Hypnosis for Bed Wetting (Nocturnal Enuresis)
Bed wetting, also called nocturnal enuresis, means passing urine during sleep after the age when night-time bladder control would normally be expected. It is common in children, although it can also affect teenagers and adults. Bed wetting is not usually deliberate. It may be linked with bladder development, very deep sleep, hormones, constipation, stress or a medical condition, so persistent or newly developed symptoms should be medically assessed.
Can hypnotherapy help with bed wetting?
 Hypnotherapy can help with bed wetting by working with the unconscious patterns involved in sleep, body awareness and waking at the right time. One simple way to understand this is to think of the unconscious mind as being rather like a computer running background programs. Some of those programs work well. Others may need updating.
In therapy, hypnosis can be used to help the child’s unconscious mind change how these background programs run, so that the body becomes more aware of bladder signals and the child can wake in time to use the toilet.
Children often respond well to metaphorical stories. These are gentle therapeutic stories that speak indirectly to the unconscious mind, rather than making the child feel criticised or put under pressure. A story might involve a night watchman, an alarm system, a helpful computer program or a young character learning to notice important signals at the right time.
Positive behaviours can also be reinforced in trance. This may include using the toilet before going to sleep, noticing the feeling of needing to go, waking calmly if the bladder becomes full and feeling pleased with small steps of progress. The aim is to build confidence and cooperation between the conscious and unconscious mind, rather than creating anxiety about dry nights.
Parent re-education can also be helpful. This is not about blaming parents. It is about gently clearing up common myths and helping the family respond in ways that support change. Children usually do better when bed wetting is not treated as laziness, defiance or something to be punished. Calm routines, encouragement, patience and realistic expectations can all help the child feel safer and more able to develop better night-time control.
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More about bed wetting
Enuresis, the medical term for bedwetting, is the involuntary passing of urine and the most common form of bedwetting among children is nocturnal enuresis, ie that which occurs at night.
Frequent bedwetting is common in children up to the age of six. The child should not be put under pressure if younger than six, children do not wet the bed on purpose.
Approximately 15 to 20 per cent of all five and six-year-olds wet the bed and most of them are boys. With teenagers, the figure is 2 to 3 per cent up to 14 and 1 per cent at 15 or over.
Why do children wet the bed?
Most children who wet the bed have done it all their life and in many cases no reason can be found.
Often it is passed on through the family. Bedwetting also happens, or has happened, to a close relative in up to 85 per cent of cases. About 57 per cent of children who wet their beds either have a brother, sister or a parent who has experienced the same problem.
It may have a medical or psychological cause such as cystitis, diabetes, problems at school, at home, or the divorce of parents.
One explanation could be that these children are heavy sleepers who do not wake up when their bladder is full. Also, some children develop bladder control later than others.
At night, some children produce too little of the antidiuretic hormone (ADH), which controls the production of urine. A nasal spray containing desmopressin may help. The child needs to be examined by a doctor who will then decide whether treatment is necessary.
Diagnostic and statistical manual criteria (DSM)
Research: Banerjee S. Srivastav A. Palan BM. Hypnosis and self-hypnosis in the management of nocturnal enuresis: a comparative study with imipramine therapy.
American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis 1993;36(2):113-9
Various therapeutic modalities have been used for treating enuresis due to the lack of a single identifiable cause. We carried out a comparative study of imipramine and direct hypnotic suggestions with imagery used for the management of functional nocturnal enuresis. Enuretic children, ranging in age from 5 to 16 years, underwent 3 months of therapy with imipramine (N = 25) or hypnosis (N = 25).
After termination of the active treatment, the hypnosis group continued practicing self-hypnosis daily during the follow-up period of another 6 months.
Of the patients treated with imipramine, 76% had a positive response (all dry beds); for patients treated with hypnotic strategies, 72% responded positively. At the 9-month follow-up, 68% of patients in the hypnosis group maintained a positive response, whereas only 24% of the imipramine group did.
Hypnosis and self-hypnosis strategies were found to be less effective in younger children (5-7 years old) compared to imipramine treatment. The treatment response was not related to the hypnotic responsivity of the patient in either group.
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