Do you find yourself getting up more than once at night to pee? If so, you are not alone! Nocturia or waking to empty your bladder is common and very bothersome. Here are 7 tips to stop getting up so much at night!
Getting up at night to use the bathroom is very common, especially when we have other reasons to get up such as nursing your baby or attending to a sick child.
But when the reason for getting up is solely your bladder urgency, the routine can quickly go from mildly bothersome to quite annoying in a hurry.
Bladder frequency at night also called ‘nocturia’ is associated with poor sleep quality, brain fog, and daytime fatigue. Nocturia is defined as needing to use the bathroom more than 1x per night.
Sleep quality is especially diminished if you wake up during the early sleep hours. These hours are the one to two hours immediately after falling asleep when you go into deep REM restorative sleep. If your bladder wakes you during this time, it significantly lowers your sleep quality.
Once I start getting up at night, will I always have to get up?
Just because you get up to take care of your baby, or wake to take care of the dog, it does not mean this will be a pattern for life.
Your bladder does tend to repeat patterns of urgency (it’s not very smart) but you can break the cycle with the simple strategies I’ve listed below.
Lower the amount of liquid you consume before going to bed!
Consuming less liquid before bed will mean fewer bathroom trips at night. Why does this happen?
Our kidneys are designed to produce less urine overnight, therefore drinking less right before bedtime helps to decrease the amount that will fill your bladder.
Studies have shown that cutting back on fluids approximately two hours prior to bedtime will decrease the likelihood of your bladder waking you at night.
Cut back on high salt processed foods
High dietary salt intake has been directly correlated to increased thirst and therefore high fluid intake. The foods most likely to have high salt levels are highly processed foods.
Think salty snacks, crackers, and ready-to-eat foods that use salt as a preservative. Cutting back on these foods will decrease your thirst and lower your liquid intake especially at night.
Typical table salt use, however in cooking or for food flavoring does not increase thirst levels. This is good news for salt lovers who want a pinch or two on your food. Yay!
Instead aim to reduce your consumption of processed foods to keep high thirst levels at bay.
Not all liquids are created equal!
What you drink, especially at night has a big impact on how often you will be getting up to go. Not all liquids are created equal, and some are considered ‘bladder irritants’. A primary irritant is a caffeine, especially if consumed at night or in the evening.
A bladder irritant will irritate the lining of the bladder wall and stimulate the bladder to contract, thus giving you bladder urgency.
Many foods and beverages have caffeine naturally occurring or added to them. Therefore being mindful of when and how much you consume is important to consider when desiring to cut back on trips to the bathroom at night.
Typical culprits are:
Green tea
Iced tea
Hot chocolate
Chocolate flavored drinks
Energy drinks
Yerba mate drinks
Guarana (often added to energy drinks)
Curious? Read more on bladder irritants on my blog.
Alcohol before bedtime will increase your trips to the toilet at night.
Alcohol consumed at night or close to your bedtime will often mean more trips to the toilet at night. Alcoholic beverages have three things in them that make it likely to wake you up.
These beverages are bladder irritants because of the high acidity, a diuretic which will stimulate more urine and a sympathetic nervous system stimulant that will stimulate bladder urgency.
Taken together these are a triple threat for waking you up at night, and significantly decreasing your chances of restful sleep.
Fewer bathroom breaks during the day mean fewer trips to the bathroom at night!
If you cut down on the trips you make to the toilet during the day, you will slowly increase your bladder capacity. Bladder capacity is the amount of space available to hold urine in your bladder.
By increasing this capacity during the day (ie. less frequent peeing) you will also increase the capacity to hold while sleeping. This means your bladder is less likely to stretch at night and give you an urge signal.
Aim for emptying 6-8 times per day and cut back on peeing ‘just in case’. Be patient however, our bathroom habits are often long-standing and this process does take time.
Interested in finding out how to hold off that bathroom break better? Check out my tips on urge suppression here.
Empty your bladder completely before going to bed!
Complete bladder emptying is key to not getting bladder urges at night. While it may sound simple enough, it is often an overlooked opportunity to make sure you don’t get up.
If you don’t empty your bladder fully, you carry the extra urine with you at night. That means you have less capacity to fill overnight and therefore are more likely to get bladder urgency.
Want to know how to optimize bladder emptying? I’ve listed my key tips below…
Quick tips for bladder emptying include;
- Sitting with your upper body leaning forward allowing your elbows to rest on your thighs. This is the optimal posture for emptying.
- Breathe deeply (belly breathing) while emptying to keep your pelvic floor muscles relaxed.
- Take your time, don’t rush the emptying process. If you’re tired, your bladder is tired as well. It may require a little extra time to get the job done.
Need a visual of the posture for emptying?
Check out my Tips for a Happy Bladder free printable here!
Melatonin at night can be a game-changer!
Studies have shown that as little as 2mg of a melatonin supplement at bedtime can increase your sleep quality and decrease your trips to the bathroom at night.
This is because melatonin not only helps you to get to sleep but also acts as a muscle relaxant for the smooth muscles of our pelvic organs, including your bladder.
This bladder relaxation allows more bladder stretching to occur without creating bladder urgency. This means a better night’s sleep, with fewer trips to the bathroom. Yay!
Whether you combine several of these strategies or just try one or two, they have the potential to shift you away from annoying bladder urgency at night to a calm restorative night’s rest.
Know someone who could benefit from these tips? Share it with a friend!
Happy Bladder wishes! 
~ Tami
Other blogs on the topic include:
Bladder Urges Bossing You Around? Here Are 5 Strategies To Regain Control!
The Reason Emptying Your Bladder ‘Just In Case’ is Making Your Bladder Problems Worse!
Tami Lines is a licensed Physical Therapist with certifications in Pelvic Rehabilitation and Women’s Health Coaching. She is the founder of Pelvic-Health-Matters. Tami has over 15 years of experience with expertise in bladder Health, and pelvic floor muscle dysfunction for adolescent and adult women. She is also a mom of two wonderful young adults working their way through college.
References:
Appell RA, Sand PK. Nocturia: etiology, diagnosis, and treatment. Neurourol Urodyn. 2008;27(1):34-9. doi: 10.1002/nau.20484. PMID: 17924538.
Alwis US, Monaghan TF, Haddad R, et al. Dietary considerations in the evaluation and management of nocturia. F1000Res. 2020;9:F1000 Faculty Rev-165. Published 2020 Mar 5. doi:10.12688/f1000research.21466.1
Fathollahi A, Daneshgari F, Hanna-Mitchell AT. Melatonin and Its Role in Lower Urinary Tract Function: An Article Review. Curr Urol. 2015;8(3):113-118. doi:10.1159/000365701