Why you better not ‘just go to the bathroom’ before you go to sleep

I think almost all women do this: you go to bed and first go to the bathroom, even if you don't really need to. Don't do it, experts warn.

Watch out
Because that can be very bad for your health if you urinate when you don't really need to. Even if you only feel a little urge, you shouldn't rush to the bathroom right away. This increases the chance of nocturia.

If you urinate twice or more at night, we call this nycturia. You can cause this yourself by frequently urinating small amounts. Your bladder gets used to being emptied when it's only a little full. A bladder can hold an average of 400 milliliters. With a healthy bladder, people usually urinate 300-500 milliliters at a time. But if you urinate much less and need to go to the toilet very often? Then your bladder may be disturbed.

Not too little
How do you solve that? Just walk to the bathroom less quickly when you only feel a little urge, and don't just urinate before going to sleep. Every time you think you need to urinate, deliberately hold it off for a bit longer. But of course, not too long: you don't need to hold it all day. You should average three to five times a day go to the toilet. ‘If you hold your urine while your bladder is full and you feel an urge, your pelvic floor will tense up. This can cause problems in the kidneys or lead to infections in for example your vagina,’ say urologists.

And drinking a little less coffee can help: coffee irritates the bladder. Water cleanses it. The more coffee you have in your urine, the faster you feel the need to urinate. So: water and just go to sleep. It's that simple. Your bladder will thank you.