Hydration breaks are causing chaos at the 2026 World Cup. Twice every match, play stops – and fans boo. Pundits fume. Critics say the breaks are just an excuse for broadcasters to show extra ads, breaking the flow of games in air-conditioned stadiums. But whether or not you accept those complaints, hydration itself has become an urgent global topic.
"Hydration is a key issue," says Andreas Flouris at the University of Thessaly in Greece. "We definitely see it, from a scientific point of view, gaining more and more attention."
“Hydration tech gadgets flood the market as studies show widespread dehydration, but World Cup breaks spark controversy.”
Climate change is intensifying heatwaves, and public health campaigns are urging people to drink more. Yet many still do not drink enough. A 2023 study suggested that one in four UK adults aged 65 or older were dehydrated due to not drinking sufficient fluids. And a 2018 study by Flouris and colleagues, which assessed hydration levels in 139 workers across Europe, found that 70% were dehydrated to a level that could negatively affect their thinking and control of their movements.
It is in this context that a flood of hydration-focused gadgets has hit the consumer electronics market. They range from sweat monitors to toilet bowl urine-analysers. The question is: do they work?
Roozbeh Ghaffari, co-founder and chief executive of US-based Epicore Biosystems, thinks so. Years ago, gadgets like the Apple Watch and Fitbit made step-counting popular, he says. "Sweat has been the next chapter."
His company makes sweat-analysing devices: single-use sticky patches and sleeve-like wearables that track sweat flow rate, sodium content, skin temperature and other metrics. A new armband and app combo claims to evaluate your "hydration readiness" based on "real-time sweat data". "With this new generation of our wearables, we could figure out what type of risk profile you have based on your sweat score," says Ghaffari.
Some of Epicore's devices vibrate gently when they calculate that it is time for you to take a swig of fluid, to avoid dehydration. The company says its products are used by athletes – but also workers.
As heatwaves grow more intense, the idea of monitoring every drop of sweat may feel inevitable. But for now, at least, the World Cup hydration breaks remain deeply unpopular.