I have a small bladder... any way to get it to hold on longer... especially at night?
Question:
I have a small bladder and have to urinate frequently (maybe an average of 10-12 times) during the day... but the worst problem is at night -- I almost always have to get up at least once a night to urinate, sometimes twice, and sometimes before I can wake up all the way my bladder just gets too full to hold it all and I'm already leaking a little (or, rarely, a lot) in my bed as I wake up. I also get a huge adrenaline rush (I think) because my body is panicked because I have to go so badly, and then it takes forever to fall back asleep.
Is there any way I can train my bladder to hold on just a little longer, or my body to wake up quicker, so I can sleep through the night with minimal interruption? I don't drink late at night and am careful to use the bathroom before bed... anything else I can do to help my bladder hold on until I wake up?
Answers:
That sounds similar to problems I've had for quite some time, I'm 34 now. I have had prostate issues, but no diabetes, and similar symptoms. Major frequency of urination and nighttime wetting problems here and there. Once in a while I have 'leaks' but more often than not it is just plain loss of control. Not only is it embarrassing, it is annoying, and it pi$$es me off, no pun intended.
I urinate in the middle of the night at least once, sometimes (much) more frequently. The thing is, by the time I finally extract myself from sleep, I'm usually in panic mode. Once in a while I don't wake in time.
Also, I sleep very deeply in the first three hours of sleep but less so after that. If I wet in my sleep, it is within 2-3 hours of going to bed. After that I'm usually OK, with rare exceptions. I would say that I have an average of 4-5 such incidents per month, although that's an average. Usually it will happen several nights in a row and then not for a week or a few weeks. The worst I had was a streak of 3 weeks.
I have strained and tried to "train" my bladder, tried all sorts of things. I guess it may have helped a little but I don't notice anything worth mentioning.
At one point I was assigned to a different facility and lived in a hotel for 6 months. During that time I started wearing protective underwear (the nice name for diapers) to bed--I didn't know what else to do. I almost immediately noticed that I would sleep all the way through the night--my subconscious must have let me sleep, because I wasn't worried about the "what-if" factor and didn't wake up every hour or two. Furthermore, I think that being awake or waking up frequently all night long keeps your mind and kidneys working overtime, which leads to using the bathroom more, which leads to being awake more, which makes everything worse and worse. And when I did have an accident, I usually didn't even wake up until morning.
I'm not sure if I would "recommend" this though. It sounds like my problems are more frequent. This problem always made me feel like a real champ to begin with, and that didn't get better by wearing "protective undergarments" at night. But, it DID afford me some sleep, finally, so I'd call it a toss-up.
As far as my doctor(s), they were of marginal help along the way, and I haven't seen a doctor about this recently because I didn't get anywhere before. I don't think the frequency of problems I've had has increased or decreased. It has been a rotten problem and I haven't had great success stopping it. I've just figured out how to manage it temporarily. I also know what makes it worse (alcohol before bed is not good, nor is coffee, and NEVER alcohol AND coffee together).
There are so many questions on the net about this type problem... I think I've read (and tried) just about every solution, but just didn't have any success. There are a lot of suggested remedies and causes as well, some are probably more realistic than others. None seemed to work for me. Alarms, waking up 5 times, medication, etc.
Not sure if this helped, but I hope you have more success than I had. I can definitely relate.
You say that you don't have diabetes, but try sticking to a diabetic diet anyways. I had been tested over the last few year and came back negative. I always had to use the restroom. Seemed like i was running in every 30 minutes and would be lucky to hold it for an hour or so. I changed the way I ate and now it's not a problem. If that doesn't work then go to the doctors and see if something else maybe wrong. Although it may feel full, you may just have an overactive bladder.
Have you checked with an urologist? You may have a chronic UTI (urinary tract infection) or diabetes insipidus, which is not the common diabetes and it is caused by a hormonal imbalance. One of its symptoms is urinating alot, here is a link
http://www.diabetesinsipidus.org/whatisd...
Good luck.
*Diabetes Insipidus (DI) is a disorder in which there is an abnormal increase in urine output, fluid intake and often thirst. It causes symptoms such as urinary frequency, nocturia (frequent awakening at night to urinate) or enuresis (involuntary urination during sleep or "bedwetting"). Urine output is increased because it is not concentrated normally. Consequently, instead of being a yellow color, the urine is pale, colorless or watery in appearance and the measured concentration (osmolality or specific gravity) is low.
Diabetes Insipidus is not the same as diabetes mellitus ("sugar" diabetes). Diabetes Insipidus resembles diabetes mellitus because the symptoms of both diseases are increased urination and thirst. However, in every other respect, including the causes and treatment of the disorders, the diseases are completely unrelated. Sometimes diabetes insipidus is referred to as "water" diabetes to distinguish it from the more common diabetes mellitus or "sugar" diabetes.
Talk to your doctor or a urologist about this. Several medications may fix your problem.
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