Bedwetting Support Group

Hi gohan yes when my bedwetting started would try to go without a diaper and have accidents so for peice of mind and securty ware one everynight and yes I did have times when I would be dry but was a guessing game.

I think you're on the right track -- if you want to reduce your reliance on diapers (which you probably CAN do, as long as you don't have an irreversible medical condition that is causing you to wet every night), the most effective way is simply to go without diapers as often as possible and try your best to force yourself to get up and use the bathroom at every opportunity. If you can wake up on your own some of the time, chances are good that with practice you will be able to do it all the time (or nearly all the time). BUT -- and it's a big "but" -- it will take a lot of practice, and you will need to accept the possibility of a lot of wet beds while you are working on it!

It is possible to try to train yourself to wake up while you are wearing diapers, but the presence of the diaper gives you a powerful psychological incentive (even below the conscious level -- for a lot of us, our conscious minds don't operate so well when we wake up groggy in the middle of the night) that it's "OK" not to wake up, and instead just stay asleep and let your bladder empty in the diaper. Without the diaper, you can teach your brain to know that you have to get up or a cold wet puddle will result -- which is a very good incentive! It takes time, though, to get your signals straightened out so that when your bladder feels the need to urinate, it communicates to your brain quickly enough to wake you up before it's too late. During that time, unfortunately, accidents will happen. You can try things like setting an alarm clock to wake you up at a certain time of night (whenever works for you, before your bladder gets too full!) or, if you are really serious about training yourself to wake up, you could look into a bedwetting alarm from a place like http://www.bedwettingstore.com . Those don't work overnight, they take some time -- but they are an excellent tool for a lot of people to learn to make that bladder-brain connection and, eventually, wake up in response to the full bladder instead of the wet bed.

Waking up in a wet bed without diapers is not the end of the world -- although it is an inconvenience and an interruption to your sleep. Just make sure that your mattress is protected (a plastic cover or a waterproof mattress pad) and that you have an extra set of sheets handy to change the bed if need be. One thing I have often done is to "double-make" the bed -- have one full set of bedding on top of a plastic sheet, then another plastic sheet over top of the first set of bedding and a second set of bedding on top. That way, if you do happen to wake up wet, you can just strip off the wet layer (down to the top plastic sheet) and there's still a fully made, dry bed there waiting for you to go back to sleep after you get yourself cleaned up.

Good luck to you, and please do let us know how things go!