Jump to content
Existing user? Sign In

Sign In



Sign Up

What time of night/sleep does bedwetting occur?


Recommended Posts

A question for those who wet in their sleep: just exactly when does it happen? You know, is it right after going to sleep, is it just before you wake up, or when you're most deeply asleep, or most likely to dream, etc.?

And is it different for everyone, or does the cause of the accidents play a part? I imagine someone with less holding ability in general might leak all night, while someone else might only have accidents when the need hits when they're most deeply asleep.

As for me, I have no idea. When I wake up peeing it's usually a couple hours before I'd normally get up, so maybe that's also when I don't wake up and flood the place, but I can't be sure.

I don't know if this is a personal experience question or a medical question now, heh. But, ideas? How does it work for you?

Link to comment

As a regular bed wetter I’m intrigued by this subject and the research referenced above.

Personally, after emptying my bladder and drinking 8 or so ounces of water before bed, it’s not unusual to wake a couple hours later and already be wet.  I suspect this waking coincides with the end of the first sleep cycle.  After that I have no clue, but am often wetter than a single void when I wake in the morning.

Link to comment

I have a university library card and I'm not afraid to use it, so here are some more studies!

3 hours ago, WBxx said:

As a regular bed wetter I’m intrigued by this subject and the research referenced above.

Personally, after emptying my bladder and drinking 8 or so ounces of water before bed, it’s not unusual to wake a couple hours later and already be wet.  I suspect this waking coincides with the end of the first sleep cycle.  After that I have no clue, but am often wetter than a single void when I wake in the morning.

Nevéus, T., Stenberg, A., Läckgren, G., Tuvemo, T., & Hetta, J. (1999). Sleep of children with enuresis: a polysomnographic study. Pediatrics, 103(6), 1193-1197.

This study involved performing sleep studies on children suffering from bedwetting.  The first wettings happened during all stages of non-REM sleep (the deeper sleep stages) and throughout the night from 10 minutes (!) after falling asleep to 7 hours 56 minutes.  Also, interestingly, the bedwetters who had some response to desmopressin tended to wet earliest in the night, while the non-responders took longer to wet.

____________________________________________________________________________________

 

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpurol.2020.01.012

Another interesting study where a wearable ultrasound device was used to monitor bladder filling/emptying in real time throughout the night.  It showed that many bedwetters wet more than once a night.

I wish bedwetting in adults was better studied, though, I'd like to know if this is still true for people wetting into adulthood.

Link to comment
47 minutes ago, TheIrreverend said:

I have a university library card and I'm not afraid to use it, so here are some more studies!

Nevéus, T., Stenberg, A., Läckgren, G., Tuvemo, T., & Hetta, J. (1999). Sleep of children with enuresis: a polysomnographic study. Pediatrics, 103(6), 1193-1197.

This study involved performing sleep studies on children suffering from bedwetting.  The first wettings happened during all stages of non-REM sleep (the deeper sleep stages) and throughout the night from 10 minutes (!) after falling asleep to 7 hours 56 minutes.  Also, interestingly, the bedwetters who had some response to desmopressin tended to wet earliest in the night, while the non-responders took longer to wet.

____________________________________________________________________________________

 

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpurol.2020.01.012

Another interesting study where a wearable ultrasound device was used to monitor bladder filling/emptying in real time throughout the night.  It showed that many bedwetters wet more than once a night.

I wish bedwetting in adults was better studied, though, I'd like to know if this is still true for people wetting into adulthood.

I love everything about this post, except the article is behind a paywall, can you help a horny academic girl out?

Link to comment
2 hours ago, rachelkirwan said:

I love everything about this post, except the article is behind a paywall, can you help a horny academic girl out?

I can't do the ultrasound device paper right now because I'm at home and Elsevier is being weird, but here's the other one. I hope you like it as much as I did!

neveus-1999.pdf

Also, it may take a while because I have to crop out the footers with my university email on every page.

Edited by TheIrreverend (see edit history)
Link to comment
17 hours ago, TheIrreverend said:

I've actually done some research on this, and it's partially to do with the underlying cause of the bedwetting. 

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-5347(01)68062-5

This was a very small study, but the researchers found five distinct patters of bedwetting.

1. " normal daytime urodynamics with significant bladder instability at night with normal volume voiding precipitated by unstable detrusor contractions" 

These patients had normal daytime bladder control, but completely emptied their bladders at night when their need got bad enough after holding until their bladders were full, indicating that the cause of their bedwetting was the urge to pee not waking them up, not a physical issue.

