The medical community has long thought that children aged five or six who are continual bed-wetters also suffer from a sleep disorder. New studies seem to show that this is not always the case and that these children typically are deep sleepers who do not rouse when the brain sends the message that the bladder is full.
Controlled laboratory studies show that deep sleeping is responsible in part for bed-wetting, but is not the main cause.
A study at Albert Einstein College of Medicine recorded the electroencephalography (EEG) of the children participating. The EEG monitors the brain’s electrical activity throughout sleep. Children suffering from an assortment of sleep disorders were recorded by the EEG as having irregular electrical patterns.
Children who suffered from enuresis, but no known sleep disorder, displayed normal brain activity throughout sleep. These results support the notion that sleep disorders and nocturnal enuresis are not linked.
The medical community don’t know exactly what causes nocturnal enuresis, though complete bladder control is known to be a gradual process that takes time, with no definitive age of mastery for all children. Some children master their bladder at night at an early age while others take significantly more time. Daytime bladder control is typically achieved first while children are awake and alert, able to immediately respond to a full bladder.
Many aspects of the body must work together in regulating bladder function and urine control including the muscles, nerves, brain and spinal chord.
The bladder sends a message to the brain to wake up when the bladder is full. A deep sleeper does not respond to the brain's message and attempts to contain the urine until the sleeper awakes. Typically, where bed-wetting is involved, the body is not working well enough yet to control the urine.
Some children have a smaller than normal bladder, or one that is not yet matured enough to make nighttime bladder control happen regularly. Other children create more urine than average and the bladder is unable to contain it throughout the night. Physical troubles such as diabetes and urinary tract infections can also contribute to nocturnal enuresis.
Studies have shown there may be a genetic aspect to bed-wetting. The National Kidney Foundation reports that a child with one parent that was a bed wetter has a 4 in 10 chance of also being a bed-wetter. If both parents were bed wetters raises it to a 7 in 10 chance of being a bed wetter.
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