Whether getting up in the night to wee is leaving you exhausted, damaging your self-esteem or is just plain annoying, Kegel8 can help.

Nocturia help at Kegel8

Nocturia is the medical term for getting up too often in the night to go to the toilet usually more than once in a night. It’s a condition most commonly seen in pregnancy, menopause and older women, though it can happen to men and women of any age, and it disturbs your sleep and can leave you exhausted the next day. It’s considered normal to get up once in the night to go to the toilet, but any more than this, it’s wise to get it checked out and see if there is an underlying cause – because rather than suffering in silence, there is something that can be done to help.

Causes of Nocturia

In women, the most common causes of nocturia are prolapse, menopause and pregnancy. When a woman is pregnant, the pelvic floor is stretched to the limit, meaning that you can’t hold urine as well as before – however, this can be helped with pelvic floor exercises before, during and after pregnancy.

In men, the most common cause of nocturia is an enlarged prostate – but don’t be embarrassed to see your GP, he or she will be able to help you – don’t suffer in silence!

Other factors causing Nocturia include:

  • Diurentic medications – they promote increases in urine
  • Caffeine and alcohol – both stimulate the bladder and increase urine production
  • Excessive fluids before bedtime
  • Excessive salt in the diet - a recent study at Nagasaki University tracked patients who had a high salt intake and sleeping problems for 3 months, after giving them advice to cut back on salt in their diet. The result? Trips to the loo decreased from on average 2 per night to just one. Not only did this reduce loo visits at night, it also reduced day time toilet trips too.
  • Reduced nocturnal bladder capacity
  • Redistribution of fluid – if you suffer with fluid retention during the day this is reabsorbed into the blood stream when you lie down causing more urine at night.
  • Hormonal changes - as we age we produce more urine at night

There can be other, more serious, causes of nocturia such as diabetes, cystitis or kidney problems, so if anything is concerning you or there has been a sudden change, don’t be worried to see your GP.

Nocturia Can Cut Your Productivity by 24%

At the European Association of Urology congress in Milan 2013 clinical research revealed that people suffering nocturia were 24% less productive at work. A total of 261 women and 385 men suffering with nocturia completed a standardised work productivity and activity impairment questionnaire. What the questionnaire revealed was that work productivity was reduced more in the nocturia sufferers than in those suffering with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
This highlights the problem that many people experience both from partners and the medical profession - that nocturia should not be dismissed as less serious than other chronic conditions.

What can be done to help?

Sometimes, it can be something as simple as fluid rebalancing – as easy as drinking less fluid before you go to bed! It could also involve taking an afternoon nap or wearing compression stockings to prevent fluid retention.

There are a number of medications on the market that your doctor can prescribe to help, no matter what is causing your nocturia – anticholergenic medications can prevent bladder spasms and help you better control when you need to go to the toilet, desmopressin can make your kidneys produce less urine, and diuretics, for example furosemide, can help to regulate your urine output throughout the day, meaning that you’re less likely to need to go to the toilet in the night. Don’t suffer in silence; there are things that can help!

A first line treatment often recommended for patients, particularly women, in the treatment of nocturia are pelvic floor exercises.

By strengthening the pelvic floor, you can retain your urine better and be less likely to need to go to the toilet in the night. The Kegel8 Ultra 20 Pelvic Toner has programmes suitable for treating the two major causes of nocturia – for an overactive bladder muscle and general pelvic floor weakness. Pelvic floor exercises with the Kegel8 Ultra 20 Pelvic Toner can also help the symptoms of a prolapse (another cause of nocturia), and our electronic pelvic toners and manual pelvic floor exercisers can also help women after pregnancy to regain the pelvic floor strength that they had before!

It happens to men and women of all ages so don’t be embarrassed, there is help out there – so take control with the help of your doctor and Kegel8.

Can a bedwetting alarm help adults with nocturia?

If you are an older adult and and you have recently started wetting the bed at night sadly enuresis alarms, or bedwetting alarms won't work according to guidance given by NICE (National Institute for Clinical Excellence).  That's because a enuresis alarm works by helping to teach the brain that the bladder is full. If, as an adult you've already learned that (meaning that previously you've been dry for many years) alarms will not change nighttime bedwetting. NICE goes onto recommend kegel exercises or pelvic floor exercises and other incontinence treatments to treat nocturia.

Alleviate the symptoms of bladder weakness & strengthen the pelvic floor in just 12 weeks, with the help of the Kegel8 Ultra 20 & Amanda Savage!

Amanda Savage is one of the UK’s leading specialist pelvic floor and women’s health physiotherapists, who has worked in the field for over 20 years offering supervised pelvic floor muscle training and support for the recovery of pelvic organ prolapses, incontinence and pelvic surgeries. With post-graduate qualifications, including a master’s degree from the University of Cambridge, she has also gained full membership of the Professional Network of Pelvic, Obstetric & Gynaecological Physiotherapy (POGP). As a Kegel8 ambassador, Amanda Savage has worked alongside us for many years in the development of our best-selling device, the Kegel8 Ultra 20 V2 Electronic Pelvic Toner, to ensure its efficacy. In addition, she has been integral to ensuring all supporting information and instructions are medically accurate so that the device is used correctly/effectively, and treatment is tailored to the specific condition of the user.

Find out more about Amanda Savage, her qualifications, experience, knowledge, and affiliations here.

Amanda Savage

Comes complete with an easy exercise plan, created by Amanda Savage, to get results in just 12 weeks!

If ‘laughter leaks’ are making you want to cry, you are by no means alone! Indeed, more common that you may realise, bladder weakness and stress incontinence affect millions of people worldwide. And, here at Kegel8, we are all too familiar with the impact it has on both physical and emotional well-being, as well as on life in general. It’s true that, left untreated, symptoms of bladder weakness will simply worsen over time. However, it should by no means be accepted as an inevitability! Indeed, regular pelvic floor exercise, much like any other type of exercise, will strengthen the muscles over time, enabling them to perform their role much more effectively and offer the right amount of support to the bladder to ensure there are no leakages. In addition, it can calm ‘overactive’ nerves for those experiencing ‘jumpy’ or ‘irritable’ sensations in their bladder. That means you can get back to doing all the things you love!

The included 12-week exercise plan has been specifically developed by Amanda Savage to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles and enable them to provide optimum support to the neck of the bladder, thus preventing any leakages. In addition, it will calm the ‘overactive’ nerves that are responsible for ‘jumpy’ or ‘irritable’ sensations in the bladder, thereby reducing bladder sensitivity. In addition, it prepares the user for ‘real life’ scenarios where they don’t have access to the machine.

So, why opt for an electronic pelvic floor exerciser rather than performing your Kegels independently?

It is thought that many women push downwards when performing independent pelvic floor exercises, which, rather than strengthening the muscles, can lead to further damage. In addition, it can be difficult to locate and target the correct muscles, making exercise less effective. As such, many women opt to use an electronic pelvic floor toner to ensure effective exercise and optimum results. The Kegel8 Ultra 20 V2 Electronic Pelvic Toner removes the guesswork and essentially acts as a Sat-Nav for your pelvic floor muscles, correctly targeting and stimulating a contraction within them using a small electric current. These contractions build strength and tone in a matter of weeks! With 20 clinically proven pelvic floor exercise programmes which vary in frequency, intensity and duration, the Ultra 20 is proven to treat a variety of different conditions, including bladder weakness and stress incontinence. And, in addition to tailored programmes, the specific 12-week exercise plans created by Amanda Savage advise exactly how the device should be used, depending upon the condition, to ensure the very best treatment.