I am just going to get straight to the point here….Did you realise that needing to get up to use the toilet overnight IS NOT NORMAL?? It is not a normal part of ageing, is definitely not an inescapable part of menopause and is an absolute red flag that your breathing is really interrupting the quality of your sleep. Just because 4 of the 5 girls you go away with for your annual “Girls Weekend” use the toilet overnight, doesn’t mean it should be a normal part of life.

But how could the way you breathe affect your bladder? It does seem like a bit of a stretch to think that your breathing has an impact here…. But it is a great example of how each of our body systems impact other body systems, and how much benefit you can gain from paying some attention to your breathing.

The CO2 link

A little bit of science will go a long way to explaining the connection. When most of us ponder the purpose of breathing, we immediately focus on the importance of getting Oxygen into our body - to be delivered to ALL of our body systems, to keep us alive. The Oxygen allows us to move, to think, to focus, to metabolise, to cleanse, to heal and many, many more things. This is definitely important. What we often don’t consider or recognise is that the other major purpose of breathing is to control the amount of CO2 that leaves our body. CO2 has a pretty bad image, in most people’s mind - that of a waste gas that is important to expel by breathing. BUT, CO2 is actually a REALLY, REALLY, REALLY important gas, that we need in our systems in reasonable amounts. CO2 has some major impacts around our body (the level of CO2 in our body will affect our airways, our nervous system, our blood flow, our metabolism, our hormones, our immune response amongst others). 

CO2 and the bladder

But how is CO2 contributing to my night-time toilet visits? One of the key roles of CO2 is to act as a smooth muscle relaxant. Smooth muscle is the muscle type that makes up our bladder, our airways, our gut wall. So, when we have low levels of CO2, all of our smooth muscle constricts and tightens. When it comes to your bladder, this means that your bladder smooth muscle tissue is unable to stretch and relax to allow your bladder to fill to its full volume……… which leads us to being woken up to empty your bladder once or twice a night.

Does this affect my bladder in the daytime as well?

A great question! The answer is YES. Low CO2 levels will cause your bladder to be able to tolerate lower volumes of urine during the day and night than it should. It will also often cause an increase in the urgency of needing to use the bathroom. These changes often occur slowly and may not be as noticeable to you as the overnight disturbance. It is common to subconsciously adapt to the daytime changes - use the loo before we set off somewhere etc and its not until we really think about it that we notice that we didn’t always need to use the loo so frequently.

How does better breathing change how we need the loo?

The cornerstone of Breathing Retraining is addressing the “overbreathing” that approx 80% of the population do. When we overbreathe (breathing more deeply, more often and faster than we actually need to) we let go of way too much CO2. This causes, amongst other things, spasm and tightness in our smooth muscle tissue (like the bladder). When we slow down your breathing, activate your diaphragm to be in charge of your breathing and get your nose doing its job, our body is able to retain much more CO2. This quickly results in our smooth muscle tissue becoming relaxed and able to be stretched, meaning that your bladder has a much greater capacity, and will not need to be emptied overnight (or on that 3 hour car trip). 

Uninterrupted sleep is one of the most valuable tools we can have in our toolbelt to live our best life. Sleep is fundamental to our bodies undergoing the repair and restoration that they need every single night. When you interrupt your sleep to use the loo even once a night, you are never going to be at your best (not to mention interrupting your partner….).

Breathing well allows your body to run efficiently and to thrive.  Breathing well is a pleasure and will allow you to achieve so much more with your life.  Breathing well will affect how you sleep, how you focus, how you enjoy life and how you turn up for those who are important to you. 

If you find yourself getting up to use the loo during the night, or think you use the loo more than you used to, let’s talk about how we can turn it around.  If you are ready to take control of your breathing and take control of your life, let’s get started!