can't sleep through the night

[Timmer]

Some people retain a little more water if they eat wheat, a lot of people retain water if they have refined sugar, and almost everyone who drinks retains more water than necessary.

You might try cutting these three things out. This may be more applicable to me because my ancestors [native American] weren't eating any of these things even 175 years ago.

It's worth a try to see if it can resync the old Indian alarm clock [bladder] for a full night's rest.

You might actually pee more than you drink initially as there could already be inflammation in your system. By the way... check out the article on inflammation on this site. Very technical, but very interesting.

Folks with a peppy metabolism who do a lot of bread, pasta, etcetera, who try this may need to make up the clean calories somewhere else.

[armo]

Thanks, Timmer - appreciate the advice. Yes, i will try cutting out the refined sugar at night and drinking less overall.

[Roman B.]

In my case it was an undiagnosed reflux that caused this and tons of other large problems for at least 15 years. It's usually difficult to get to sleep afterwards. For me, ZMA helps a lot, as well as sleep hygiene. Melatonin less so.

[RandyG]

PRACTICAL BLADDER PROGRAMMING:

I suspect that replying to this post with my N=1 (i.e. one man's experiment) experience on this topic may be a decision I'll regret, but since this forum has helped me in many ways, here it goes anyway.

First of all, I am not a doctor, a trainer, a nurse, or anything like that, what I am is an soon-to-be-sixty guy with a scientific background and a personal interest in solving this nightime peeing issue.

What I've done is to apply some of the ideas, training approach, and techniques (stress/recovery/adaptation, progressive overload, sarcopenia/osteopenia, aging syndrome, etc.) from SS, PP, and TBBP to the much neglected muscle, the bladder. (BTW, based on an informal survey of a few people I know well enough to ask such a question, many of them did not realize that the bladder is a muscle).

Here's a quick summary of facts that I've empirically validated.

The typical bladder can hold about 12-16oz of liquid. The stimulus to pee can come from either, a relatively full bladder, or a some irritants (like coffee or alcohol) that the body wants to expel—especially if highly concentrated (e.g., a single-shot 1oz espresso can trigger the stimulus more quickly than a 6-8oz American coffee).

The stimulus, especially the first one, does not mean you HAVE to go. It's a gentle, conservative reminder to stray not too far from a bathroom. It's not a good idea to pee at the first stimulus because, over time, you will train your bladder to trigger the stimulus more and more frequently, when you are nowhere near capacity. Also, I suppose, the bladder itself (being a muscle) may "decide" to shrink a bit because it sees no need to hold a beercan's worth of liquid if most of the time it gets to be emptied when with just a few ounces.

Armed with this knowledge, I decided to apply progressive overload and push my bladder—not to "failure" but to a few more reps (in SS parlance).

NOVICE LINEAR PROGRESSION: I am pleased to report that I was able to increase the bladder capacity and thus the "time-between-sets" by at least 40% in just a couple of weeks. Which can make a difference of waking up one less time at night. I suspect that even more progress is possible and when my gains taper off I might have to switch to the Texas Method or HML strategy (just joking.)

All kidding aside, like most of our body parts and organs, the bladder and all the related "wiring" respond to stimuli. And just like our muscles and bones, the effects of aging can be slowed-down and even reversed ... at least for a while.

There it is, I am fully prepared for being made fun of and a slew of puns and jokes.


PS I should point out that many of the principles from The Barbell Prescription and Practical Programming have found their way in how approach other areas of my life—with great results. So thank you!