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Increased urination at night is usually an abnormal symptom and can accompany various diseases, such as impaired excretory function of the kidneys. Under normal conditions, the amount of urine released during the day is about 2/3 of the daily amount. There may be a disturbance in this ratio and an increase in the amount of urine passed at night.
- Increased urination at night is called nocturia. The patient feels the need for micturition at least twice a night
- The formation of nocturia may be influenced, among others, by circulatory failure, abnormalities in the urinary system, neurological disorders, diabetes
- Treatment of this ailment depends on the causes that caused it
- You can find more such stories on the Onet homepage.
Increased urination at night
Increased urination at night called nocturia is a symptom, the occurrence of which may indicate certain disease processes in the body. During sleep, our kidneys physiologically produce less urine, and in the course of nocturia, the patient feels at least twice the need for voiding at night. Pollakiuria is to be distinguished from polyuria. Pollakiuria means repeated urination (even more than eight times a day), while polyuria means the excretion of more than 2,5 liters of urine per day.
The causes of this ailment can be very different, it can be influenced by, for example, circulatory failure, abnormalities in the urinary system or neurological disorders. In more than half of patients, the need to urinate more at night is the main cause of sleep deprivation. This translates into functioning during the day, especially when concentration and productivity at work deteriorate. Men with nocturia are much more likely to develop depression and coronary heart disease.
Are you worried about the problem of frequent urination? Do not hesitate, make an appointment with the doctor. You can use the online visit option, during which you will efficiently receive an e-Prescription and e-Test Referral.
The causes of increased urination at night
Increased urination at night is common in diseases such as:
- diabetes,
- certain kidney diseases
- chronic circulatory failure – lying position improves blood supply to the kidneys, which leads to increased urine production,
- prostatic hyperplasia, which usually occurs in men in their 50s.
Increased urination at night may also occur in healthy people who drink large amounts of fluids containing alcohol or caffeine in the evening. Also, taking certain medications increases the risk of nocturia, e.g. drugs used in hypertension or diuretics.
An increased need to pass urine at night occurs in people who have problems with urinary incontinence. These people have a sudden urge to urinate because the detrusor muscle is not working properly. Urinary incontinence is a symptom of: prostate disease, cancer, bladder stones, nervous system disease or multiple sclerosis.
Other causes of nocturia:
- urinary tract infection – a condition that often affects women, which, in addition to the increased need to urinate at night, is also characterized by pollakiuria,
- painful bladder syndrome,
- OSA (obstructive sleep apnea) – patients with this condition develop night apnea and shortness of breath,
- involuntary bedwetting – diagnosed most often in people with developmental defects of the urinary system or ailments of the nervous system; is common in children and can sometimes be psychogenic.
The increased need to urinate at night often occurs in pregnant women, especially in the later stages of pregnancy, when the uterus presses on the bladder. However, the problem should not be ignored and only the pregnancy should be blamed. Diagnostics and looking for causes are needed, especially when the symptoms are very severe. Sometimes nocturia is a symptom that suggests a disease of the reproductive organ, such as endometriosis.
Increased urination at night – how to treat?
Treatment of this ailment depends on the causes that caused it. Sometimes it is enough for the patient to stop drinking coffee or alcohol before going to bed to make the problem disappear. In other people, symptoms can be relieved with special drugs that block receptors in both the bladder wall and the prostate. It is not painful. However, before any treatment is implemented, a thorough diagnosis should be made, which may require blood and urine tests.
Check the condition of your kidneys. A package of blood and urine tests will help you with Healthy Kidneys.
Often times, doctors suggest that the patient keep a sleep diary to help make an accurate diagnosis. If prostate enlargement is suspected, urodynamic examinations and prostate examination are performed.
Increased urination at night can be treated by:
- by administering antibiotics in the course of cystitis,
- with insulin (in type I diabetics),
- by the operative method in diseases of the prostate gland.