To think that drinking in small sips is not necessarily better

[HolidayAtNight]

Bit of a weird one, but I think about this often as I tend to find myself drinking whole glasses of water a few times a day instead of sipping at my desk.

The advice always seems to be to sip water throughout the day to not "overload" the kidneys, but if you think about it, when we were hunter-gatherers we would likely have drunk water where we could get it, or would have stopped every so often and drunk, which would have also been the case when we were on our feet more either in or out of the home. Sipping all day every day is only easy if you're sitting at a desk, which is a pretty recent development.

Similarly with animals - I've had pet cats and dogs, and they drink a lot in one go, a few times a day. Wild animals seem to do likewise, and visit the "watering hole" or other water source specifically to drink. This doesn't seem to overload their systems.

AIBU to think it's fine to down a glass of water a few times a day rather than trying to spread it out, and that our kidneys will manage?

OK so I was on a first aid course recently, and the guy doing it told us that if you drink over (measured out a few inches with his fingers) at once it will just go through you and you won't get the hydration you would if sipping.

However I know people have died (not personally obviously) from electrolyte imbalances because they drank a large amount of water at once 🤷‍♀️ so how does that work??

I suspect your confusing guidance designed to encourage people (who don’t drink enough) to drink more; ie sipping throughout the day might be more manageable etc. with a suggestion that sipping is better than other methods. FWIW I down a pint when I remember and I’m not concerned about my kidneys.

Glugging is fine, obviously if you drink litres and litres you die, but we're talking a lot of litres relative to body size in a short amount of time.
Glugging down if you have d and v isn't recommended because you're more likely to vomit or shit it all out again. You'll still absorb some fluid, but sipping is a bit kinder to your digestive tract.
Sipping is recommended if you're someone who struggles to keep up with fluids (elderly people don't always feel thirsty so small regular sips through the day are recommended as Glugging down fluid may not be very easy or practical for numerous reasons) sipping is recommended if there are swallowing difficulties. And sipping can help stimulate the 'thirst' feeling.
General rule of thumb is 30 mls per kilo of body weight for a normally active person, obviously if you sit on your arse all day, you won't need so much, if you're a gym bunny you'll need a bit more, if you're a sweaty individual you'll need more again, but generally humans are quite good at knowing when they are thirsty and when they aren't. Sometimes the messages get scrambled and hunger can be mistaken for feeling thirsty, some foods and drinks (coffee being the main one) can dull the 'thirst' feeling. Just as some foods can increase thirst.
Glugging or sipping is fine. Too much of anything tends to be bad for you, and too little fluid can be bad for you.
If your wee is yellow, dark yellow or orange (and you're not on any meds) then you need to up your fluid intake a bit, a little bit more and quite a lot respectively.
If your wee is pale / very pale yellow it's all good.

Eat when you're hungry; drink when you're dry.

And never shoot an unarmed man.

And if you google flat earth…
Just because something can be found through google doesn’t mean it’s true.

I thought sipping was for illness and dehydration. Not general day to day stuff.