2. "normal daytime urodynamics with frequent small volume voiding at night, probably representing latent bladder instability"

This group were fine during the day, but had a weak ability to hold it while sleeping and had frequent small leaks at night, indicating a  weaker holding ability than normal, but stronger than group 3 or 4 because they never emptied their bladders entirely at night.

3. "abnormal daytime urodynamics with small bladder capacity, a discoordinated daytime voiding pattern and marked nighttime bladder instability associated with poor sleep"

Group 3 has weaker control than normal, both day and night, but during the day they've developed strategies to avoid accidents (like frequently going to the toilet). They are lighter sleepers and more likely to wake up when they have an accident.

4. "abnormal daytime urodynamics with an obstructive pattern, and marked daytime and nighttime detrusor hypercontractility (mean maximum detrusor pressure 178 cm. water)"

Group 4 suffers from a form of OAB and possibly urge incontinence. They get powerful and sudden urges to go to the toilet and may or may not make it. Their bedwetting is more that small dribbles over hours and less than holding until they burst because they can't wake up, but it's gushes, not dribbles.

5. "abnormal daytime urodynamics with a dysfunctional daytime voiding pattern and frequent small volume nighttime voiding"

Group 5 is a combination between Group 4 and Group 2. They may have OAB to some degree, but it's not as bad and the urges aren't as powerful when they happen. They have stronger holding ability than Group 4, but less than Group 2, and they may be more accident-prone in the daytime as well.

Also, I did some research on myself using a sensor and Arduino kit that I wrote up here:

https://www.omorashi.org/topic/38764-science-of-a-wet-night/

The technology for sensing accidents has improved a lot in the last few years, so I definitely should redesign my system and do a new trial, though!

I'm Group 3 during the day and Group 1 at night. My cousin is probably Group 4. 

Not sure when at night I wet, but I always dream on nights I do, that I'm someone else or a disembodied third person watching someone else, that someone else usually a fictional character from a series I like, having an accident.

Link to comment
17 hours ago, segaface said:

I would assume it happens mostly during REM sleep, which is when you are most deeply asleep and when dreams occur. Makes more sense that your body may not wake itself up from a more deep sleep, and that you may pee for real if you do so in a dream, since your mind is tricked into thinking it's safe to let go. 

You are right that REM-sleep is when dreams are happening, but that is actually a lighter stage of sleep. Typically right before waking up. The deepest stage of the cycle is called Delta-sleep.

Maybe it is this common misperception that dreams are happening in the deepest stage of sleep wich make so many people think it was a dream that made them pee the bed. In reality it is always the other way around. You wet the bed, or start to wet the bed, and then your brain start dreaming about it, to try explain the signals it is recieving. You can still wake up in the middle of peeing though, but then your brain has moved through the RAM-stage in a matter of seconds.

Link to comment

I think the bedwetting occurs when your friends decide to be a jerk and put your hand in a glass of warm water while you are sleeping!


Seriously though I can't really say because I haven't really wet the bed since I was a teenager (unintentionally). But I tend to be a light sleeper and I usually wake up to go to the bathroom a lot while I am sleeping and often have dreams about having to go to the bathroom during that time. So I don't think I really have to be deeply asleep for my mind to alert me to the fact that I have to go to the bathroom.

Link to comment
14 hours ago, TheIrreverend said:

I can't do the ultrasound device paper right now because I'm at home and Elsevier is being weird, but here's the other one. I hope you like it as much as I did!

neveus-1999.pdf 618.38 kB · 5 downloads

Also, it may take a while because I have to crop out the footers with my university email on every page.

Over the years I’ve spent considerable time in both public and medical libraries looking for info on nocturnal enuresis hoping to better understand my “issue”.  This paper is new to me, it’s very good. 

Surprised to read the participants had no problem sleeping in a wet bed after an incident.  Believe that’s contrary to general thinking.  However, as a child it was the case for me, often not realizing I was wet till time to get up in the morning.  Even back then my budding technical mind wondered the when and more of my bedwetting.

Glade to hear you and others share my curiosity.

Link to comment
7 hours ago, DesperateJill said:

I think the bedwetting occurs when your friends decide to be a jerk and put your hand in a glass of warm water while you are sleeping!

