This Is What Getting Up to Pee Every Night Is Like

If you frequently get up to pee in the middle of the night, welcome to the wonderful world of nocturia. Let’s get real about what it feels like, what causes it, and throw in a little hardcore honestly as well.

The aggravation of having to crawl out of a soft, warm bed and heading to the bathroom is unlike any other kind of annoyance. What kind of horrible curse is this?

Why Getting Up to Pee Is The Worst

Picture it. You’ve had an exhausting day. (Probably not hard to picture that actually.) Everyone at work was in a mood and now that you’re home it can’t be said that your own family is being much nicer.

You’re a good mom so you do what the job entails and you feed all the grumpy humans. While they wolf down the best taco pasta you’ve ever made, you are almost too tired to chew.

After supper you draw a bath, lock the door and enjoy an Ocean Breeze Cocktail while you soak the stress away. Until…”Mom, mom, mom. MOM. Moooooooom. MOM!”

What children and dogs know for sure is that when the bathroom door closes with you on the other side, you are never, ever coming back. They share a common belief that bathrooms are treacherous places where no one should go alone.

When it’s finally bedtime for the little humans you love so much, you decide to turn in as well. There you are, all snug in your soft bed, finally drifting sweetly off to sleep. Tomorrow morning it will all be better.

And then like clockwork, you wake up at 3 AM. Your bladder feels like someone came in while you were sleeping and stuck a garden hose in it.

You can’t turn lights on because you don’t want to be fully awake yet. Instead, you navigate your way to the loo by running your hands along the walls until you think you’re there. If someone turned on a light just then you’d look like a mime trapped in a box.

You are suffering from nocturia, and you’ll either need to make some lifestyle changes or visit with your doctor. Maybe both.

What Causes Us to Wake Up to Go Potty?

Here are a few of the things that can cause nocturia, two of which you can manage yourself.

1. Drinking too much in the evening
2. Drinking too many caffeinated beverages
3. Untreated diabetes
4. Sleep apnea
5. Medications
6. Congestive heart failure

It will probably be pretty easy to limit your intake of fluid in the evenings and cut back on caffeine. But, if those don’t resolve the problem and you’re still getting up to pee on the regular, make an appointment to see your doc.

“Normally, you should be able to sleep six to eight hours during the night without having to get up to go to the bathroom. People who have nocturia wake up more than once a night to urinate. This can cause disruptions in a normal sleep cycle.” – Cleveland Clinic

You deserve to sleep at night!

At the end of the day, (see what I did there?), you need to take care of YOU. Women are so hardwired to minimize our symptoms that we actually do ourselves harm. Go see your doctor if you continue getting up to pee. You need your rest, Mama.