We are quite familiar with the word “bed-wetting” from our childhood days. Some people even do bed-wetting until the age of seven. What causes this condition? For answers, let’s dig deeper!
What is Enuresis?
Enuresis is an involuntary urination usually during the night sleep. Children and old age people usually cannot control their urine especially when they are in deep sleep. It can happen in both night and day sleep. If it happens during night sleep, it is called as nocturnal enuresis and during the daytime, it is called as diurnal enuresis.
What causes Enuresis?
Children tend to wet their bed until the age of five or even after. This is because either they have a small bladder or the urine production during the night is more than the bladder could hold. Enuresis can also affect teenage, middle age and old age people.
Some of the causes include:
- Bladder woes- When a person has a small bladder and cannot hold large volumes of urine
- Sleep issues- When a person sleeps deeply and does not wake up for urine
- Caffeine intake- Caffeine causes a person to urinate more
- Hormonal issues- an Inadequate amount of hormone called antidiuretic hormone, which makes the body to produce less urine when sleeping.
- Psychological issues- Stress
- Medical issues- like urinary tract infections can lead to enuresis as well
How can this be treated?
Most of the children naturally stop after five or six years of age, rest of them outgrow this before hitting teenage. Children, who do not stop bed-wetting, are given the following therapies:
Behavioral therapy
- Alarms- Using an alarm which can help the child wake up and make it as a habit.
- Bladder training- This process includes to take the child to the bathroom in a scheduled timing so that he does not hold urine.
- Reward process- Rewarding the child as he starts to improve and control his bladder.
Managing pre-sleep drinks and eateries
Some of the things to avoid are: drinking lots before you sleep and going to the toilet before you sleep. Food, such as, coffee, tea, chocolate and other carbonated sodas and drinks which contains caffeine need to be avoided
Imaginary technique: This technique uses the mind imagination and the person thinks himself/herself of waking up dry before going to sleep.
Medication: If none of these works out, you can approach the doctor for medications. Medication should only be the last resort as the medication has not been proved to cure it permanently. The reason being not cured permanently is that the person will start bed-wetting after the medicine is stopped. Doctors might prescribe medicine which decreases the urine build-up in the night or to relax the bladder by allowing it to hold more urine.
Any person who had the same problem at the adolescence age can also help by telling their stories of how they overcame it.