Any tips to reduce chance that I have to get up and pee in the night (not counting dehydration, of course)

Question

Well, here's the situation. You're on an outdoor trip in winter. It's cold outside and after a long day all you want to do is crawl into your warm sleeping bag and not get out of it until the next morning. Unfortunately, shortly after reaching the warmth of your tent, you feel the urge to pee and have to get up and out again.

The obvious solution to just pee right before you go to bed doesn't seem to help as somehow the act of warming up in the sleeping bag seems to encourage a second round of peeing.

It's ok in summer, but in winter it REALLY sucks, especially if you're traveling light so you only have your ski boots to get into and your tent is small and cramped anyway...

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Three things

• pee right before you go to sleep. I know it seems obvious, but people forget
• keep warm and sleep well. You can wake up just bursting to pee in the morning, or you can wake up kinda needing to pee at 3am and you can't get back to sleep. The sounder you sleep the more likely you can sleep through kinda needing to pee
• don't drink a LOT of liquid in the evening. Don't deprive yourself, but if you chug back a litre of something just because you like the taste of it, you know where that litre will end up :-)

In my opinion, a pee jar is a terrible idea, especially with kids. It would just lead to pee all over the tent one way or another. Not wanting to go out in the cold to pee is a good motivator and if you don't get up in the night at home, you shouldn't have to get up in the night when you're camping.

Answer 2

From my comment - Some people keep a jar in the tent to pee in. I prefer not to. :)

When the kids were young and we all went camping, my wife did this so she and the kids wouldn't have to leave the tent, warm weather or cold.

Answer 3

1. What has already been said: pee and don't drink before sleeping.
2. Have a bowel movement in the evening if necessary. The full rectum pressing upon the bladder can trigger urination. From the same reason, avoid eating a lot of fruits, beans and other foods that cause gas, which can also trigger urination.
3. Avoid eating large amount of salt. Sodium keeps water in your body for several hours, but during the night, the kidneys will excrete both the excessive sodium and water, which will likely make you get up and urinate.
4. Keep yourself warm in a sleeping bag. Low temperatures stimulate the excretion of the urine - "cold diuresis" The critical thing, at least for me, is to keep feet warm.
5. Try to be in peace with yourself before you fall asleep - anxiety can stimulate urination.

More causes of frequent urination and nocturia (urination at night) Frequent Urination

Answer 4

I would recommend using a pee jar for all middle aged and older men who prefer not to get up at night. I do this at home all the time and I barely have to wake up to use it. A wide-mouth salsa jar is perfect because it has a lid that seals well so there is no oder escaping.

I empty the jar in the morning and rinse it out. I was getting yellow urine deposits in the jar that I would clean out with a Brillo pad every now and then however I recently started putting a small dab of hand soap in the jar with a small amount of water and shake this up on the way back to the bedroom. So far in two weeks no urine deposits have appeared. I also was going to try a small amount of vinegar as a deposit preventer but the soap is working. The jars hold 16 ounces and I almost always fill one jar with one to three uses at night or in the morning before I get up to dress or shower. One advantage of using a jar is that it interrupts my sleep less and is much less likely to wake up my wife even if she is in another room.

Answer 5

What you’re experiencing is called cold diuresis, a phenomenon that occurs for reasons that are not entirely clear. One theory that remains popular—though it has been contested—explains how it works like this: When your temperature starts to drop, your body will attempt to reduce heat loss by constricting blood vessels and reducing blood flow to the surface of the skin. When that happens, your blood pressure will rise, because the same volume of blood is flowing through less space in your body. In response, your kidneys will pull out excess fluid to reduce your blood pressure, making you have to pee. “A full bladder is a place for additional heat loss, so urinating will help conserve heat,” writes Rick Curtis, the director of Princeton University’s Outdoor Action Program.

Answer 6

Disclosure - I work for this company:

GottaTinkle! Female Urination Device is a great alternative. Unlike funnels, GottaTinkle! does not come into contact with pee or the privates. Rather, it holds a small ziplock style baggie. Simply pee into the baggie and either pour-out right away, or zip the baggie and dispose of the pee at a later time. We've used it in our SUV, tent while camping, on our small fishing boat when we did not want to jump into the water to go.

GottaTinkle! Female Urination Device (Woman & Children Can Pee Standing-Up) YouTube.

Answer 7

Using a pee bottle is very common among climbers and backpackers, especially in winter and bad weather.

I make sure I drink what I need to during the day but nothing excessive near evening. At night or during storms I will have something like a Gatorade bottle to pee in.

Here is discussion by experienced backpackers.