Why You Might Need to Keep a Bladder Diary?

Why you might need to keep a bladder diary

This week, the Well+Being live chat focused on sleep. A lot of people are losing sleep because they have to pee multiple times a night. I checked in with Marisa Clifton, associate professor of urology at the Brady Urological Institute at Johns Hopkins Medicine.

Clifton notes that it’s common as people age to get up one or two times a night to pee. You can minimize bathroom trips by reducing water intake before bed, but that doesn’t always solve the problem. For patients struggling with excessive nighttime urination, she advises keeping a bladder diary. The National Institutes of Health and other organizations offer bladder diaries online. “They record how much they take in, how much they are urinating out and the times that it’s happening,” Clifton said. “That can be helpful for patients to identify issues and for doctors to help them.”

Something Clifton shared really surprised me. She noted that often nighttime wakings to pee aren’t really about the need to urinate at all. Keeping a bladder diary and working with a physician may reveal another underlying problem — such as a sleep disorder, sleep apnea, chronic pain, conditions that cause fluid retention or anxiety.

The underlying condition is what wakes you up — but once you’re awake, you’re conditioned to go pee anyway. That’s why a bladder diary and working with a physician is so important. Don’t assume it’s just a pee problem.

Chronic pain can be treated. Obstructive sleep apnea actually puts a strain on the heart, which causes the release of a cardiac hormone that causes you to make more urine, Clifton said. For these people, treating the apnea might solve the pee problem. One sign that there may be another underlying condition that is waking you up is how much you pee. If you’re peeing very small volumes every time you get up to go to the bathroom, that suggests it’s not the urge to urinate that’s waking you up, Clifton said.

Keep reading for more answers to your sleep questions. And next Thursday, we will be talking about your pets. Send me your questions here.