eli5 why do we wake up from deep sleep to pee but don’t actually wet the bed ?
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The body control a lot of muscles independent from our will. So when we pee is is not entirely a function decided by our, in our sense, mind. This can sometimes get botched so we wet ourselves. Sleepwalk is another example. Sort of.
What is interesting is that no animal, as far as I know, pee in their sleep. So the body can learn that we don’t like to lie in our own piss and constols it outside outlr awake mind.
Most likely you don’t wake up from a *deep* sleep, you wake at the end of a cycle. Which is why it always feels like an emergency, because your body has already been holding it for a while.
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There’s lots of reasons for nocturnal bed wetting. One is an overabundance of the chemical that makes you retain water, you literally produce more per and can often be solved another is that you sleep so deeply that you can’t physically react to the need to pee and so eventually you simply go. This is usually solved essentially with reinforcement training using an alarm that detects the wetness efficient in turn teaches the body that you should infact not pee just because you aren’t trying to hold it in. Obviously there’s things like physical issues with the bladder, stress and trauma can also cause it (but importantly bed wetting does not implicitly mean it is) and in fact it’s the trauma of being scolded or humiliated over it that often leads to the condition being worse.
So basically for most people they don’t sleep too deeply and have the right body chemistry to avoid needing to pee so much. Developmentally your body becomes used to the feeling of needing to pee and trains itself to wake you or hold it in.
Your brain generally just gets a signal from the nerves in the bladder, that the bladder is full, and then your brain just connects neurons to give you the wake up signal.
People who are bed wetters have a sleep disorder. Its called Nocturnal Enuresis, when a person wets themselves at night, and its way more common than people think.
Theres a genetic predisposition to it also, and people who have two parents who had nocturnal enuresis, are much more likely to have it as well. Even having just one parent who had the sleep disorder until they were 12-17, has a high likelihood of having it also. The brain just doesnt get or give the signals, is all. You sleep right through it all until morning and wake up wet and feeling gross.
I had this disorder, until I was about idk 15 or 16, and my first husband had it until he died. My dad had it, grandpa had it. Sister had it. Son has it.
Its not always easy to treat..and it can lead to abuse and bullying if the people around you smell it in your room or you have a sleepover and wet. Thats primarily why its embarassing and a source of anxiety. Oh and it TRULY sucks how many serial killers or abusive types are touted as possibly being childhood bed wetters. Sorry but NO. Its just a sleep disorder. Some people do get some bullying over it, but it seems that as a whole, we are supportive and just nonchalant about it.
Anyways. Yeah its just brain signals, first from the bladder, then the brain gives you the wake up signal.
Edit: So many sudden likes, and I feel like my tribe has spoken. Thank you, tribe. 🙂
Why do you feel you need to pee when you turn on tap (faucet)?
Honestly, the best ELI5 answer is, because sleep is weird, and it isn’t the same as “being unconscious.” Your brain is still active when you are asleep, and still has certain things basically on stand by. So, for example, you know how you wake up when you hear a loud noise? Or even if a bright light is turned on? Your brain is basically, “Hold all my calls unless it is something *important*! I gotta make up a dream where this schlub thinks they are in grade school with no pants on!” Having to pee is basically the same. The brain is going to ignore the bladder unless the bladder is screaming, “HEY! NEED SOME HELP DOWN HERE! WATER LEVEL IS RISING! GONNA BE A FLOOD IF WE DON’T HIT THE RELEASE VALVE!”
Neuropsychologist here. When we’re in deep sleep, our brain is in slow wave activity (theta and delta). That makes it harder to wake up and gives is deep, restful sleep.
However, there is a reticular formation in the brainstem that wakes ip the higher brain areas, triggering fast-wave, conscious activity.
Bladder fullness is uncomfortable, eventually painful. Our pain nerves go up the spinal cord and to the brain, but some of them connect to the reticular formation.
So long story short, our pain/discomfort nerves switch on the brain area that wakes is up.
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