We’ve all been there before. You are comfortably in bed and then you get that pressure sensation in your bladder. You get up and use the bathroom, but very little comes out. Before you know it, you’ve woken up three more times just to urinate.
Sound familiar? You are not alone. According to a National Sleep Foundation survey, about 65 percent of people age of 55 and older reported getting up several times at night to use the bathroom.
To be perfectly candid, I wake up once a night to urinate. At the PUR Clinic, patients often ask me if their nightly urinary habits are “normal”. Well, that depends on several things. Drinking too much fluid before bedtime or untreated diabetes are two possible causes of nocturia, the medical term for waking up at night to urinate. If you’re concerned about your nightly urinary patterns, here is some information that can help you differentiate between what is normal and when you should seek medical attention.
Where does the urine come from?
Urine is made in your kidneys. From there it drops down the ureters (long tubes connecting the kidney to the bladder) and gets stored in the bladder. The bladder, which is like a balloon and is very elastic, stretches to store urine. When it is time to pass your urine, your bladder (which is made of muscle) starts to contract and helps to evacuate your bladder. From there, the urine in females exits through the urethra and in men will bypass the prostate before exiting through the urethra. The whole process is very well regulated from beginning to end.
What is normal?
A 2010 study in the Journal of Urology examined the prevalence and incidence of nocturia. It found that up to one-third of men between the age of 20 to 40 had at least one instance of urination nightly. For women, the number was slightly higher—up to 43 percent. Fewer than one in five men and women in that age group reported two or more instances of nighttime urination….
– Read the entire article at: Orlando Health Blog