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[thewaterbaby]

Lately I've been sleeping a lot. I already sleep a lot but I've been sleeping way more than usual. Saturday I went to bed at 9:30 and slept until 10:30 Sunday morning. Last night I went to bed at 9:30 again and slept until 9:00 this morning. Now my body aches from head to toe. I can barely move.

Comments

[daraqw]

Watch your hydration...it's easy to get dehydrated when it gets hot and you're working hard. Also, when you sleep, you get dehydrated. The combination of sudden heat and a lot of sleep could have been the reason you got all achy. As we get older, we don't adjust to the changing seasons as quickly.

[thewaterbaby]

Fascinating! I hadn't thought of that.

I do hydrate myself frequently anyway. I sweat so much at my job that I don't even urinate all day (TMI, sorry). I drink water every chance I get. It still may not be enough to compensate for the heat and extra sleep I'm getting. Thanks for the tip.

[daraqw]

Well there you go. I seem to remember our resident EMT parymdk saying that 1) you need to drink enough fluids to be needing to pee every couple of hours, and 2) if you wait until you are thirsty to drink, you're already dehydrated.

[thewaterbaby]

Actually that last one is a myth. There is an absolute connection between thirst and the body's fluid level. Drinking when you're not thirsty can actually be harmful. It can lead to hyponatremia. You would have to drink a lot of excess water to do this. But the point is thirst is the best indicator of knowing how much water your body needs. If you're not thirsty, don't drink. No one is clear where all the mess about drinking 8 glasses of water a day comes from either. There is no scientific evidence to support it. Someone said it, someone else repeated it, and before long it became "conventional wisdom".

The other lesser know problem of drinking excessive amounts of fluid is that it causes diarrhea. When large amounts of water hits the gut it stimulates peristalsis and then all hell breaks loose.

But I'm regularly thirsty - not excessively - but I drink enough to quench my thirst. But I think since I'm sweating so much the problem is I'm losing electrolytes that need replacing. Hmmmm.