Bedwetting As A Deep Sleep Disorder

Our effective approach to ending chronic bedwetting is based upon the scientific conclusion that bedwetting-nocturnal enuresis-is caused by an inherited deep-sleep disorder.  Our founder, Barbara Moore, followed many doctors’ recommendations for her daughter, Gaile’s, bedwetting – such as surgery and psychotherapy – which proved to be wholly unproductive.

Because she was determined to find a cure for Gaile’s bedwetting, Barbara spent years researching, which led to the discovery of a breakthrough study by prominent neurologist and foremost sleep researcher, Dr. Roger Broughton.  Dr. Broughton is also Professor Emeritus of Neurology and Neuroscience at the University of Ottawa.

His study’s findings concluded that all bedwetters share a deep-sleep disorder pattern. Not restorative deep sleep, but rather the kind of sleep where someone doesn’t even hear a smoke alarm or feel an earthquake.  The irrefutable accuracy of his study paved the way to establish a specific protocol to target the deep, unhealthy sleep, and to end bedwetting permanently.  Gaile was the first patient–and our first of thousands of success stories!

Dream Induced Bedwetting Is A Parasomnia

Chronic bedwetting is classified as a parasomnia, which Johns Hopkins refers to as an under-recognized deep sleep disorder causing abnormal behavior in the night.  This same sleep disorder causes sleep talking, sleepwalking, sleep paralysis, night terrors, and bruxism.

Because our center relies on clinical data and anecdotal experience proving that the only effective and permanent treatment for bedwetting is to correct the disordered pattern of sleep, we’ve been able to provide help and healing to families worldwide for nearly five decades with The Dream-Induced Bedwetting Cure™.

By permanently ending bedwetting by attending to the deep sleep disorder, we are contributing to someone’s sense of self, their health and well-being, and how well they function on a daily basis.  Healthy sleep and a dry bed will do that.

Dr. Roger Broughton’s Breakthrough Study

BroughtonWe’ve based our program on Dr. Broughton’s study. His research has been focused on the dissociations between wakefulness and sleep.  Imagine talking to someone who is fast asleep but responds as if awake, and after being awakened, has no recollection of the conversation.  This is what it’s like for bedwetters.

The sleep study conducted by Dr. Broughton is titled, “Sleep Disorders: Disorders of Arousal? Sleep Enuresis, Somnambulism, and Nightmares Occur in Confusional States of Arousal, Not in Dreaming Sleep”.

As a result of his study, Dr. Broughton shows the difference between the normal sleep pattern and that of a bedwetter.  In normal sleep, people fall slowly from Stage 1 (lightest sleep) into deeper stages, and then back to lighter stages where it’s easy to awaken.  It’s cyclical.

A bedwetter falls quickly into deep sleep and stays there for longer periods.   (Explained further below).

You can also read Dr. Broughton’s abstract here.

A Normal Sleep Pattern Vs A Bedwetter’s Or Sleep Enuresis Pattern  (+ Daytime Complications)

SleepchartSleep is a natural state of rest for the mind and body. A third of your life is spent sleeping. In fact, sleep is not a passive state.  A lot goes on in your body during sleep, and your brain organizes and solidifies learning and memory which improves your concentration and promotes innovative and flexible thinking.  Sleep strengthens your immune system and enables repair of your nervous system. A good night’s sleep relieves stress by quieting your nervous system and establishing a sense of well being.

With bedwetting-nocturnal enuresis-a person may sleep for 10 hours, yet only have the experience of seven or eight hours.  There is a compromise to the health and quality of their sleep, and that means they’re not always receiving the essential aspects and benefits expressed above.

  • Sleep begins in stages 1 and 2, (theta sleep) and then progresses to 3 and 4, (delta). After stage 4 sleep is complete, stage 3 and then stage 2 are repeated before entering REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, which is where we dream. Once REM sleep is over, the body usually returns to stage 2. We then cycle through these stages approximately four or five times throughout the night. During the last one or two cycles, there is no delta sleep at all.
  • On average, we enter the REM stage approximately 90 minutes after falling asleep. The first cycle of REM sleep might last only a short amount of time, but each cycle becomes longer. REM sleep can last up to an hour as sleep progresses. Good quality sleep requires both non-REM and REM sleep in uninterrupted cycles.
  • In most studies, sleep electroencephalograms have demonstrated no differences or only nonspecific changes in children with and without nocturnal enuresis. When surveyed, however, parents consistently maintain that their child with nocturnal enuresis is a “deep sleeper,” compared with their offspring who are not bedwetters.  Other surveys have found that children with nocturnal enuresis are more subject to “confused awakenings,” such as night terrors or sleepwalking than children who do not wet the bed. Source: American Family Physicians – 2003.

Someone who experiences bedwetting remains primarily in the deep Stage 4 sleep too long; therefore, they’re missing uninterrupted cycles and limiting dream sleep. Undoubtedly, this compromises normal, healthy, and restful sleep.  This is why we often see bedwetters with mood irregularities, ADD/ADHD symptoms, difficulty awakening in the morning, and struggles with schoolwork.  This long Stage 4 sleep pattern also causes the disconnect between the brain and the bladder, which ultimately leads to the bedwetting. 

Practice Makes Permanent – How We Create Lasting Results

Brain plasticity, also known as neuroplasticity, is a term that refers to the brain’s ability to change and adapt as a result of repeated experiences.  Modern research has demonstrated that the brain continues to create new neural pathways and alter existing ones in order to adapt to new experiences, learn new information, and create new memories.

Practicing a behavior enables it to become automatic over time, and if you practice enough, the behavior becomes a habit.  A new neural pathway was created.  What a bedwetter needs is to develop a new neural pathway in the brain (neurodevelopment) to accept the proper pattern of sleep, and once that’s in place, the dream induced bedwetting is history.

That’s solely what we’re here to do!  We get right to the core of the problem.  Our approach does not include drugs or invasive procedures.  In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics says that less than 1% of all bedwetting cases is caused by a medical problem.  There has never been a medical, psychological, or pharmacological remedy to this problem. 

Click here to learn about our doctor-recommended “therapist-assisted” approach.

Our Invitation To You

Because we know you have questions, we invite you to reach out to us for an informational conversation.  Allow us to provide you with some relief by knowing there’s legitimate help available.  At that time, you may wish to schedule your First Step Consultation.  No obligation. 

We have been ending dream-induced bedwetting or sleep enuresis for nearly five decades.  We know what it takes! To be one step closer to a dry bed, read about your First Step Consultation here.

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