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Sleep Study Research
Below you will find the latest research information on deep sleep bedwetting.
The two charts below will depict the normal sleeper and the deep sleeper.
First the normal sleepers sleep cycles.
Now the deep sleepers sleep cycles.
Study Research
In the 1930s, researchers using the electroencephalogram (EEG) to measure brain wave activity discovered that normal adult sleep consists of several distinct phases. New research using the EEG and other measures of sleep activity discovered that the structure of sleep varies with age and among individuals.
In general, however, the normal sleep cycle of adults and children of about age five and older consists of three or four phases. As the person falls asleep, they drift down into Stage 1, a very light sleep or drowsing. The person is aware of, and responds to, the environment and will likely move quite a bit. In a comfortable bed and a darkened room, most people over the age of three will fall into Stage 1 sleep in about seven minutes. Stage 2 sleep will ordinarily begin five or ten minutes later. In Stage 2 sleep, which people ordinarily recognize as definitely “asleep,” the person will retain some awareness of the environment and is easily roused to consciousness. Stage 2 sleep lasts longer as we get older; in children under nine, Stage 2 sleep typically lasts about ten minutes.
After Stage 2 comes the deepest sleep, known as “slow wave” sleep, because of the low-frequency waves produced by the brain during this stage. Sometimes slow wave sleep is divided into two stages, Stage 3 and Stage 4, depending on the amount and type of slow wave activity. Current research, however, suggests that there is no distinct boundary between Stage 3 and Stage 4 that Stage 3 and Stage 4 sleep are very similar. In slow wave sleep, the sleeper moves very little and is hard to wake up.
Although dreams may occur at any time during sleep, the most vivid and easily remembered dreams occur during episodes of REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep. Episodes of REM sleep typically occur during Stage 2 sleep in the second half of the night and each episode lasts 20-30 minutes. During REM sleep, the sleeper’s eyes dart about rapidly, and the sleeper may move, and heart rate and perspiration may increase. Because the sleeper may be physically moving, REM sleep resembles Stage 1 sleep, but the REM sleeper will be hard to awaken, perhaps even harder than in slow wave sleep.
In 1985, Danish researchers discovered that during sleep, in most people, the pituitary gland in the brain secretes ant diuretic hormone (ADH), which reduces the production of urine during sleep. In a person with a normal bladder capacity, the reduced amount of urine allows the normal sleeper to sleep through the night without the need to wake up to use the toilet. But—and this is crucial—should the bladder fill to capacity during sleep, signals from a full bladder will cause a normal sleeper to awaken, even from slow wave sleep or REM sleep.
The normal mechanisms of sleep and awakening are not properly developed in the enuretic. Studies have shown that some enuretics produce unusually low amounts of ADH during sleep, thus allowing more night-time urine production, and that a few enuretics have small bladder capacities. But the enuretics primary problem is that he or she simply can’t break through to consciousness in response to signals from a full bladder. Research led by Dr. Hiroki Wantanabe, based on a nine-year study of hundreds of enuretics and published in the journal European Eurology, shows that most enuretics respond to signals from a full bladder by moving to Stage 1 or Stage 2 sleep. However, unlike the normal sleeper, the enuretic does not fully awaken and involuntarily urinates while in one of the stages of light sleep. The enuretic can’t break through the barrier to wakefulness.
A proper correction program can train the enuretic to break through that barrier and to fully awaken when the bladder is full. According to professors of pediatrics Drs. Michael R. Lawless and Darby H. McElderry, writing in Pediatrics in Review, enuresis alarms combined with behavioral therapy have the highest overall cure rate of any available treatment. Enuresis alarm correction has a higher long-term success rate and it avoids the great expense, side effects and dangers of drug therapy.
The purpose of the correction program is to teach the enuretic to awaken when the bladder signals that it is full. But proper enuresis correction programs have also been shown to help the problem of limited bladder capacity. In some enuretics, the bladder contracts and causes a urination urge before the bladder is completely full, thus limiting the effective capacity of the bladder. An enuresis alarm program can help with this problem. Accordingly, in many cases, our enuresis correction program will not only keep the bed dry, but it will allow the person to sleep through the night.
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