What was claimed
Drinking two glasses of water after waking up helps activate internal organs.
Our verdict
There is no evidence of this.
Drinking water at set times does not provide certain health benefits
29 August 2019
What was claimed
Drinking a glass of water 30 minutes before a meal helps digestion.
Our verdict
Drinking water can help digestion, but we’ve not seen evidence that specifically drinking water 30 minutes before eating helps more than drinking water at other times.
What was claimed
Drinking a glass of water before taking a bath helps lower blood pressure.
Our verdict
There is no evidence for this.
What was claimed
Drinking a glass of water before going to bed helps prevent stroke and heart attacks.
Our verdict
There’s some evidence that keeping hydrated can help prevent coronary heart disease and help improve stroke outcomes. But we found no evidence specifying that drinking water before bed was particularly beneficial.
An infographic claims that drinking water at certain times of the day has certain health benefits.
The graphic reads:
“Benefits of drinking water at the correct time
2 glasses after waking up helps activate internal organs
1 glass 30 minutes before a meal helps digestion
1 glass before taking a bath helps lower blood pressure
1 glass before going to bed avoid [sic] stroke and heart attack.”
Variations of this claim have been shared on Facebook and across the internet thousands of times.
They’re broadly incorrect. While water is important for the human body, consuming it at certain times of day in specific quantities will not lead to any known health benefits.
We could not find any research that confirms drinking water after waking up “activates internal organs”. The statement is highly ambiguous as it does not define what “activate” means or which organs water is meant to activate; many bodily processes require water, so singling out organs is odd, as is the idea of “activating” organs—your organs should always be working.
That said, it is true that if you have not drunk water for several hours due to sleep and are thirsty, then drinking water will rehydrate you.
It is somewhat true that water helps with the digestion process. Water softens stool and helps prevent constipation. We’ve seen no evidence that drinking the water precisely 30 minutes before eating is necessary though.
We found no evidence that drinking a glass of water before a bath will lower blood pressure; in fact, there’s some evidence that drinking water slightly raises blood pressure for some people.
We could find no evidence that drinking water before bed affects your chances of having a heart attack.
There has been some research to suggest that fluid intake could help prevent coronary heart disease, and some to suggest that being dehydrated could inhibit stroke recovery, though we couldn’t find any evidence specifying that drinking water before bed, was particularly beneficial in either of these cases.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false as there is no evidence to suggest drinking water at certain times has these health benefits.