# The ol' "hand in the water" trick

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ol-hand-in-the-water-trick/28351>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 6, 2000, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ol-hand-in-the-water-trick/28351 "2000-08-06T21:52:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Miss\_Gretchen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Miss\_Gretchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Gretchen)\
**Post date:** [August 6, 2000, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ol-hand-in-the-water-trick/28351/1 "2000-08-06T21:52:58Z")

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1. Will putting a sleeping person’s hand in water actually make them wet the bed, or is this an old wive’s tale?

2. If is does work, why?

3. Who the hell figured this one out for the first time anyway?

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**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\
**Post date:** [August 6, 2000, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ol-hand-in-the-water-trick/28351/2 "2000-08-06T22:19:56Z")

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Unca Cecil answered the first two parts of your question on pages 27-28 of _Return of the Straight Dope_: [Why does putting someone’s hand in warm water make them go to the bathroom](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_027.html).

However, I suspect the origin of this classic trick have been lost in the mists of time.

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**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\
**Post date:** [August 7, 2000, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ol-hand-in-the-water-trick/28351/3 "2000-08-07T00:18:30Z")

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I have never seen it done successfully and my guess is that it would be very difficult to do. You might make someone _want_ to pee but that would probably just wake him up.

Just a few nights ago I was sleeping and was in need of taking a leak while I was dreaming a very vivid dream of actually _taking a leak_. What happened was that I actually began to pee but almost instantly woke up and stopped. I suppose you _could_ induce someone to want to pee but, unless it is someone who habitually wets his bed, he would not do it.

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**Author:** ![zebbmx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/958977/32.png) [@zebbmx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zebbmx)\
**Post date:** [August 7, 2000, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ol-hand-in-the-water-trick/28351/4 "2000-08-07T02:27:17Z")

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Ive tried this a couple of times…Never Succesful. I figure it’s Just An Old Tale That a Buncha little rapscallions Made up to impress theyre friends…Damn Rapscallions!

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**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\
**Post date:** [August 7, 2000, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ol-hand-in-the-water-trick/28351/5 "2000-08-07T06:27:05Z")

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Oh, ye of little faith!

[I dreamed I was floating in the ocean…](http://image.photoloft.com/opx-bin/OpxFIDISA.dll?src=/PhotoLoft/Asset12/2000/08/06/3101/3101605_0_0808.fpx,0,0,1,1,640,480,FFFFFF)

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**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\
**Post date:** [August 7, 2000, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ol-hand-in-the-water-trick/28351/6 "2000-08-07T06:45:31Z")

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I’ve seen it work. Quite impressive, really.

I once had a wonderful historian tell me that she suspected that the trick was quite popular in ancient Greece, where dudes would get together and drink until unconsciousness out of what I would call bowls, while reclining on couches. The wine, of course, was room temperature, which can be rather warm on a Greek summer night. Supposedly, a reference to this trick exists in a fragment of a play by Master-of-Scatology Aristophanes. I’ve never spotted it, though.

Those Greeks. They knew how to party. The same historian told me they used to play a drinking game where you would fling the dregs of your wine against the wall and rate the stain for form.