Nocturia can be defined as the condition which compels one to wake up during night to urinate one or more times. Aged people have this problem commonly. Nocturia can affect the quality of sleep and may cause significant problems in adults. It can seriously affect the onset of sleep and can cause sleep disturbance.
Symptoms :
Normal adult needs 6-8 hours of sleep for staying energetic. But people having nocturia will have to wake up at least 2 or 3 times during night which may cause serious disturbances in their sleeping pattern.
The affected individual will be urinating largely producing high quantity of urine daily. His body is conditioned to discharge large volumes of urine while sleeping. More volumes of urine are produced during night than during daytime.
Improper sleeping pattern and poor sleep is one of the major symptoms of nocturia. Since he will have to wake up for going to bathroom several times, he finds it difficult to go to sleep again.
Causes :
Cause depends on the types of nocturia a person is affected.
In case of polyuria it can be caused due to high intake of fluids during night. It can be due to diabetes (Type 1 and 2) and also due to pregnancy.
For women it is quite common to experience nocturia after childbirth and menopause stage. Men can get nocturia due to benign prostatic hyperplasia or enlarged prostate gland.
For some people it can be due to decreased capacity of the bladder function during night, excess of urine is produced. Fluid redistribution is a condition in which fluids are reabsorbed into the blood causing accumulation of fluids in legs and fingers leading to edema or swelling of legs.
Persons who have underlying medical causes like diabetes, hypertension, cardiac problems, vascular diseases, sleeping disorders may also experience nocturia.