RESEARCH

Researchers suggest that drinking a glass of water can make your brain work faster and could be freeing up parts of the brain.

Scientists say that drinking water can sharpen your mind. If you’re struggling to come up with answers to everyday problems, then a glass of water could be the best solution. The effect is particularly marked if a person is thirsty.

According to new research delivered by scientists at the University of East London, the original energy drink – quenching your thirst with a glass of water – could help your brain work by as much as 14 per cent faster. Scientists believe that once thirst is relieved, the brain is left to focus on the task in hand.

Researchers first carried out an experiment on 34 men and women who completed a number of mental tests twice – once after a breakfast of just a cereal bar and again after a cereal bar was washed down with a bottle of water.

None of those who had taken the tests had eaten or drunk anything overnight and all were asked how thirsty they were at the start of the experiment.

The participants who said they weren’t thirsty were equally quick at the test of reaction time with or without water.

But those who said they were thirsty sped up after having consumed water, making them up to 14 per cent quicker than before.

The findings have been reported in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.

The researchers suggest the water helped by freeing up the parts of the brain that were busy ‘telling’ the body it was thirsty. They said:

… These results are consistent with water consumption freeing up ‘attentional resources’ that were otherwise occupied with processing the sensations of thirst.

Dr Caroline Edmonds, one of the researchers at the University of East London, said it is not going to hurt you to have a drink of water when you are working hard. She points out that tea and coffee will also help to hydrate you.

Dr Edmonds has previously shown that children who have a drink of water ahead of sitting tests fare up to a third better.

But the effects of drinking water are not always positive. In Dr Edmonds’ latest study, the volunteers to the experiments did worse at a particularly complex mental manipulation test after drinking the water. The reasons for this remain unclear.

Separate studies have found that failing to drink enough water can make the brain’s grey matter shrink, making it harder to concentrate and think.

Scientists in Britain scanned the brains of teenagers after an hour-and-a-half of cycling.

Some exercised in three layers of sweat-induced clothing including a bin liner worn next to the skin, a hooded chemical warfare suit and a track suit. Others observed were much more lightly clad in shorts and T-shirts.

Those who were heavily wrapped up lost around 2lb in sweat – and their brain tissue had shrunk away from their skulls. Just 90-minutes of steady sweating can shrink the brain as much as a year of ageing.

But after a glass of water or two the brain quickly returns to normal.