Why Do I Need to Pee So Much at Night?
Are you wondering why you need to pee every 2 hours at night? Or why you need to pee so much at night but not during the day?
It's normal to get up once in the middle of the night to use the toilet, but if it causes you to wake up more than once, you should be looking for its cause.
The medical term for needing to pee at night is called Nocturia, which is a symptom, not a diagnosis. In this article, we'll cover what nocturia is, and how you can manage it to reduce how often you need to urinate at night.
Symptoms of Nocturia
Typically, your body generates less urine at night. Most people can sleep 6-8 hours without urinating. However, Nocturia causes people to wake up more frequently, disturbing their sleep cycles. The symptoms of nocturia are as follows —
- Frequent urination at night: urinating more than once during the night.
- Increased urine production: a larger amount of urine during the night than usual.
- Nocturnal enuresis: accidental urination while asleep,
- Urgency to urinate: feeling a strong and sudden urge to urinate
- Tiredness: nocturia can disturb sleep patterns.
- Sleep apnea: when your breathing stops and starts while you sleep.
- Urinary incontinence: Involuntary leakage of urine when you cough, sneeze or laugh.
This condition can worsen as you get older.
What Causes Nocturia?
There are a number of potential causes of nocturia.
- Consuming large amounts of fluids, particularly before bedtime.
- Caffeine and alcohol consumption after dinner.
- Aging, as the ability of the kidneys to concentrate urine decreases.
- Infection of the urinary tract or bladder.
- Weak or tightened pelvic floor muscles.
- Enlarged prostate gland.
- Diabetes.
- Hormonal imbalances.
- Chronic kidney disease.
How to Manage Nocturia
Consult your doctor if you suspect nocturia. They may recommend you to a urologist. Treatment usually targets the root problem. If the cause is sleep apnea, you will be referred to a pulmonologist or sleep specialist. To treat prostate enlargement, drugs or surgery may be required.
Treatment options for nocturia include interventions as well as medications. Interventions such as little drinking in the evening are suggested, and medications for reducing the amount of urine production are prescribed.
Another and one of the best treatment options is physical therapy. In this case, physical therapy is to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles. You need a strong pelvic floor in order to reduce or put an end to nocturia. Exercise for strengthening your pelvic floor muscles are called Kegels.
Kegel Exercises for Nocturia
Kegel exercises are one of the best ways to improve bladder and bowel functions. Kegel exercises are an excellent method for strengthening your pelvic floor, which can help reduce or even eliminate bladder leaks.
Kegel exercises are helpful for several reasons, including reducing urine incontinence symptoms and maintaining pelvic floor health. Increasing pelvic floor strength and tone can help ease symptoms like bladder leakage, bladder prolapse and urinary urgency.
It is essential to remember that Kegel exercises are not suitable for all. If you have a tight pelvic floor you will need to see a pelvic floor physio who can advise you how to relax it firstly.
Worried you are not doing your Kegels correctly?
This is when using a Kegel trainer such as Secret Whispers Kegel Weights, they work by engaging the correct pelvic floor muscles, taking away the guesswork and showing you how to perform a Kegel correctly.
How to do Kegels Step by Step
So, how do you tell you're doing Kegels correctly if not using Kegel weights? It isn't easy to know at first. But everyday practice makes it effortless. Here are some Kegel exercise tips.
Do I Use Muscles?
Your pelvic floor muscles can be found by stopping urinating mid-stream. We only recommend you do this a few times as doing this often can lead to bladder infections.
To workout your pelvic floor muscles imagine holding in wind and wee at the same time. That is the area you want to be contracting.
How Many Per Day?
With an empty bladder (ideally to start with), pull up and hold your pelvic floor muscles for up to 10 seconds. This is known as the Slow Kegel. Then relax your pelvic floor muscles for 5 seconds. This can take a few weeks to get up to the desired 10 second hold. Practise makes perfect remember. To start out, try doing just 5 reps and build it up.
As you get adjusted to your new routine, aim for 10-second contractions followed by 5-second breaks. Then you can work up to 3 sets of 10 full Kegels every day.
Now for the Fast Kegel. This is when you pull up and release quickly. Great for stress incontinence. You want to add 10 fast ones after you have done your Slow Kegels.
Repeat 3 Times Daily
Set a target of three sets of 10 reps per day. So, that is 10 Slow Kegels X10 reps, followed by 10 Fast Kegels 3 times a day. Soon you will be a Kegel Master! It takes time and practice but is so worth it. Soon you will be doing them automatically and incorporating them into everyday daily activities. We teach this in the 6 step programme that comes with the Kegel Kit purchase.
Things to Avoid
- Avoid flexing your abdominal, thigh, or buttock muscles.
- There should be no raise eyebrows either.
- Do not force yourself to hold your breath.
- Make sure you're breathing normally throughout the workouts to keep your body relaxed.
- Top Tip: To keep normal breathing, count down out loud. It is impossible to hold your breath. Try it now.
Self-Encourage
Kegel exercises can be awkward at first. But, with practice, the muscles will operate better, and your bladder health will improve the longer you practice this. Kegels have also been shown to boost sexual satisfaction. Yes!
2 or 3 sets of 10 short and ten prolonged Kegel contractions per day is a good Kegel workout schedule. Quality outweighs quantity. Doing fewer Kegels correctly is considerably more beneficial than doing many badly. Depending on the severity of the issue, you should see results in around 4 weeks. Again, every woman is different.
Kegel Devices
There are several options available. Some do require a prescription and must be used under medical care, but others are available without a prescription, such as Secret Whispers Pelvic Floor Weights. Really simple to use, no complicated apps and effective!
Improvements in Pelvic Floor Strength
Kegel-floor-strengthening takes time. Instead of getting disappointed if you can't control your bladder right away, there are a few things you may look out for to see if your pelvic floor muscle workouts are working:
- Fewer bathroom trips
- Lesser leaks
- More prolonged contractions or more repetitions
- Dryer underwear, without the constant wetness
- Getting enough sleep
Biofeedback therapy may help women and men who struggle with kegel exercises. Many people see considerable improvements in pelvic floor muscle tone, strength and function with expert guidance from a nurse specialist or pelvic floor therapist.
Remember that pelvic floor problems and incontinence aren't normal and almost always can be improved. No matter how long you've suffered with bladder leaks, you are never too late to do these exercises and use our Kegel Weights
You may also like to read:
6 Ways To Remember To Do Your Kegels
Fancy a freebie? Download our FREE guide to The easy way to get a stronger pelvic floor
