Bedwetter but still wake up with a partially full bladder?

[BlakeJordan]

Who here has this experience? I definitely know I am wetting myself as I sleep, but most mornings after the alarm sounds I wake up to a partially filled bladder.

 

Now to be clear it’s really hard to tell if the bladder has anything in it when I wake up, until I actually get out of bed and gravity takes over. I would guess around 4-7 oz on average.

 

Not sure if it’s just me or if this is par for the course. Granted any bladder sensations have definitely dropped over the past year due to more and more nerve damage, so who knows.

[Little Sherri]

Hi, @BlakeJordan; I wear nappies voluntarily, so I'm not sure if my response to your inquiry is going to give you much useful information or not, but here goes...

So what precipitated my lifelong fixation with wearing diapers was chronic bed wetting. Back then, I was essentially incontinent when I slept, but I did used to awaken on occasion with at least some fluid in my bladder. I recall the internal debate; do I just pee in my diaper? How wet is it already? Or get up and pee in the toilet? What time is it? Etc. 

I started on my journey back to wearing diapers 24/7 by wearing them to bed, something which I've been doing for a about 2.5 years now pretty much without interruption. I settled on the idea after actually wetting the bed a couple of times over about 6 months, which hadn't happened to me in probably 30 years, and which may be related to a benign brain tumour I was diagnosed with. I discussed it with my neurologist, and he said that it "might be related", but basically gave it a shrug, because compared with a lot of his patients, my prognosis is a walk in the park. But I thought, hey, waking up in a wet bed sucks, and, I want to wear diapers, ergo, the stars have aligned. And before I came out to my spouse about it, it offered me something to resort to, if I were "caught". 

Over the course of that time, I have involuntarily "wet the bed" (wet my diaper) while I slept on a few occasions, although usually I initiate the process and then fall back to sleep, which is different from when I was a kid, and almost never did it voluntarily. On those occasions when I have wet the bed with no recollection of having decided to do so, I usually still wake up with some fluid in my bladder. So, I think even if all the gates are open, in a relaxed state, you're not going to fully evacuate your bladder, and how much remains is going to depend on the position you're sleeping in.

But, as I said, I'm 98% not incontinent, so my thoughts on this may be of limited value. 

[BlakeJordan]

Hi, [mention=16278]BlakeJordan[/mention]; I wear nappies voluntarily, so I'm not sure if my response to your inquiry is going to give you much useful information or not, but here goes...
So what precipitated my lifelong fixation with wearing diapers was chronic bed wetting. Back then, I was essentially incontinent when I slept, but I did used to awaken on occasion with at least some fluid in my bladder. I recall the internal debate; do I just pee in my diaper? How wet is it already? Or get up and pee in the toilet? What time is it? Etc. 
I started on my journey back to wearing diapers 24/7 by wearing them to bed, something which I've been doing for a about 2.5 years now pretty much without interruption. I settled on the idea after actually wetting the bed a couple of times over about 6 months, which hadn't happened to me in probably 30 years, and which may be related to a benign brain tumour I was diagnosed with. I discussed it with my neurologist, and he said that it "might be related", but basically gave it a shrug, because compared with a lot of his patients, my prognosis is a walk in the park. But I thought, hey, waking up in a wet bed sucks, and, I want to wear diapers, ergo, the stars have aligned. And before I came out to my spouse about it, it offered me something to resort to, if I were "caught". 
Over the course of that time, I have involuntarily "wet the bed" (wet my diaper) while I slept on a few occasions, although usually I initiate the process and then fall back to sleep, which is different from when I was a kid, and almost never did it voluntarily. On those occasions when I have wet the bed with no recollection of having decided to do so, I usually still wake up with some fluid in my bladder. So, I think even if all the gates are open, in a relaxed state, you're not going to fully evacuate your bladder, and how much remains is going to depend on the position you're sleeping in.
But, as I said, I'm 98% not incontinent, so my thoughts on this may be of limited value. 

Thank you, that actually does help. I was never a bedwetter growing up, at least not that I can recall so no reference points to how my body worked back then.

I agree that position and force to complete a void are likely in play. I doubt that the typical voiding muscles and habits are in place to complete the void at night, and previous experiences have dictated that even when I had full control over these muscles gravity played a large part as it creates pressure.

The lack of a bursting bladder or even a full sensation leads me to believe there’s some muscle atrophy and nerve issues at play as well.

When I wore voluntarily at night due to the stars aligning I went through the period it seems many here go through of the “wake and decide”, “wake band fall asleep”, and then the “half awake”, and finally the “did I wake?” and “I definitely did not wake up”.

There seems to be a correlation in this progression with sleep quality and tossing and turning. On nights where I am tossing and turning I’m still somewhere in the middle there, though those are becoming less and less. Those nights I also tend to wake with a noticeably full bladder more times than not.

