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Getting a good night’s sleep can be a real challenge, especially for people whose health gets them out of bed to urinate many times each night. Men with prostate problems often find themselves in this situation. One reader is struggling to find a solution.
Is Advil PM Risky for Nightly Use?
Q. I have sleep and prostate problems. I take one Advil PM each night, along with Crestor to control cholesterol and Unisom for insomnia.
I am convinced that the Advil helps relax my prostate and limits me to one bathroom visit per night. I can’t tolerate side effects from prescription drugs such as tamsulosin (Flomax) and finasteride (Proscar).
Is Advil dangerous if taken regularly? In the past, one of my urologists recommended Motrin to reduce my nightly bathroom visits.
How Prostate Problems Affect Sleep:
A. Men with an enlarged prostate often find it more difficult to empty the bladder completely. This means that they may need to get up several times a night to urinate. We understand how much that can disrupt sleep.
There is some evidence to suggest that nighttime NSAID use may reduce trips to the bathroom (Urology, Oct., 2008). Ibuprofen, the ingredient in Advil and Motrin, is an NSAID, and therefore may well be helpful in this regard.
The downside is that regular use of such drugs may reduce kidney function or increase the risk of stomach irritation and ulcers, high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes.
What About the PM Part of the Medication?
We also worry about the double dose of diphenhydramine (DPH) you are getting by taking both Advil PM and Unisom. It can make people feel sluggish in the morning and may affect brain function.
DPH is an anticholinergic medication. We usually urge older people to limit their use of such drugs as much as possible, since regular use can contribute to memory difficulties and confusion. You can learn more about anticholinergic medicines here.
A Handful of Raisins?
Since you don’t tolerate tamsulosin or finasteride, which are often prescribed for symptoms caused by an enlarged prostate, you are in a difficult dilemma. Several readers report that eating a small handful of raisins shortly before bedtime can reduce nighttime waking for urination. We can’t guarantee anything, as no one has studied this offbeat home remedy. It is inexpensive and low risk enough to try, though.
Matthew
Florida
I am trying to determine if Unisom is ok to take for a enlarged prostate because I do get up a lot to urinate many times, and no sleep.
Les
UK
Try taking an ibruprofen tablet before bed. My friends brother found this cure quite accidentally when taking the ibuprofen for another reason. For many this has stopped the 5 or 6 visits to the loo during the night. GP noticed the difference and told friend to carry on taking it.
Paul
Shelton, WA 98584
To the initial questioner, re: Crestor— my cholesterol ranged between 205 and 225 for the past 10 years or so and my MD wanted me to take statins. I refused because of the nasty side effects. Besides, that is just border line high. I am 79, a male in pretty good shape. I went to my wife’s naturopath because of a PSA rise (7.9) and he had written an article that claimed adults should not be on dairy. No other mammal on earth drinks milk once they are weaned. Since I was a steady milk drinker (three times per day, cheese, moderate ice cream, etc.) I decided to put it to the test and went dairy-free. My blood draw six weeks later showed a cholesterol reading of 178. A new blood draw two weeks ago showed cholesterol of 174. The triglycerides, LDL, HDL, were the best I’ve ever seen for the past 20 years or so. I drink Almond milk now. There are “cheeses” out there but they are rather ugly, imho. So, I miss cheese and pizza a whole lot but want the lowered readings more.
Comment on my 7.9 PSA. They wanted to do a biopsy and I did a bunch of on-line research and found many articles, some from the NIH, on the harms that prostate biopsies do. AND, that out of 1,000 men, only one life is saved from those having cancer of the prostate. And fully 30% had permanent lifetime injuries from the biopsy process, most especially those who had false positives (110 out of 1,000). Five with normal PSA’s who are untreated die of cancer and five treated also die of cancer. The rest die of something else first. So, the Naturopath put me on some natural stuff and two weeks ago my blood draw showed a PSA of 4.7. He says it’s not a cure, just holding the cancer, IF it is there and he thinks it is because of my PSA progression over the last 15 years, at bay until I either die or better treatments/cures are found.
I’m sharing these two stories to encourage everyone to be the masters of their own health and remember that both allopathic and naturopathic medicine are paradigms about the human body and what goes wrong and stays right, etc. Paradigms change with new information. Paradigm blindness is a congenital condition of the highly-educated as well as the ordinary folk. Be your own best counselor. Listen, research and learn.
Victor
Washington
I find that not drinking anything after 6:30 PM and munching on a small amount of popcorn, only lightly salted, while I watch TV before bed, reduces the number of trips to the bathroom. Also, the Crede Maneuver mentioned by another poster does help.
Dion
NN
I also had the same problems and got annoyed with all of the drugs Doctors prescribed for me, I told my Dr, to hell with the drugs they produced more side effects than any good they were supposed to be doing, he then sent me to a eurologist for a checkup and he recommended a TURPS operation, (ask your Dr about TURPS,) this rather minor operation produced amazing results, hell my urine stream would near blow the back out of the toilet. YeeeHaaa, but the main thing this TURPS operation found was that I had Prostate cancer so they took out 70% of the Prostate and got the cancer down to 4% with a PSA reading of 2, we monitor it every 6 months now and it’s just fine. Don’t be afraid of a TURPS even with 70% removed my sexual function is as good as it ever was, even though I had regular PSA tests they never showed up as abnormal, thank god for the TURPS operation otherwise my cancer may not have shown up until it was too late.
Joe
Tiffin, OH
Are there any over-the-counter non-FDA supplements anyone has tried with success?
Charles
Ft Worth, Texas
I use one Tylenol tablet at night and it helps me to sleep thru the night. Idea came from a friend who uses it also. Glad to know there may be some basis to the remedy.
Don
Virginia
In my experience one 5 mg. tablet of Cialis daily has been superior to either Avodart, Proscar or generic Finasteride in limiting (in my case, completely eliminating) the symptoms of BPH .
Dr Mikey
Central Florida
If your bladder is not emptying completely, your number of nocturnal trips to the john will obviously increase. And sometimes after the initial flow it feels like you’ve emptied, when in fact you may be less than halfway there.
Usually it’s easy to tell if you’re bladder is not truly empty by pressing on the bladder and seeing if the urge to go comes back. And if you’re a back-sleeper, the weight of the lower abdomen on the bladder may exaggerate the feeling of having to go, even when the bladder isn’t full. You may be able to sleep for a while longer just by turning onto your side.
But if after peeing you feel that you haven’t completely emptied, you can encourage voiding by using “Crede’s maneuver” – a simple massage of the bladder in a downward direction, kind of like squeezing toothpaste out of the tube. After this maneuver, and with patience, the secondary flow will begin, and, in many cases, results in a higher flow rate and a larger volume of urine, than was seen initially. Some stubborn bladders may require multiple applications over several minutes.
Buck
California
How do you do the credes maneuver
tony
thailand
I have a large 2 L milk bottle by the side of my bed and I simply roll over on my side and use it to urinate. I don’t open my eyes and go back to sleep in a few seconds. I do this several times a night with no problems and I take no medication. Most people I know with the same problems do the same . There is no need to wake up, get up and go to the toilet. I used to do this a very long time ago and it would take me a long time to get back to sleep.