Watering Down the Advice?

I have often suspected that the current obsession with the dangers of dehydration in everyday life in the UK is overplayed. It is frequently claimed that, without 8 large glasses of water per day, your vigour, skin and eye brightness will all suffer. People are also told that they should rehydrate before they feel thirsty. I have frequently been surprised that students going into a 45 minute lecture, apparently feel they will not survive the session without taking (a frequently expensive) bottle of water in with them. It now appears that many of my suspicions are realistic (https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/jan/27/the-truth-about-hydration-should-you-drink-eight-glasses-of-water-a-day). There appears to be little real evidence that not fully topping up with water has any negative effects on vitality and the appearance of your skin and eyes . In sport, a 1% loss of body fluids has been shown to have little impact on performance. Most people can effectively regulate their body fluids by drinking when they feel thirsty (the exceptions may include the very young and the very old where things can be a bit more 'fuzzy') as this achieves a good balance (excess water is removed by the kidneys). There is also evidence that drinking too much water can kill if it seriously disturbs electrolyte balance.