Why Is it Important to Drink Water Before You Go to Sleep?

Drinking water is vital to having a healthy body. Your body is approximately 60 percent water. You use water to flush toxins out of your body, to transport nutrients to your cells and to keep the tissues of your nose, throat and ears sufficiently moist. Drinking water throughout the day is ideal, but there may be reasons to drink water before you go to sleep.

Taking time to drink some water when you get home after a night of heavy drinking may prevent a hangover. Alcohol is a diuretic, meaning that it makes you urinate more, which increases your chances of becoming dehydrated. Drinking two to three glasses of water before you attempt to sleep it off can prevent dehydration, plus headaches and achiness, according to Go Ask Alice, a service of Columbia University. Limiting your alcohol intake to three to four drinks within a 24-hour time frame, avoiding mixing liquors and eating before you drink and with drinks can also help you prevent hangovers.

Dehydration can make you feel drained and tired, but not in a way that helps you sleep. Drinking water throughout the day replenishes the water your body loses through sweat, urination and bowel movements. Breathing also causes you to lose water. Feeling thirsty indicates that you are already on your way to becoming dehydrated. If you are thirsty at night, it means your body needs water, and you should not put it off until morning. The exact amount of water each person needs per day to prevent dehydration is unique. A general rule of thumb is to drink eight to nine cups per day, but your doctor can best advise you.

Many people like to work out at night. Your body's need for water increases during and after workouts. Drink water after workouts to rehydrate and re-energize. Go Ask Alice recommends 8 ounces of water within 30 minutes of finishing a workout, but that is assuming you drank sufficient water before and during your workout. Generally, you should drink 8 ounces of water during your warm up and every 10 to 20 minutes while exercising. So even if you just want to go to sleep, drink some water first.

Drinking a glass of water or warm milk may help soothe you to sleep, according to Dr. Oz, though water is preferable. However, drinking water right before bed may cause you to wake up to urinate during the night, possibly more than once. This could prevent you from getting enough rest to function optimally the next day. If you find this to be a problem, drink enough water throughout the day up until two hours before bedtime so that you are already well hydrated when it is time to go to bed. Then, drink a full glass of water first thing in the morning.

Article reviewed by J. Betherman

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Juice pH and Why the Right Alkaline-Acid Levels Are So Important

pH (potential of hydrogen) is a measure of how acid or alkaline a solution is, 7.0 to 7.5 is the narrow range your body's acid and alkaline levels need to be in for reasonable health and in the range of 7.35 to 7.45 for best health. In fact you don't need to go too far outside the 7.0 to 7.5 range for health related problems to start.

A urine test that is less than 6.8 shows you are becoming too acid, and a urine test reading over 7.5 means you are becoming too alkaline. When your pH goes too far into the acid range cells will become poisoned by toxic acidic waste causing many cells to die off. This cell die off will lead too catastrophic illness.

High acid will cause the onset of health problems such as these:

and many others modern health issues, including digestive disorders.

Bladder problemsCardiovascularCancerGERD(acid reflux)HeadachesJoint painMuscle achesObesity

Modern diet is acid

Our modern diet tends to be in the acid range. Recent research shows this acid diet is at least partly responsible for many modern diseases. What you eat and drink creates your body's acid alkaline level.

When your pH goes into an acid state your body does whatever it has to in order to get back to an alkaline state. Your body will use up its supply of minerals such as calcium, magnesium, potassium plus others to neutralize excess acid and flush it from your system. Robbing you body of these essential minerals causes other problems such as osteoporosis, arthritis and varies other health issues.

The best and easiest way to keep your pH in the healthy alkaline zone is to be sure you are consuming the right foods that help alkalize your body. When eaten fresh fruit and vegetables are alkaline, but fruit juice can often be acid. Vegetable juice on the other hand will usually be alkaline. Fresh vegetable juice drank regularly is a simple way of keeping your pH on the right side of 7.0.

Obviously some vegetables are more alkalizing than others so here is a short list of the most alkalizing vegetables to get you started in the right way.

Some of the best alkaline-forming Vegetables:

* Alfalfa (sprouts)

* Broccoli

* Beets and beet tops

* Brussels sprouts

* Cabbage

* Cantaloupe

* Carrots

* Celery

* Chard

* Cucumbers

* Garlic

* Parsnips

* Radishes

This is not a complete list of alkaline-forming vegetables, but is just a sample of those vegetables suitable for juicing that will also be useful in keeping acid alkaline at healthy levels.

Charlie Gilliland author and webmaster of makefreshjuice.com. Visit this site now to learn more about the benefits and more of making your own fresh juice at http://makefreshjuice.com/

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