 

Heh, my cousin tried that on me once... Only problem was that he came in less than ten minutes after I'd gotten into bed. He didn't bother waiting for me to actually fall asleep first, which kind of prevented the whole thing from working. 

Link to comment
8 hours ago, WBxx said:

Surprised to read the participants had no problem sleeping in a wet bed after an incident.  Believe that’s contrary to general thinking.  However, as a child it was the case for me, often not realizing I was wet till time to get up in the morning.  Even back then my budding technical mind wondered the when and more of my bedwetting.

It turns out it does affect sleep quality even if the bedwetter sleeps through their accident.  Bedwetters who wear diapers have nearly the same sleep quality as people who are dry at night, though.

1-s2.0-S1389945713002165-main.pdf

Link to comment
On 4/3/2021 at 8:40 AM, TheIrreverend said:

3. "abnormal daytime urodynamics with small bladder capacity, a discoordinated daytime voiding pattern and marked nighttime bladder instability associated with poor sleep"

Group 3 has weaker control than normal, both day and night, but during the day they've developed strategies to avoid accidents (like frequently going to the toilet). They are lighter sleepers and more likely to wake up when they have an accident.

I forgot in my other post to mention this is me!

Link to comment
15 hours ago, DesperateJill said:

I think the bedwetting occurs when your friends decide to be a jerk and put your hand in a glass of warm water while you are sleeping!

I had a female friend who was an Air Cadet, said they always used to do this to each other when away at a camp, first turning their drawers upside down so it made for chaos when they tried to quietly get a change of clothes.

Link to comment
On 4/3/2021 at 5:34 PM, TheIrreverend said:

I can't do the ultrasound device paper right now because I'm at home and Elsevier is being weird, but here's the other one. I hope you like it as much as I did!

neveus-1999.pdf 618.38 kB · 7 downloads

Also, it may take a while because I have to crop out the footers with my university email on every page.

Good call, I wouldn't have thought about the footers.

Thanks for this!

16 hours ago, WBxx said:

Over the years I’ve spent considerable time in both public and medical libraries looking for info on nocturnal enuresis hoping to better understand my “issue”.  This paper is new to me, it’s very good. 

Surprised to read the participants had no problem sleeping in a wet bed after an incident.  Believe that’s contrary to general thinking.  However, as a child it was the case for me, often not realizing I was wet till time to get up in the morning.  Even back then my budding technical mind wondered the when and more of my bedwetting.

Glade to hear you and others share my curiosity.

I think it depends on how heavy a sleeper you are. I know some people report waking up when the pee gets cold, but then others, and I'm included here, wake up the next morning in a puddle. and I'm pretty sure I usually wet towards the beginning of my sleep, like a couple of hours in. I learnt this using a wetting alarm as a kid and also when I do have the odd accident these days, and if I happen to get my hubby wet, he wakes me up in the middle of the night.

Link to comment
8 hours ago, rachelkirwan said:

Good call, I wouldn't have thought about the footers.

Thanks for this!

I think it depends on how heavy a sleeper you are. I know some people report waking up when the pee gets cold, but then others, and I'm included here, wake up the next morning in a puddle. and I'm pretty sure I usually wet towards the beginning of my sleep, like a couple of hours in. I learnt this using a wetting alarm as a kid and also when I do have the odd accident these days, and if I happen to get my hubby wet, he wakes me up in the middle of the night.

Being wet doesn't bother me I just sleep in it and worry about it when I get up in the morning.

Link to comment
  • 5 months later...

I have woken up while starting to pee (anywhere from a small leak to a dinner plate sized wet spot) about once a year for my entire life. It's always within an hour of falling asleep. I haven't fully peed my bed since I was in early 20s and very drunk.

For what it's worth the one incident I've experienced with a girl in my bed was also shortly after they fell asleep and not a full accident.

Link to comment

I've been a bedwetter my entire life. Most times I usually just wake up wet, not remembering when I had the accident.  There have been a handful of times in my life where I have woken up in the middle of peeing, but once I start peeing I can't stop it. My inability to stop peeing once I start has also caused daytime wetting accidents too.

 

My wife is very supportive of my bladder problems and our mattress is protected. I also usually wear overnight pull ups to bed too. I do leave the pull ups off if I know we will be having some naughty fun the next morning. When that happens, I usually wake up wet and my wife pees in the bed too as we are having our fun!

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...