Nocturia is a condition in which you wake up during the night because you have to urinate. Normally, you should be able to sleep six to eight hours during the night without having to get up to go to the bathroom.

How many times do you wake up at night to go pee?

Nearly everyone wakes up in the middle of the night to urinate at some point. But sometimes frequent nightly urination can be a sign of health problems. According to a National Sleep Foundation survey, about 65% of people age of 55 and older reported getting up several times at night to use the bathroom.

If you have to get up once during the night to urinate, you’re likely in the normal range, but if you wake up more than one time each night to go to the bathroom, you may have nocturia.

Three main issues provoke nocturia: producing excess urine at night, decreased bladder capacity, and sleep disruptions. Each of these issues can be caused by a variety of underlying health conditions.

Producing Excess Urine at Night

Producing excess urine at night is known as nocturnal polyuria, and it is estimated to be a contributing cause for up to 88% of cases of nocturia.

For some people, excess urine production occurs throughout the day and night. This condition, called global polyuria, is most often tied to excess fluid intake, diabetes, and/or poor kidney function. Diuretics, including medications (“water pills”) and substances like alcohol and caffeine, can cause enhanced urine production as well.

Decreased Bladder Capacity and Increased Urinary Frequency

Even without increased nighttime urine production, reduced bladder capacity and increased urinary frequency can give rise to nocturia.

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are one of the most common causes of changes to bladder capacity. They can also occur among people who have enlarged prostate, benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), or overactive bladder.

A heightened urge to urinate, inflammation of the urinary tract, and bladder stones can all be risk factors for diminished bladder capacity and increased urinary frequency that can lead to nocturia.

Nocturia becomes more common as people age and occurs in both men and women, sometimes for different reasons. It helps to talk with your health care provider to learn why you make multiple trips to the bathroom at night.

In men a common cause of nocturia is Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). As you age, your prostate may get larger, BPH is when it gets large enough to cause problems.

While the prostate is usually the size of a walnut or golf ball in adult men, it can grow to be as large as an orange. As the gland enlarges, it can squeeze the urethra and obstruct the flow of urine. About half of all men between ages 51 and 60 have BPH, and up to 90% of men over age 80 have it.

When it comes to Nocturia in women, two in three women over age 40 wake up at least once each night because of a full bladder. And nearly half of them make two or more nighttime trips to the bathroom. Until now, many clinicians thought that women who woke at night to urinate had some disorder causing the problem as is the case for men. So it comes as a surprise that many of the women have no other urinary problems, such as an overactive bladder or leaking urine when coughing (stress incontinence). Factors that increased the likelihood that a woman woke at night to urinate included older age, having had a hysterectomy, having hot flashes, and using vaginal estrogen. The results were published in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.

In conclusion, how often you pee is affected by many factors, like fluid consumption, so there’s no need to automatically panic if you have to get up to urinate at night. But if you change your lifestyle and you’re still bothered by nocturnal urination, it’s worth working with a doctor to get to the root cause.

References

https://www.urologyhealth.org/urology-a-z/n/nocturia

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/14510-nocturia

What Is Nocturia?

https://www.geisinger.org/health-and-wellness/wellness-articles/2017/07/25/14/27/how-frequently-should-you-go-to-the-bathroom-at-night

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/full-bladder-wakes-2-3-women-night-201412127585

Nocturia or Frequent Urination at Night