The 7 Best Times to Drink Water
Boost your mood, support your weight, and sharpen your focus by knowing when and how much to hydrate.
Whether you prefer your water iced, filtered, or infused with fruit, it’s important to make sure you’re drinking enough.
If one of your goals is to drink more water, you’re on your way to a healthier body. “Every cell in our body requires water. Water is critical for the function of your digestion, heart, lungs, and brain,” says [Sarah Krieger](https://www.sarahkrieger.com/), a registered dietitian nutritionist in St. Petersburg, Florida.
There are many guidelines about how much to drink. Krieger instructs clients to take their body weight in pounds (lb), divide this number in half, and drink that many ounces (oz) in fluids, including water, each day. (If you are 140 lb, that’s 70 oz of fluids, which is the equivalent of almost nine cups of fluids.) That also depends on your activity level, if you’re out in the heat, or if you’re pregnant, nursing, or ill — all factors that require you to increase hydration. Similarly, water intake recommendations from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine suggest men drink at least 13 (8 oz) cups of fluids per day and that women aim for 9 (8 oz) cups of fluids or more.
Regardless of your hydration goal, drink consistently throughout the day. Here are seven times when sipping is a smart move to make:
 1. **When You Wake Up, Consume One to Two Cups of Water** Rather than a bleary-eyed reach for the coffee, drink one to two cups of water first. Because you don’t drink while you’re sleeping, you wake up already dehydrated, explains Krieger. Having water now can get you back up to your baseline. This can also help if you take medication in the morning. Then, yes, go get your coffee. The good news is that it counts as fluid, too, and, although it is a caffeinated drink, which tends to be dehydrating, moderate amounts of java are not dehydrating, according to a small, previous study in 50 men. (Still, coffee is not a replacement for water.) 2.
