What part does the pelvic floor play in your pre-bedtime and sleeping habits? Not by much, but I swear I’ll find the connection.
Sleep aromatherapy
I teach that having to wake up in the middle of the night to urinate is not a good indicator as a pelvic floor physical therapist.
As a patient admits to waking up once, twice, or three times a night to use the restroom, I told them about bladder irritants, the importance of being hydrated before bed, and the way to “retrain” their bladder through habits.
While all of these things are important to keep focusing on, there’s also another reason we shouldn’t be getting up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom: it indicates that we aren’t entering the crucial REM (rapid eye movement) cycle!
Our bodies, throughout REM, go through a number of amazing things. It is a crucial sleep stage that affects mood, memory, and learning.
During this period, antidiuretic hormone (ADH) is also secreted. The primary function of ADH is to minimize the amount of water excreted through urine, thus conserving your body’s fluid capacity.
We urinate less and secrete more ADH when fluid needs to be stored rather than lost. ADH secretion diminishes, and we urinate at the regular frequency (every two to three hours, with a strong flow lasting eight to twelve seconds) when we are well hydrated.
