What Causes Adult Bed Wetting
Causes of Adult Bed Wetting – Adult Enuresis
Bed wetting or nocturnal enuresis is a problem that usually occurs in babies and very young children that don’t have total control of their bladder. There are also adults that go through the same problem and adult bed wetting or adult enuresis is more common that many people realize.
The type of nocturnal enuresis that adults experience is classified under a secondary category. This category, compared to that of children, means that they had already gone through the child stages, perhaps been dry for several years, before the bed wetting problem began once again.
Needless to say, adults wetting the bed can feel very embarrassed and stressed. Fortunately, there are ways to deal with this problem and when finding the solution, you first have to determine what has caused the problem to begin in the first place.
Following are some of the most common causes:
- Genetics – Bedwetting is a problem that can be passed on from parent to child. If either of your parents had wet their beds as adults, there’s a 45% chance that it will happen to you too.
- Hormones – The body produces anti-diuretic hormones (ADH) to regulate urine production in the kidneys at night. If your ADH levels are inadequate, your kidneys will continue producing plenty of urine even as you sleep.
- Poor bladder control – Ordinarily, an adult will be able to control the flow or urine by contracting the detrusor, or the muscle around the bladder. If you have a weak detrusor, you’ll be more likely to wet your bed.
- Medical problems – Urinary tract infection, prostate cancer, urinary stones and prostate enlargement are just some of the medical problems that can lead to adult bed wetting. Similarly, many sleeping disorders like night terrors or sleepwalking can also cause nocturnal enuresis.
- Medications – Certain types of medications can weaken bladder control. You can avoid adult bed wetting in this case by taking the medications earlier in the day.
- Emotional stress – The risk of wetting the bed increases when going through emotionally stressful situations like divorce or a death of someone close to you.
- Increasing Age – As we get older, we can slowly lose control of our muscles, particularly those muscles that regulate urine flow. As the muscles weaken there is the increased risk of bed wetting.
As mentioned earlier, there are several things you can do to stop adult bed wetting but the big problem for many people is that their embarrassment for having the condition actually prevents them from seeking treatment. However, the longer you keep the problem to yourself, the worse it can get, so you should really look for treatment as soon as possible.
Most of the treatments for adult bed wetting are quite simple and don’t involve the use of medication or any invasive procedures. Basically, you just have to train your body to urinate at specific times during the day and do exercises for your bladder so that it can hold in more urine during the night.
Ask your doctor for help as there is no need to be embarrassed.
Bed Wetting and Sleep Apnea
Is Sleep Apnea A Possible Cause of Bed-Wetting?
Recent studies have shown that bed wetting and sleep apnea are possibly linked. To be more precise, there have been evidence showing that sleep apnea may actually be a cause of bed-wetting. Bed-wetting among children is not such an uncommon problem. Oftentimes, the child will outgrow it on his own but there are also cases where it can only get worse when not dealt with right away.
Basics of Bed Wetting and Sleep Apnea
In order to fully comprehend the link between bed wetting and sleep apnea, it would be a good idea to learn a thing or two about both of these conditions. Bed-wetting, as we all know, is the failure to control urination while sleeping. The medical term for this common problem is enuresis. According to studies, 16% of children younger than 5 will wet the bed, but 10% of these will outgrow the condition over time. Boys are also more likely to be bed-wetters than girls. The most common reason for bed-wetting is a small bladder, which can hold less urine than normal.
There are several remedies to bed-wetting but the one most often used is a moisture-detecting alarm system. Once moisture is detected, an alarm goes off, waking up the child and alerting him of the need to go to the bathroom. However, if snoring is also experienced along with bed-wetting, the problem may actually be an offshoot of sleep apnea.
How Are They Related?
A child who is suffering from sleep apnea finds it hard to sleep well at night because of the obstructions in his throat that are restricting his breathing. Thus, he feels fatigue in the daytime even though he did not do any physically strenuous activities. Regular bodily functions may eventually be affected, and chemical imbalances may occur in the brain. Such changes increase the likelihood of the child wetting the bed at night.
Therefore, both bed wetting and sleep apnea are actually results of improper brain function. The good news is that both of these problems can be solved using one remedy, which in most cases would be the removal of the adenoids. Enlarged adenoids are the most common cause of sleep apnea. As soon as these are removed, the sleep apnea will be treated and all its side effects, including bed wetting, will be eliminated.
However, there are also other possible causes of bed wetting and sleep apnea. To make sure that you or your child is properly diagnosed and treated, it is recommended that you consult your doctor as soon as possible, to rule out any other problems.
