Like most boys, I quit wetting the bed some time during grade school, if not before.
However, these days my need to pee during the middle of the night will often incorporate itself into my dreams. For example, two nights ago I dreamt that I was standing in front of the urinal, trying to get the flow going, and nothing was happening. A few minutes later I woke up with a desperate need to pee.
What mechanism actually stopped me from wetting the bed? When I was a boy, I had some pretty pressing reasons NOT to wet the bed, and so my mind trained itself not to do it. But now as I approach middle age, it’s almost as if my brain wants me to wet the bed, since the concept of taking a leak is incorporating itself into my dreams?
What gives? Has my prostate trained itself not to work unless its owner is standing?
Your pituitary gland produces ADH (AntiDiuretic Hormone, or Vasopressin)
This causes your kidneys to spare water while you sleep.
When you wake, the vasopressin stops and within a few seconds your bladder fills. When you had your urinal dream, you were probably already coming up from sleep, so your bladder was already filling.
No but the muscles are strong enough to squeeze back the urine if you will until your brain says open the gates! Taht shas been so since you were 5,6,7 ish… or later
BTW, your prostate isn’t what controls urination. your bladder is smooth muscle that is pressure sensitive, also the uretheral sphincter is the last bastion against the flood.
Not necessarily. Although BPH (benign prostate hyperplasia) is common in older men it isn’t universal. It’s also very treatable.
And it’s a flaw, not a feature.
Yes, and stepping on your garden hose will stop your sprinkler from turning, but that doesn’t mean there’s not a faucet at the other end or that stepping on the hose is the recommended method of flow control.
Several reasons: they can have bladders that are too small to hold even the small amount of urine they produce at night. They may be heavy sleepers and sleep through the urgency signal. (Why are kids heavier sleepers than adults? I don’t know, but they are.) They may not produce enough ADH to limit their nighttime urine production. One of the more common treatments for bedwetting nowadays is DDACP, or Desmopressin , a chemical very like ADH. Interestingly enough, even a short stint on ADH will often “teach” the body to make more ADH - WhyKid was on it for just two months and is still dry after four months off it.
