# What Keeps Me From Wetting the Bed? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 6, 2007, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-keeps-me-from-wetting-the-bed/391061 "2007-02-06T13:13:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-keeps-me-from-wetting-the-bed/391061/1 "2007-02-06T13:13:27Z")
I’m serious. 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? ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-keeps-me-from-wetting-the-bed/391061/2 "2007-02-06T13:27:50Z")
Your pituitary gland produces [ADH](http://www.vivo.colostate.edu/hbooks/pathphys/endocrine/hypopit/adh.html) (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. ---
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-keeps-me-from-wetting-the-bed/391061/3 "2007-02-06T13:31:50Z")
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 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Joe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@Evil\_Joe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Joe)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-keeps-me-from-wetting-the-bed/391061/4 "2007-02-06T13:46:12Z")
A rubber sheet keeps me from wetting the bed. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-keeps-me-from-wetting-the-bed/391061/5 "2007-02-06T13:49:01Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Joe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@Evil\_Joe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Joe)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-keeps-me-from-wetting-the-bed/391061/6 "2007-02-06T13:51:46Z")
[QUOTE=picunurse] 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. [/QUOTE] Doesn’t it restrict urine flow though as it grows larger with age? ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-keeps-me-from-wetting-the-bed/391061/7 "2007-02-06T14:12:06Z")
What I don’t get is…small children wet the bed at night, I assume not on purpose, that it just comes out. Why not the same for adults? ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-keeps-me-from-wetting-the-bed/391061/8 "2007-02-06T14:23:53Z")
[QUOTE=Evil Joe] Doesn’t it restrict urine flow though as it grows larger with age? [/QUOTE] Not necessarily. Although [BPH](http://kidney.niddk.nih.gov/kudiseases/pubs/prostateenlargement/index.htm) (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. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Turek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/turek/32/18782_2.png) [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-keeps-me-from-wetting-the-bed/391061/9 "2007-02-06T14:26:49Z")
[QUOTE=Evil Joe] Doesn’t it restrict urine flow though as it grows larger with age? [/QUOTE] 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. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-keeps-me-from-wetting-the-bed/391061/10 "2007-02-06T14:29:09Z")
[QUOTE=Wee Bairn] What I don’t get is…small children wet the bed at night, I assume not on purpose, that it just comes out. Why not the same for adults? [/QUOTE] Like other systems in children, ADH release isn’t fully developed for a few years. [Nocturnal enuresis](http://www.sleepdisordersguide.com/topics/nocturnal-enuresis.html) is probably caused by low levels of ADH. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-keeps-me-from-wetting-the-bed/391061/11 "2007-02-06T14:32:15Z")
[QUOTE=Wee Bairn] What I don’t get is…small children wet the bed at night, I assume not on purpose, that it just comes out. Why not the same for adults? [/QUOTE] 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](http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/medmaster/a682876.html) , 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.