare the data
repeat step 1 (Week 3)
repeat step 2 (Week 4)
compare data again to see if it’s consistent
I chose to run the experiment twice because I felt that having only 1 week of data for each hydration test was not enough.
Running the test twice for 4 weeks felt like a reasonable timeframe.
At the moment, my little “optimization experiments” are done very casually in my notebook, but, in the future, I will move to a spreadsheet format so I can share that data here for more transparency.
To be clear, I always consume the recommended amount of water every day (about 10-12 cups) even on the days when I’m drinking less in the morning.
My overall hydration level doesn’t change.
It’s simply a difference in WHEN the water is consumed.
For example: On days when I drink 3-4 cups of water in the mornings, I will balance that out by drinking less water in the afternoons.
After recording my energy levels for 4 weeks and averaging the daily numbers into an Overall Energy Score, here are my results:
📆 Week 1: Nov 18-24 💧(1-2 cups) 🔋Overall Energy Score: 7/10
📆 Week 2: Nov 25-Dec 1 💧💧(3-4 cups) 🔋Overall Energy Score: 8/10
📆 Week 3: Dec 2-8 💧(1-2 cups) 🔋Overall Energy Score: 7.5/10
📆 Week 4: Dec 9-15 💧💧(3-4 cups) 🔋Overall Energy Score: 8/10
Experiment Conclusion
As you can see from my extremely basic study, the data shows a small but significant increase in energy levels as a result of drinking more water earlier in the day.
Of course, there are other factors that impact my daily energy levels, so it can’t all be attributed to the amount of water I was drinking.
But, after running this experiment for a month, I do feel a difference in my mood and energy when I make an effort to hydrate more in the mornings. 😅
For example; Week 3 of the experiment was a big eye-opener because I could clearly see and feel the impact of reducing my water intake.
Currently, I’m back to drinking 3-4 cups within the first hour after waking up and I’m feeling better for implementing this early hydration protocol.
Your Turn
How many cups of water do YOU drink in the first hour after waking?
Are you looking to improve your energy levels throughout the day?
If so, you can easily do this experiment with regular drinking water at home. It’s free, easy, and won’t cost you much extra time. 💛
