If you have to pee in the middle of the night, this is probably why

Picture this: You’ve just finished a long day of classes (or at work) and you kick off your shoes, get into your nice, cozy PJs, brush your teeth, and fall onto your bed for a night of much-deserved sleep. You’re perfectly curled up and dreaming of tacos, when suddenly, it hits you. You need to pee. So, you reluctantly get out of bed and hit the toilet and finally get back into bed.

But then, within an hour or two, the wonderful dream you were having about burritos are gone because yep, you need to pee again. Or worse, you end up waking up about an hour and a half before your alarm is going to go off, and suddenly you find yourself checking your e-mail and losing the little sleep you had left.

Guess what, though? There’s actually a name for this obnoxious issue, an Good Housekeeping UK has brought it to our attention. It’s called nocturia, and it increases in frequency the older we get (for example, it affects 1 in 3 adults over 30, but its most common among the 60+ crowd). So what do you need to know about nocturia?

According to the National Association for Continence, nocturia tends to occur mostly after childbirth, menopause, or after a pelvic organ prolaspe, while men generally experience nocturia due to enlarged prostate. Other causes for nocturia though, include alcohol and caffeine consumption, using diuretics, undergoing overactive bladder treatment, and drinking excessive fluids prior to bedtime.

You might also want to keep an eye out for any of these possible conditions, for which nocturia is a symptom: high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, insomnia, congestive heart failure, vascular disease, restless leg syndrome, and sleep disorders.

If you’re finding yourself having to pee too much at night, try reducing your fluid intake before bed, wearing compression stockings, elevating your legs, or even taking afternoon naps (hey we’ll do anything for an excuse to sleep more!)

And if you’re still having trouble, visit your doctor so they can run some tests and make sure it’s nothing more serious.

The more you know!