Over half of all men aged 50 to 59 experience occasional nocturia symptoms, reports Up To Date, a peer-reviewed health information website for patients. Healthy patients are typically able to sleep for 6 to 8 hours each night without getting up to urinate. In contrast, patients with nocturia need to urinate more than once during normal periods of sleep. Symptoms of nocturia can be indicative of alternate medical conditions, such as prostate or urinary tract infections, and should be discussed with a doctor if they occur.
Frequent Nighttime Urination
Nocturia--or frequent nighttime urination--is more common in older patients due to natural hormonal fluctuations that affect the bladder's ability to retain fluid. Patients who experience nocturia need to urinate at least two times during normal sleeping hours. This frequent nighttime urination can be uncomfortable and can contribute to sleep-related difficulties in certain patients.
Excessive Urine Volume
Patients who develop nocturia typically excrete unusually high volumes of urine during the night. In healthy individuals, the kidneys, which remove toxic waste products from the body in the form of urine, work more slowly at night. This decreases the amount of urine that healthy patients produce during the night. Patients with nocturia produce high volumes of urine during the night rather than during the day. Increased volume within the bladder stimulates an increased need to urinate during nighttime hours.
Reduced Daytime Urination
Nocturia may cause certain patients to have decreased urination during the daytime, explain health officials at the National Sleep Foundation. Affected patients may only produce small volumes of urine during the day, regardless of how much fluid they consume.
Urinary Urgency and an Inability to Urinate
When the bladder is over-filled with urine during the night, patients with nocturia can experience sensations of urinary urgency as a symptom of this condition. In certain cases, patients may develop an urge to urinate, but may produce only small amounts of urine, or experience difficulty emptying the bladder. An urgent need to urinate can be annoying or irritating to patients with nocturia and may interrupt normal sleep patterns.
Sleep Disturbances
Frequent urination during the night can lead to significant sleep disturbances in patients with nocturia, explain medical professionals at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. Waking up several times each night to use the bathroom decreases a patient's ability to get deep, restorative sleep. As a result, patients may have difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep through the night, and may experience excessive daytime fatigue. Increased daytime tiredness can affect a patient's productivity at work due to poor concentration.
