There’s a logical explanation for feeling thirsty at night

It’s pretty hard to get a sufficient amount of sleep during these summer nights. We often wake up in the middle of the night, in a pool of our own sweat, with our mouths feeling as dry as a desert. Even if we drink a large glass of water before going to bed, feeling thirsty in the middle of the night seems inevitable.

Where is this insane thirst coming from?

At night

It’s especially annoying to wake up in the middle of the night, get a glass of water and then having to try to fall back asleep again. It won’t come as a surprise that feeling thirsty in the middle of the night has something to do with a lack of hydration. Yet there can be a couple of different reason why you’re feeling so thirsty. For starters, take a good look at how many glasses of water you’ve really drunk over the course of the entire day. Have you truly had eight glasses of water? Of did you have a couple less?

Caffeine

You’ve probably drunk eight glasses during the day, but were all of these glasses of water? We bet you’re counting sugared sodas, coffee and tea as well. But it’s exactly the ingredients that are in these drinks that don’t hydrate the body enough. Besides this, the caffeine in coffee causes you to have to pee more often. If you go to the bathroom more often, you’ll also lose more moisture and at a quicker rate. So, do you drink a lot of coffee during the day? Then there’s a bigger chance of you waking up thirsty in the middle of the night.

Salty or spicy meals

It’s not just what you drink during the day that influences your thirst at night; what you eat can also be very influential. For example, have you eaten a spicy or very salty meal? Then your body will still be busy burning this food during the night, which can cause heartburn in some cases. Do you have heartburn more often during the night? This can be a sign that you’ve caught the flu or, in the worst case, it can be a sign of diabetes. Does the heartburn persist and are you regularly waking up at night feeling thirsty? It would be smart to visit your doctor in that case.

Solutions

A good solution for nightly thirst is to drink enough during the day and to avoid salty foods as much as you can. A few big glasses of water or caffeine-free tea can do wonders for your night’s rest. Also, prepare yourself by placing a big glass of water on your nightstand before going to bed. This will save you a trip to the kitchen or bathroom to fill a glass and this might help you fall asleep again more quickly after drinking the water to quench your thirst.