Bedwetting | Symptoms of Sleep Disordered Breathing
Does your child suffer from bedwetting?
For the first few years of childhood, bedwetting can be a normal and common occurrence. But, what if it continues beyond that? If the problem persists after about age 6, it could be caused by sleep disordered breathing.
Sleep-disordered breathing makes it harder for a child to achieve deep sleep. During deep sleep, the body produces a hormone that decreases bladder production. If this hormone isn’t produced the body continues to produce urine, making the need to urinate greater and may result in bedwetting.
Sleep-disordered breathing, or a restricted airway makes it difficult for the child to breathe at night and the body suffers from it. If a child does not sleep well at night the heart rate will stay elevated and keep the body’s blood pressure elevated. The body tries to lower its blood pressure by eliminating fluids, which leads to an increased need to urinate.
Lastly, when a child suffers from sleep-disordered breathing, the body is constantly in the “fight or flight” or survival mode. In the “fight or flight response”, the body can’t differentiate between getting attacked by a grizzly bear, going on a scare roller coaster ride, or if the airway is being choked out. But during this survival mode, the body is going to take resources away from structures that are NOT important for survival, (like the urinary bladder and sphincter), and put all of its resources to things to help you survive like your heart and muscles. Since you have less control of the urinary system, your body is more likely to void. Hence why people will pee themselves when they get really scared, or lose their airway.
Yes, everyone will eventually “grow” out of it. But in adulthood, this just means you are waking up multiple times in the night to go to the restroom.
If your child is experiencing symptoms such as excessive snoring or mouth breathing, excessive daytime drowsiness, or inability to focus contact Breathing and Sleep Center. We can help get to the root of your child’s bedwetting and hopefully eliminate it for good.
