So on a normal night in a real bed I have no problem sleeping through the night without having to get up. If I’m sleeping in on the weekend I might have to get up once. But when I’m doing my Army thing and have to sleep on a cot that’s different. I find myself having to go three times a night. Only when I sleep on a hard surface. It’s happened all my life. So what causes it?
Speculating only but I have to pee every time I wake up. If I sleep through the night I’m fine, but if I wake up 3 times I have to pee three times.
Assuming the same is happening to you I would say you just aren’t sleeping as well on the hard surfaces.
Maybe you just aren’t bonding well with your army buddies and your vasopressin levels drop. Perhaps it isn’t the cot at all.
Seriously, assuming that the other external factors involved in your water balance (intake, output, types of fluid…etc) are equal, and assuming you are urinating normal volumes each time you get up (that is, it’s not that you are sleeping lightly and pee a little three times instead of peeing lots in the morning), then what’s happening is that the army experience is screwing up your hormonal balance.
Lots of things control diuresis, and some of them are related to circadian rhythms that are easily disrupted, or hormones that change in response to any number of external stimuli, including stress and/or exercise. I could do an assortment of bogus speculation, but looking up terms like “diuresis” or “circadian rhythms” or “vasopressin” or “adrenaline and diuresis” or …on and on…will give you an idea of what I’m talking about.
No I don’t mean I wake up and have to pee a little. I mean I wake up because I have to pee a lot. It happens most often when I have been doing the army thing because that us when I am most often on a cot. But it’s not the only time I have slept on a hard surface. It happens every time. From when I was in my 20s until now when I am 45.
There’s a lot of ‘down time’ in the military. Are you filling the time by drinking more? Grabbing a soda, bottle of water, sipping from a canteen? Coffee?
Could continued compression cause intercellular fluid to be moved out of a area?
I think Kanicbird has touched on it. What about position? Do you sleep in the same position every nite, or does it vary by sleeping surface? 1 thing I’ve noticed is if I’m able to get to sleep on my back, with head raised slightly, I sleep thru the nite. If not, any other position (side, on belly) I gotta get up ~ twice a nite. I suspect the non-back position puts more pressure on the bladder.
If you’re sleeping lightly - which may not be detectible by your mind, but would be on an EEG - your body makes less antidiuretic hormone, and thus more pee. If you’re sleeping in an unfamiliar, uncomfortable bed with strangers around, I’m fairly confident you’re not spending as much time in the deepest stages of sleep when the most antidiuretic hormone is produced.
Also, are you more active on these days? In addition to drinking more water increasing your urine volume, increased activity can literally squeeze water into the lymph system than when you’re sedentary and increased heart rate will pump blood through the venous return and kidneys faster, increasing the rate of urine production. Many sedentary people tend to have mild edema (water retention) even without actual heart or kidney problems. Get active, and it’s an opportunity for your body to get rid of that excess water.