We all ‘know’ not to do this.
Is there good solid scientific evidence that shows drinking your urine in an emergency will kill you faster than not drinking anything at all?
From my recollection of reading survival guidance, if you’re well hydrated, urine contains plenty of water and is useful as a source of water and should prolong survival, at least until you’re no longer well hydrated. If you’re dehydrated, urine contains virtually no water and will kill you faster.
Urine always contains substantial amounts of water, the problem is that it’s full of stuff your body needs to get rid of using any water in your system and any water you obtain from the urine. It’s really not possible to measure this well because a true emergency would mean going without water for a few days at which time you’re on the verge of death anyway. So depending on the person you may or may not survive longer from drinking urine or drinking nothing at all. Either way, you’ll be dead before too long without drinking any fresh water.
Even the thought of drinking my own urine might kill me even faster. 
I ‘know’ the opposite. It isn’t a perpetual cycle, but I was very much under the impression that drinking your urine could keep you going for a short while longer.
I mean, isn’t that what Bear Grylls always taught us?
Nope, nope, @TriPolar talked me out of it.
It is sea water that, supposedly, judiciously sipped, you will still die in the same amount of time, but maintain useful consciousness a day or two longer than if you drink nothing.
He’s saying he’s done it to prevent dehydration. Which means he wasn’t dehydrated at the time. He will become more dehydrated as a result but there won’t be any immediate harmful effects. But he will become dehydrated faster.
You can’t stop your kidneys from removing the waste products your body produces, and it will take water from your blood to do that. More water than when it needed to produce the water you drink.
If you think you’re going to be stuck without water for a long time, the urine you produce when your are fully hydrated will contain a high percentage of water. If you wanted to save some urine for desperate circumstances that would be the time to do it. Once you’re dehydrated any urine you produce will have a much higher percentage of waste products.
Or set up some sort of purification system, like a solar still.
A far better approach than drinking urine and many other sources of water you might find.
When you’re super thirsty, nothing sounds more enticing than a tall, warm, frothy mug of piss.
Drinking sea water will kill you faster than not drinking anything at all. Drinking urine should be pretty much as bad because it is liquid filled with the waste your kidneys filter out of your body.
Just got this from Google:
“Not only will your urine not rehydrate you, it will have the opposite effect and dehydrate you at a faster rate. In fact, these dire moments are perhaps the most dangerous time to imbibe your own brew. It’s important to remember that urine is your body’s vehicle for eliminating liquid and soluble waste.”
Just remember to pee around your collection container and not into it…
THis is my confusion. Some of you are saying it will keep you alive longer, others say it will kill you faster.
I’d like some evidence to back either position up. What I have is “experts” will tell you one thing or the other, but have not heard of any studies to prove or provide evidence of either position.
As I recall dimly from the days of my youth, the novel of The Six Million Dollar Man includes collecting urine in a lunchbox and swishing it in the mouth but not swallowing. For whatever that’s work.
Thank goodness! It’ll make me feel better that I’m not killing myself by not drinking it.
It has been scientifically demonstrated that people can live for a limited time without water, and also that drinking urine will in a short time make you more dehydrated than you were before drinking it. Drinking urine will hydrate you for some short period time, possibly enough to walk to a source of fresh water, possibly not. If you don’t get fresh water in that short amount of time you will likely die sooner than if you did not drink any urine. We aren’t going to kill people to get any more accurate results than that.
Right. In other words, the only time you might want to safely drink you urine is the time you dont need to. 
Real survival experts, like SurvivorMan, and Cody, say that following Grylls advice will get you killed. fast.
Test have shown the those stills- unless you have ALL the right stuff and perfect conditions- use up more water by making than you get.
However, a little bit of salt water mixed with fresh water is better than just fresh water. IIRC, its 1-10.
This was another question I had a few years ago here, but never got a good answer. How much can you dilute out seawater (or ‘stretch out’ your fresh water supply) to maximize survival time?