Staying Alert in Hot Weather

If you're a teenager doing your academic capstone project this summer or taking any academic classes, it's important to make an extra effort to stay cool and mentally alert during hot weather, much more than other times of the year. 

According to an article in NPR:

"Several summers back, researchers in Boston studied young adults living in college dorm rooms during a heat wave. Some had central AC and slept at a cool 71 degrees Fahrenheit. Others slept in rooms without air-conditioning, where the temperature hovered around 80 degrees. Each morning for nearly two weeks, the students took a few tests, administered on their cellphones. The people who slept in the hotter dorm rooms performed measurably worse on the tests...

In fact, the participants in the college dorm study benefited from staying well-hydrated. During the study, the researchers sent text messages asking all the participants how much liquid they'd consumed, and it turned out that the participants who slept in the hot dorm rooms and drank fewer than six glasses of liquid per day performed worse on the tests. And prior research has shown that being even a little dehydrated can impair cognitive performance.

It's a reminder that a simple step — remembering to drink plenty of water — can help protect not just our physical health, but our mental well-being, too."