Don't beat your self up about having to wear nappies to bed. My urologist told me I was far from the only one and many people wet the bed all their lives for no apparent reason. I was a chronic wetter until my late teens and wasn't completely dry at night until my early 20's. I have been wetting most nights for a while no due to my diabetes as it has affected my nerves around my bladder. At first I was upset about wetting the bed again but have got used to wearing protection and deling with it and just get on with life.

Welcome to the club! Here you need never feel alone or embarrassed. And can find friends who are in the same boat. Some lifelong, others later onset. You will see from here and the BW and UI sites that there are plenty of us of all shapes, sizes and ages! I think "prosthesis" is the medical jargon - if my bladder won't hold it through the night, then I need an artificial one externally. Either a bag - or a rag! I've tried bag systems without success. And cloth diapers. But currently use Tena Slip Maxi with rubber pants over. This works for me at home and away. It's as easy as breathing - and nowadays so common as to hardly raise an eyebrow.

Thanks for the comments. Part of my problem is I sleep on my sides. I can't sleep on my stomach and if I try and sleep on my back I can't breath properly as my lungs have had some damage due to an illness 20 years ago. That is one reason the disposable products didn't work for me. Leaked badly out the sides. The cloth diapers provide protection all the way around and they also seem to absorb more throughout than the disposable products. I also think waterproof pants help as well to contain wetness. I know there are others out there who have both day and night time incontinence issues and I accept the fact that I am one of them for sleep wetting, but it is still embaressing to me and humiliating that I have to wear diapers to sleep in. I'm single and that is OK with me now, but should I start dating to the point it progresses, I'd hate for a girlfriend to know of my problem. I know some would probably be accepting of it, but still it's humiliating. That and trying to keep friends from finding out bothers me. Going on trips alone is one thing but when I have to take a trip with a friend, it's hard to figure out what to do. I've accepted having to wear diapers to bed but it's all the other stigmas and worries that I'm still trying to cope with. How do others with my situation handle family, friends, taking trips and staying at hotels and all that?

A good start is to trawl the discussions on this board, and on Urinary Incontinence and bedwetting boards.
There is a wealth of advice and suggestions from members about different situations and relationships.

I agree with most other comments. I am 55 and still wet the bed. I also have daytime incontinence. The condition is horrible and is partly a cause for my divorce. It is embarrassing to need diapers at my age...but most people are supportive about it. You will always find those who are insensitive but I don't care. I know diaper is not politically correct. Me, I call what it is, a diaper. My mother made me wear diapers to bed till I was about 17 or 18. I use disposables diapers during the day and disposable overnight diapers with plastic pants at night plus an underpad. If I did not have to wear them I wouldn't but I do. They don't define me; however they are a part of me. You can try to hide the fact you wear a diaper but sooner or later you get found out. Nowadays wearing a diaper is comforting and they make me more confident in my life. Best wishes!

You mentioned that you are diabetic. Having worked in pediatrics for rotation as a nurse a lot of the kids were bedwetters due to their diabetic condition. Talk to your Doctor about this.

I was a chronic bedwetter as a kid. It was not anything to do with diabetes as I didn't have it back then. No one ever got to the bottom of my nightly bedwetting but since I have been told I have probably always had an unstable bladder and nowadays this would have been found as more is done to help stop childhood bedwetting. Back then it was always a case of "Don't worry he'll grow out of it" My Diabetes is a major factor in my return to bedwetting as I have some nerve damage in that region and have little or no feeling now as to when I need to pee. Usually if I do get a feeling of a full bladder I have only a very short time to find a toilet before I start to wet my self uncontrolably. For this reason I now wear protection all the time.