DRINKING from the bathroom tap might seem like an easy option in the middle of the night.
But depending on your home, you really should make the trip downstairs.
While it will feel like a real faff, it could actually be dangerous to chug down water from the bathroom sink.
This is because drinking water is made safe using disinfectant, but if your bathroom water comes from a storage tank, it might not have the right levels of chemicals.
It also depends on the plumbing in your home, and how old it might be.
Older properties have lead pipes, which have now been phased out.
But if you live in a house older than 1970, this is another reason not to drink out of the bathroom tap.
It's not generally a problem in water coming directly from the mains, as it doesn't have time to absorb lead from the pipes.
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However this doesn't always apply in the bathroom, where the combination of water sitting in lead pipes and a water tank can make it more unsafe.
This water will also have been sitting in the tank in the loft for a while, so won't be as fresh.
Another reason to avoid your bathroom tap is if you use a water softener.
Hard water is safe to drink but the process of softening it can lead to higher levels of sodium being left in the water.
But even if your bathroom water is fine to drink, you should never take it from the hot tap.
This is because it is stored in tanks that can be heated and cool down lots of times, and this can lead to bacteria such as legionella growing.
The NHS recommends drinking six to eight glasses of water every day – that's around 1.2 litres.
Drinking low-fat milks and sugar-free drinks as well as plain breakfast tea, coffee and herbal tea all count towards what the NHS recommends.
You should also drink more than the recommended amount if you're exercising, or if it's a particularly hot day.
When drinking alcohol, which is a diuretic, it's a good idea to alternate booze with a glass of water. The morning after, dehydrating to ease your headache should be your first priority.
You can also become dehydrated when you're ill – especially in the cases of vomiting bugs, diarrhoea and sweating from a fever.
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