We all know that feeling….you’ve just gotten into the right position…you’re about to drift off…and oh no…not again…I just went! And is it my imagination or is it getting a little more frequent as I get older? The following information can help you understand what the underlying cause may be and if there is anything we can do to prevent the problem.

Frequent trips to the restroom at night can be caused by a number of things including pregnancy, diabetes, congestive heart failure, or an overactive bladder, among others. Getting up at night interferes with our sleep cycles. Are there any treatment methods to help those who suffer from nighttime wake up calls to get better sleep? Here we will delve deeper into the matter.

During the day, your kidneys clean your body by producing large amounts of urine. When you go to sleep at night, your brain makes lots of a hormone called ADH for short that shuts down your kidneys so you can sleep at night. As you age, the brain’s ADH production slows down so many older people have to get up at night to visit the restroom. Antidiuretic hormone nasal sprays or pills can help these people sleep through the night. Even men who have frequent night-time urination after prostate surgery have reduced levels of ADH and can be cured by taking that hormone at bedtime (1). A potential serious side effect is seizures from taking too much water with HDH (4). So, if you take a 400 mg ADH pill or a single ADH nasal spray at bedtime, do not drink fluids after 6 PM.

The common causes of frequent urination range from the overly simplistic explanation of excessive fluid intake to more complicated scenarios such as congestive heart failure, benign prostatic hyperplasia, diabetes, chronic or recurrent urinary tract infections, or drugs.

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