What Are Normal Bladder Habits?
Do you feel like you spend your entire day in the bathroom? Are you someone who can pee pretty much on command at any time? Are you the passenger that needs to pull over every hour on a long car ride? If so, this post if for you.
Having good bladder habits is a very important part of your overall pelvic health and your lifestyle in general. Here we’ll talk about what normal bladder habits are, steps you can take to improve them, and signs you may need a little more help than this quick post. Thankfully, retraining your bladder is possible and usually only requires a couple of changes to your lifestyle. Although they are somewhat simple changes, it can take some time and effort to fully retrain your bladder.
Normal frequency, volume and color
Frequency // You should be going to the bathroom around every 3-4 hours. Of course, this will vary with the amount of fluid you are taking in. Bladder irritants such as caffeinated coffee and tea, alcohol and carbonated drinks might cause you to have to go more often.
Volume // Next time you go to the bathroom, slowly count how many seconds long your stream is. It should be at least 8 seconds and ideally no more than 15 seconds. If it is less than 8 seconds, then your bladder likely wasn’t full when went to the bathroom. This can happen if you’re doing “just in case” peeing or if you have an increased urge that you have to go before your bladder is actually full.
Color // Your pee should be a light lemonade color. You do not need clear pee - this is a sign that you’re drinking more water than your body needs, or maybe your drinking habits are not optimal. Instead of chugging your water, try sipping it slowly throughout the day so you body has time to absorb the water. If it is darker in color, then you are not drinking enough water.
Symptoms of increased urinary frequency / urgency
Going to the bathroom more than every 2 hours
Unable to hold your pee back without leaking on the way to the bathroom
Going to the bathroom and then feeling like you have to go again 15-30 minutes later
Waking up at night to pee
How can you improve your bladder habits?
Drink more water. It sounds counter intuitive, but if your urine is highly concentrated it can irritate your bladder and make you have to go more often. Keep a water bottle with you at all times and take small sips throughout the day.
Increase your water intake SLOWLY, by about 10% per day. If you’re drinking 40 ounces of water a day, increase to 44 ounces for the next week, then the week after that increase to 48 ounces, until you slowly get up to your ideal water intake. If you increase too quickly you’ll be in the bathroom nonstop which is the opposite of what you’re trying to do. Try to get up to the amount of half your body weight in ounces/day.
Do not chug your water. Your bladder holds approximately 16 ounces of water before you get a strong urge to go to the bathroom. If you drink this ALL at once, you’ll surely have to go very quickly after. If you drink this over a longer period of time, then it won’t flush through your system quite as quickly
Try to delay your urge to pee. If you feel a light-moderate urge that you have to pee, try to hold it for at least 5 minutes. If that feels easy, try to hold it for 10, 15 or 20 minutes. It might be hard at first, but this will help re-train your bladder. This is one component of bladder retraining which is something you can do with a pelvic health PT to help improve your bladder schedule. Do not do this if your urge to pee causes you any sort of pain.
Stop peeing “Just In Case”. Stop going to the bathroom every single time before you leave the house. No matter where you’re going, there’s going to be a bathroom somewhere nearby (unless you’re on a lovely hike in the woods or at the beach). If you are constantly going to the bathroom when your bladder isn’t full, it is going to throw off the signals from your bladder to your brain and over time this is going to cause you to have to go more often. Trust yourself and trust in modern architecture that there is, in fact, a bathroom at the store in case you need to use it. Chances are you might not even have to go once you’re distracted in the aisles buying every single thing that you don’t need from the home decor section.
Signs you need a little more help
You have an urge to pee every 15-30 minutes that lasts all day
You have such a strong urge to go that you leak a little on the way to the bathroom
Sometimes it takes you 2-3 trips to the bathroom to feel like you can completely empty (especially in the morning)
You never feel like your bladder is empty
You have pain when you have an urge to pee and/or pain during or after urination - pain is signal from your body that something else might be going on
You get up 1x or more per night to pee
You feel the need to restrict your fluids before an exercise class, long drive or a flight because you can’t hold it
Drop me a message here if you want a little more guidance!
In the meantime… keep calm, drink your plain water & stop those just-in-case pees!
—Mar