You are not alone!

Adult bed wetting, or adult nocturnal enuresis, is a condition which plagues many men and women of all ages and from all walks of life. Strictly speaking adult bed wetting occurs when an adult or teenager cannot control his or her bladder during sleep or overnight and ends up urinating or wetting the bed. This loss of bladder control in bed may or may not actually wake the person from sleep.

Nocturnal enuresis (NE) is generally used to describe wetting that specifically occurs at night or during sleep. There are different types of adult bed wetting with different causes associated with them.  Some adults who are older or have physical ailments may also suffer from daytime enuresis or wetting for various reasons. It has been estimated that perhaps as many as 2-3% of all adults suffer from primary nocturnal enuresis, though exact numbers are difficult to measure due the lack of large studies and tendency of patients to under report the issue. Most adults are simply too embarrassed to admit that they regularly wet the bed.

Bed wetting is obviously quite common in developing children who are potty training and still lack the physical control and psychological cues needed to always recognize a need to go to the bathroom. There is no lack of books, training videos and websites devoted to solutions, suggestions and products designed for children who wet their beds. The term “enuresis” actually comes from a Greek word and literally means “to make water.” Adult bed wetting is not solely a modern problem. There are ancient texts which mention adult sleep wetting that date back thousands of years. It continues to be a largely unreported problem even in today’s modern society, with an estimated 4.5 million adult bed wetters in the United States alone.

Despite this, adult bed wetting is a rarely advertised and less discussed problem in both the medical and online communities than many other physical ailments. Adults who suffer from nocturnal enuresis often have bed wetting problems for reasons much different from children. It could be argued that adults and teens suffer more from the psychological affects of bed wetting than children simply because enuresis is often considered a “childhood” problem that is often considered too embarrassing or shameful to admit. Adult bed wetting is also more traumatic than childhood bed wetting because most adults sleep with partners and the results of bed wetting can obviously put a strain on sleeping arrangements and relationships.

For many adults who suffer from nocturnal enuresis the very act of going to sleep is one of the most stressful parts of the day. This ongoing stress and subsequent lack of sleep can be detrimental to one’s health over time. Ironically, this stress and fatigue can actually be a contributor to bed wetting by adults and could easily lead into a vicious cycle of worry and mental anguish which only gets worse without treatment or proper care.

There are different types of enuresis and there are many different causes of adult bed wetting. If you are an adult suffering from nocturnal enuresis, there are some basic things you should be aware of:

• You are not alone in your bed wetting issues and you are not helpless. You have options.
• Adult bed wetting is often preventable and even “curable” through a number of different methods, including taking certain medicines, changing behavior or working through psychological issues.
• Wetting the bed as an adult, especially when you never have before, is usually a symptom of a larger problem. Your enuresis problems could be alerting you to a potentially serious physical problem and you should consult a medical professional. Ideally, finding and solving that underlying problem will stop your bed wetting.

With the right information and the right actions almost all adults can solve their bed wetting issues.