Feelings of shame and poor self-confidence are not the only ways in which bedwetting can affect children. New research indicates that bedwetters may suffer academically as well.

Researchers attending an International Children’s Continence Society (ICCS) meeting in Hong-Kong reported that children who regularly wet the bed at night scored worse in a number of widely accepted cognitive performance tests when compared to non-bedwetters. Sufferers also showed differences in terms of intelligence, the ability to focus, short- or long-term memory, learning speed, and retention ability. The research was conducted over a two-year period and included bedwetters and non-bedwetters.

Possible causes of bedwetting, also known as nocturnal enuresis, include heredity, physical causes such as a small bladder or issues with the valve that controls the flow of urine from the bladder, neurological causes, and external stress.

According to ICCS President, Yeung Chung-kwong, chair and professor in pediatric urology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the nocturnal enuresis causes sleep deprivation and can even stretch into adulthood if not treated before children reach adolescence.

Bed-wetters, Yeung said, are not deep sleepers, but are actually deprived of sleep since the brain is receiving frequent signals from contractions of the bladder. These children, Yeung continued, also are harder to wake up as the brain is flooded with so many signals from the bladder that the brain does not know which signals to respond to.

It is important to remember that bedwetting is an involuntary response. A child with nocturnal enuresis does not deliberately wet the bed but rather, cannot control the flow of urine while asleep. In fact, bedwetting until about the age of six years is actually quite common, as this is typically the age when children learn to control their bladders.

Nocturnal enuresis affects between five and seven million children ages 5 to 15 years in the United States alone. Some tips to help minimize the chances of bed-wetting include:

• Limiting your child’s fluid intake a few hours before bedtime
• Encouraging the child to use the toilet before going to sleep
• Making sure your child is dressed warmly and comfortably
• Behavior modification
• Positive reinforcement such as rewards and charts for staying dry at night
• You may also wish to wake the child once during the night to empty the bladder
• To minimize embarrassment and mess, you and your child may decide to use diapers or pull-up pants at night

The good news is that most children who wet the bed eventually stop without any treatment. But it’s still a good idea to talk with your child’s health care provider about possible treatments.