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Tired of waking up at night to use the bathroom? Try cutting your salt intake. According to a Japanese study presented at the European Society of Urology annual meeting, lowering your salt intake could reduce the urge to pee at night.
The problem called nocturia mostly affects people above age 60, and the frequent disruption of sleep can lead to other problems such as stress, irritability or tiredness, and can affect people’s quality of life. The researchers asked 321 Japanese men and women who had high salt intake and sleeping problems to reduce their salt intake and were followed for 12 weeks; 223 participants reduced their salt intake. Their average nighttime bathroom trips fell from 2.3 times to 1.4 times. The number of times they needed to pee during the day also decreased Fewer nighttime bathroom visits meant better sleep and their quality of life also improved,
However, 98 participants increased their salt intake, and they woke up more times to use the bathroom.
