Have you ever wondered why you struggle to reach the glass on the top shelf of your cupboard in the evening when that morning you reached it fine? Blame it on the water. That’s right, water! To be specific, the water in your spine.

It seems the spinal discs in our back are composed largely of water. These discs rest between our spinal bones, otherwise known as vertebrae. Throughout the day, during our natural walking, sitting, and just being upright, these discs are compressed by the pressure of our own body weight. We lose about 1% of our height from morning until bedtime. The good news is that we can regain this “height” as we sleep because our discs are no longer under the constant pressure of our weight so they plump up (or more scientifically, expand) again giving us back our height, no pun intended.

What a fascinating machine our body is, don’t you think? Now, go have a glass of water!