WATER and fatigue. Tired? Run down? No Energy? Dehydrated?

We all know that good quality sleep is critical for maintaining a high level of well being. The importance of regular, restive sleep shouldn't be underestimated. But what happens when the quality of that sleep begins to deteriorate and you end up feeling as tired in the morning or worse still you suffer from chronic tiredness which can become quite debilitating.

We often look for complicated solutions to this problem when looking closer to home may well identify a major cause. Water, or rather lack of it, can have a major effect of tiredness.

We're all aware that the brain's major component is water. It's in the region of 78% (depending upon who you ask) and much of that water acts as an electrolyte transmitting neural signals from one receptor to another. If you impact the volume of water (by as little as 2% as well) you will begin to impact the transmission of those signals and how the brain works with other parts of the body.

If you remember, the brain is still active whilst you sleep. It's responsible for all managing all autonomic processes (posh way of saying those that go on without your involvement – like breathing), the R & R, that your body needs to refresh itself. So you can see that a dehydrated brain is not going to be as effective in resting tired muscles and repairing all the damage caused by daily life.

In addition, any body that lacks sufficient nutrition and energy will feel the effects. Muscles become tired and fatigued when there is insufficient energy being delivered to them. That energy is found in the food we eat but it is extracted from the food and delivered where it's needed by water. So lack of water, lack of water = lower energy levels.

Here's another scenario. Get up in the morning, still feel tired? Have a double espresso to bump start the day. Recognise it? Been there? Well, wrong thing to do, because coffee, whilst is a source of caffeine which makes you feel more awake also acts as a diuretic (it's that caffeine again) which will dehydrate you even further.

Oh and don't reach for the multivitamins and mineral supplements either. They're expensive and not particularly effective if you're dehydrated in the first place. Just make sure you keep a good, fresh, balanced diet and of course the correct levels of hydration and the effects can be quite dramatic.

It's good to know that there is often such a simple remedy to the problem of tiredness and you may need some guidance about how much water to drink to keep that hydration level up and to keep those nutrients flowing round your body. How much is enough? We're all so busy it's easy to forget such a simple, undemanding thing as a sip of water but we do need to keep our intake up so we'd like to issue a challenge. The AH!QUA challenge.

Download our new app and having three free days, on us, to check out your well being levels. Start your hydration regime at the same time and in three days you'll be able to see a big change. The AH!QUA challenge is a great way of introducing yourself to the first of many things you can do to improve your well being by drinking the H2O.