Today I learned +

[VashVet]

That doesn't actually work reliably when you get older. Its a known thing that over time as you age, your sense of thirst degrades; if you wait for it to check in you can be seriously dehydrated.

Mind you, I'm talking older than even most people on here trend. I first started having the problem crop up in my late 50's and had to have my doctor explain it was a thing.

Ditto this. Drink regularly whether you think you’re thirsty or not because chances are you are really bad at noticing when you’re thirsty.

 

[Aeson]

No advice fits everyone or every situation. If you're in a situation where you require more water, of course drink more water. I'm just trying to say you don't have to force yourself to drink 8 8oz of water if it's too much for you.

 

[Richards]

I was helping a friend (actually, it was my water aerobics instructor) move out of her apartment and into the house several blocks away she'd just bought with her husband. I helped load everything into a U-Haul, drove over to the house, and helped unload it - and apparently sweated away a good bit of my body's moisture without sufficiently replenishing it. The next morning, my inner ear was all messed up, such that every time I moved my head it felt like the world was spinning. It took a day or so to get everything back into balance.

Johnathan

 

[Thomas Shey]

No advice fits everyone or every situation. If you're in a situation where you require more water, of course drink more water. I'm just trying to say you don't have to force yourself to drink 8 8oz of water if it's too much for you.

I was just noting this is generically bad advice for older people. If we don't schedule fluid intact on a regular basis, waiting for thirst to remind you will likely produce a failure state. Its simply a generally different case than when in young to middle-ages.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I was helping a friend (actually, it was my water aerobics instructor) move out of her apartment and into the house several blocks away she'd just bought with her husband. I helped load everything into a U-Haul, drove over to the house, and helped unload it - and apparently sweated away a good bit of my body's moisture without sufficiently replenishing it. The next morning, my inner ear was all messed up, such that every time I moved my head it felt like the world was spinning. It took a day or so to get everything back into balance.

Johnathan

I'm assuming you're not particularly old? Because inner-ear misbehavior is another lovely thing you can look forward to when aging. I've occasionally woke up dizzy without moving at all.

 

[VashVet]

I was just noting this is generically bad advice for older people. If we don't schedule fluid intact on a regular basis, waiting for thirst to remind you will likely produce a failure state. Its simply a generally different case than when in young to middle-ages.

Likewise, the adage “drink when you’re thirsty” misses a lot of common situations where people just don’t realize when they’re thirsty. It’s not even an age thing in all cases. For example, when people are doing water sports, or snow sports, the relative temperature can change their perspective around thirst. Just anecdotally, people often misinterpret thirst as hunger signals.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Likewise, the adage “drink when you’re thirsty” misses a lot of common situations where people just don’t realize when they’re thirsty. It’s not even an age thing in all cases. For example, when people are doing water sports, or snow sports, the relative temperature can change their perspective around thirst. Just anecdotally, people often misinterpret thirst as hunger signals.

I've heard there's some situations where rapid dehydration can confuse your body about what's going on, too. That may have lead to a couple of the anecdotes from what I'm presuming are significantly younger people than I am upthread.

 

[Richards]

I'm assuming you're not particularly old? Because inner-ear misbehavior is another lovely thing you can look forward to when aging. I've occasionally woke up dizzy without moving at all.

Depends on how you define particularly old. I'm 62; this probably happened back when I was around 50 or so.

Johnathan

 

[Ryujin]

Depends on how you define particularly old. I'm 62; this probably happened back when I was around 50 or so.

Johnathan

I was around 40 when I had my incident and I'm 63 now.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Depends on how you define particularly old. I'm 62; this probably happened back when I was around 50 or so.

Johnathan

Okay, a bit younger than when I was starting to notice it (which was in my mid 50's), but then, from the description, you may have been significantly more physically active (and probably in better shape) than I was then, too.

Both you and Ryujin are younger than I am (I'll be turning 69 next month) but aren't vastly so.