Passing Gas while sleeping but not releasing a bowel movement

413 views

How does the body pass gas’s when sleeping but contain motor control to the muscles regulating bowel movements at the same time? In other words, how can we continue sleeping and pass gas, but not shart the bed?
Secondly, what mechanism makes us wake up to go the the bathroom if it’s serious enough to actually have a bowel movement (like if we were suffering from diarrhea and sick?). Same applies to urinating? How does the body know to hold it in, but when serious enough, wake us up?

In: 277

16 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

There is actually a great TED talk on the subject. Basically there is a kind of valve and it acts like a gate that let’s out air but if a solid touches it remains closed.

You are viewing 1 out of 16 answers, click here to view all answers.