On nights where I sleep soundly I find I’m in the same position more times than not when I wake up, and the different positions have slight variances in how much fluid is in my bladder when I awake, but not how much is in the diaper.

In any case, I appreciate the feedback, thank you!

[Newbee]

This happens to me basically every morning and I am incontinent. I wake up with a wet diaper but I always wet it more within a few minutes of waking up.

[steveg]

I know for a fact my wife who has a weak bladder and has been wearing night time diapers for the last several years will wet a 1 or 2 times a night, buy the time she get up in the morning her bladder is bursting again and she'll just wet her diaper again while she is getting ready for her shower.  I always giggle quietly when she stands up and complains about gravity kicking in and she is running to the potty trying not to pee her big girl panties/pullups hence why we go through a lot of pullups and poise pads a month for her. 

[stevewet]

If I wake with a partially full bladder I just let it flow in my nappy.

[WBxx]

Years ago before diapers I’d wake surrounded by a huge pee stain.  Can’t believe that was a result of my bladder partially emptying.  No, I’m of the opinion my bladder totally empties when I wet in my sleep.  When (and if) partially full in the morning I believe it’s because my bladder has refilled some since I last wet.

[oznl]

I can't remember the last time I woke up with a full bladder.  The last time I even remember having the sensation of a full bladder was back in early April when I decided to road-test my continence (since I hadn't used it in over a year).

There's usually a little bit in there when I wake (which I will let go in my nappy before I even get up) but there's no sensation of needing to go.  Sometimes there is a few seconds worth, other times, just a single dribble.  I don't think it's ever 100% empty but nor is it appreciably full.

Sometimes, I can remember waking and using my nappies during the night, other times, I can't.  For pretty much ALL nights now, there is not a clear connection between how much I used my nappy and how wet it is.  Things have gotten very blurry in that department.  I know from daytime experience that it's likely a pattern of high frequency/low volume/incomplete voids/

 

 

[stevewet]

8 hours ago, WBxx said:

Years ago before diapers I’d wake surrounded by a huge pee stain.  Can’t believe that was a result of my bladder partially emptying.  No, I’m of the opinion my bladder totally empties when I wet in my sleep.  When (and if) partially full in the morning I believe it’s because my bladder has refilled some since I last wet.

Thats what I think. My bladder just empties at will while I am asleep. Sometimes I wake in the morning before it has emptied again.

[Luvs24]

I wet during the night without even knowing my bladder has emptied. Usually when I get up I feel the need to pee, so I just go in my diaper. 

[Jan for June]

Having wet the bed as a child and now progressively losing more of my continence I've found not much has changed: I still wake up with a little left in my bladder, it seems to depend a lot on the position I wake up in as to how much is there. 

[Soggy Bottom Boy]

Blake, I have a neurogenic bladder due to permanent nerve damage. My bladder has shrunk over the years and doesn't hold much volume. When I am awake and standing or sitting, my bladder tends to leak small amounts of urine constantly. When I am sleeping it seems to hold a few ounces that drain when I first get out of bed in the morning. In my case this is just gravity doing it's thing. Some days it is the only time I can feel myself release urine. I seldom notice the daytime dripping but I do feel my protection getting wet. 

[BlakeJordan]

Blake, I have a neurogenic bladder due to permanent nerve damage. My bladder has shrunk over the years and doesn't hold much volume. When I am awake and standing or sitting, my bladder tends to leak small amounts of urine constantly. When I am sleeping it seems to hold a few ounces that drain when I first get out of bed in the morning. In my case this is just gravity doing it's thing. Some days it is the only time I can feel myself release urine. I seldom notice the daytime dripping but I do feel my protection getting wet. 

Thank you! That is very helpful. It reflects much of my own experience. Right now I’m about 60/40 during the day for not feeling/feeling. Currently it’s a rapid decline in sensations.

Any type of fullness at this point is increasingly rare. The non dribbling events, during the day, are at the point of not being permissive and noticed at most 1-2 seconds before, and more and more often 1-2 seconds after. Basically feels like a sudden urge followed by a 2-5 second stream that can really only be observed by the feeling of wetness and bulking.

I no longer wake up “feeling” full and the same type of event either happens when I’m stretching in bed, or 2-3 minutes after standing. This is in stark contrast to the feeling of a partially full bladder when waking. If I was quizzed immediately upon waking I couldn’t tell you if my bladder was full and if so to what extent.

My guess would be at most 3 oz or less during the day and 7-8 oz at most upon waking. Though even that is becoming a more rare event.

I do have the occasional morning where it seems my sphincters have clamped down and I might get 10 oz, and yet those 1x/mo mornings catch me by surprise and if anything feels like a low level dull ache, usually only noticed once I start wetting.

Definitely still getting used to the increasingly lack of sensations as nerve damage continues to spread.

In any case it seems like the takeaway is this experience is pretty typical.

Thanks again!