Everywhere you look, people are swigging on a bottle of water. Eight glasses of water a day has been the generally accepted recommendation. This myth may derive from a US Recommended Dietary Allowance report in 1945.
Beverage companies have jumped on the band-wagon to perpetuate this myth. So on office desks, strewn over the back seats of cars, and stuffed into hanbags is the ubiquitous bottle of water.
Fortunately the eight glasses a day is a myth., so you can happily have a drink just when you feel thirsty, unless you are engaging in relatively vigourous exercise or are ill. The reason you don't need to rigorously count your fluid intake is because of a gland in the centre of the brain called the hypothalamus. This gland (or more correctly, an extension of the nervous system) monitors fluid and electroltye balance within your body without you even being aware of it. It will alert you if you need to take in more fluid by making you thirsty. Incidentally our bodies monitor many aspects of our physiology without us being aware of it eg. blood glucose, potassium, acid-base status, etc.
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