Sometimes I get up twice a night, sometimes 6,7 or more times. I've tried to get to bed at the same time, eat dinner at the same time, avoid spices and alcohol, stop drinking lots of liquids about 3 in the afternoon. But still my nights are very different and I'm trying to figure out why or what I can do to have more good nights sleep.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
There is medication available for this. Consult your urologist.
Have you compared your intake to your output. Presumably you must be passing considerably more during the night than in the day.
This probably isn't the long term option, but i was up sometimes 10 times as well. Sometimes less, it seems like sometimes I'd be able to sleep and on different nights I kept getting up I would pee and not empty my bladder but it would stop and soon as I would lay down and get back in the bed I felt I had to get up and pee again and that would reoccur Time After Time After Time. So I found out that lack of sleep really does age you as I started to develop bags under my eyes but I would take power naps during the day and get two to three hours in that way. I'd also go to the movies early and fall asleep in the theater while no one was there ... so I tried that for a while but I don't drink or smoke so that option didn't exist... but I did try nightquil and it worked and I got 7 hours of sleep I made it a point not to rely on it, but I would use it twice a week sometimes and until I got my rhythm back. now I'm fine I have no issues with sleep but if you're desperate try a cap of nightquil and see if that helps.
I take a little bit of ambien (maybe 1-2mg) before bedtime and that helps me to fall asleep quickly.
I also started taking cialis a couple of weeks ago and think its starting to help.
I do take power naps for deep, REM sleep. They make up for alot of my lost sleep.
Still some nights it feels like my bladder is empty, like 2 nights ago, when I slept for 4 1/2 uninterrupted hours, followed by 2 more hours.
And other nights like last night where I'm pulled out of a deep sleep every hour or 90 minutes.
I don't know why some nights are good, others bad, but I'd sure like more of the good nights.
try to ride an horse( or a bike if you are not able to riding horses) without sitting down on the saddle but staying up on the stirrups) for 20-30 minutes that exercise I'm sure helps internal pelvi and bladder's muscles to being more resistent you could try without any danger i hope....
Some take Merlatonin that supposedly serves a double purose of reducing urination and helping sleep. It did not work for me.
My problem has always been underactive bladder(UAB) as opposed to overactive bladder(OAB). After having the Rezum performed the urinary retention is steadily decreasing. I'm hoping it doesn't develop into an OAB. When I had heavy retention, abdominal discomfort was continual, this has pretty much been eliminated since the Rezum.
Do you have retention? If the problem is incomplete emptying then that has to be addressed one way or another either through drugs, surgery, self cathing, etc.
If retention isn't the problem, then your nightime urination (nocturia) can have a number of causes and possible solutions including anticholinergic medications, timed diuretics, daytime naps, leg elevation and compression stockings. Personally I found limiting my sodium intake helps. You should also be checked for diabetes and any underlying heart issues.
As far as the Nyquil suggestion, not a good idea if you have retention because it can make it worse. Yes, you might sleep through the night, but your bladder will be for the worse. So be careful with all antihistimines and decongestants.
Jim
Ah, sodium. I did have salty foods and chips yesterday. I'll limit it for awhile and see if it help.
Thanks
See if it works. When you eat salty foods you retain water. But at some point the water must come out. I suppose you could actually time salt intake to help nocturia but that's beyond my pay scale. Probably easier to just cut back -- healthier too -- so that the kidney's don't unload heavy at night. Haven't read anything about it, just some personal thoughts/observations. In like manner, that's where daytime diuretics come in where you time the dieuretics so the kidneys unload more during the day than at night.
Jim
Hi J, I may be missing something here, but have you got BPH or not?
Yes, thats the root of my problem.
OK, J, I can only offer my own opinion about my experiences with BPH.
1st, I took Tamsulosin for years and that kind of altered things in somuchas I went from many visits to the loo down to about 3 pees a night.
However, I recently started to get the urge to pee and had to be quick getting to the toilet regardless the time of day or night.
My doctor added Finasteride to my Tamsulosin saying that it should take about 3 months for it to show improvement, because that's how long it takes to effectively shrink the swollen prostate gland.
I have now been on this for just over 5 weeks and I'm happy to say that last night was the 1st night in a long time that I didn't get up to pee.
But I must add that the urge to pee must be dealt with instantly. I am hoping that the combination of Finasteride and Tamsulosin will eventually conquer that problem - I will put it on here if it does.
I hope that helps.
That was meant to be MELATONIN. Cherries have melatonin in them and some here were buying a very strong cherry drink that served the same purpose.
I was on Finasteride and Tamsulosin for 6 months. I had alot of discomfort in the area of my prostate but saw no improvement in my nocturia. Then I was on Tamsulosin for a few months and my nightly trips decreased from about 7 to about 3. However I had serious headaches so I switched to 5mg Cialis a few weeks ago. Cialis gives me mild headaches and seems to be helping my nocturia.
Assuming you have retention, the Cialis may be helping in that regard with more complete emptying resulting in fewer bathroom trips at night. Have you noticed that your voids are larger since taking daily Cialis? A urine output log would be helpful in nailing things down but it would have had to been started before you started taking the Cialis. What is your PVR? If it's over 300ml, you might consider self cathing (CIC) which would allow you to completely empty your bladder prior to bed time and when you awake at night. It possibly could cut down your night time bathroom trips significantly and possibly even eliminate them.
Jim
Thanks Jim; I'm in Argentina and the drs here dont seem to be very quantitative. I think the health care here is far superior to what I had in Florida but I've been consulting urol and radiologists for a year about my nocturia and have never discussed measuring or cathing (ughhh!).
I understand that cathing is only a temporary solution anyway.
I started recording the number of nightly sleep interruptions on my own.
If I can get to a steady 2x per nite I'll be happy. If not, I'm going to have a PAE.
Well you don't need an "MD" in front of your name to do the math. Let's say your bladder signals you to urinate when it contains 400cc. Well, if your bladder only is emptying 100cc each time, then your kidneys only have to produce another 100cc before you wake up and head to the bathroom. On the other side of the spectrum, if your bladder empties completely, then your kidneys would have to produce four times that much urine (400cc) before you head to the bathroom. That could in of itself mean the difference between four bathroom trips per night versus one, or even none. Daily Cialis can help some in that regard but self cathing would completely empty your bladder. And it's not just a temporary solution, in fact some of us -- myself included -- have been doing it for years. In your case, you might only have to do it once a day, before bedtime.
I'm not saying you should start self cathing, but in order to come up with a treatment plan for your nocturia, you first have to find out what causes it. Is it being caused by a large post void residual or something else. Post void residual can be measured via ultrasound at your doctor's office.
Unfortunately, too many MDs rush out their go-to treatment plans before really taking the time to figure out what is causing the problem. So sometimes their plan works, sometimes not. And sometimes they use a sludge hammer approach when a light tap with a hammer will suffice.
Jim
Agreeing with JimJames. Both Jim and I are long-term cathers (Or at least Jim was, until he didn't need to.). Although my Urolift surgery in Decemeber allowed me to pee again, my bladder is so strethced out, that it can retain as much as 1,000cc before complaining (although usually I get The Urge at around 500cc---still too much!
So I've cathed intermittantly since Aug of 2014. And cathing at bedtime gives me a FULL NIGHT OF SLEEP, every night. A small blessing in a situation that offers slim hope for improvement (on bladder size). That said, Jim has his happy story of having ignored protocol and then having shrunk his bladder to near-normal size... I too may try his approach!