Needing a wee in the middle of the night is ruining camping!

[millimat]

Help. I wake up then lie there thinking how I need a wee. Spend ages trying to convince myself I don't. Takes me ages to get up, trying to be quiet and not wake everyone else. Once I'm up I'm then wide awake and can't get back to sleep.
Amy suggestions?

Don’t drink any liquid at all or eat after 8pm.

Do you need the loo every night at home?

A bucket (ideally with a lid), lined with a plastic bag and with some cat litter in.

Pee in it, then in the morning tie a knot in the bag and bin it.

The cat litter makes it silent and absorbs it so no danger of spillages.

I try to always have two wees in the hour before I go to bed.

Also, no caffeine in the afternoon.

PS ... I know that doesn't get over the having to get up thing but at least you've not had to trek across a field.

Also, knowing your bucket is nearby means you're less likely to spend ages lying there putting it off IYSWIM

Bog in a bag (do they still make these?) or a shee-wee and an empty bottle - once you get really proficient with the latter, you don't need to leave your sleeping bag

I don't get up for a wee at home. If I go camping on the other hand I can think of nothing else. I'm the same if I sleep anywhere with a toilet on a different floor. I'm going to take a bucket this year. Hopefully that will put my mind at rest and my bladder too. I just hope that if I do have to use it I don't let out a huge fart and wake up the campsite

Camping bucket toilet. Literally couldn't do camping without it!

Get into bed and warm it up. Just as you get comfy nip out for a wee. Sounds silly but after 20 years of camping I’ve found it works well.

Oh and make sure if there’s a slope, no matter how small, that your heads higher than your feet otherwise the urge to pee kicks in more often.

It doesn't make a difference if its a bucket or going to the toilet block. Once I'm up I'm up!
Would the biggest tena lady work?

We have one of those camping buckets with a toilet seat lid! It's great, sturdy and easy to empty, it's only for wees really but saves messing around in the night.

Bucket and bivvy loo set. The set comes with bags and powder that turns liquid into biodegradable gel. Can be lobbed in the bin in the morning. Pack is £13.99 from Amazon and you get 12 sachets I think?

I was the same as you until I decided to start using a bucket. I'm must more relaxed now I know I don't have to traipse through a field!

I have a camping toilet, from Argos I think. It's strictly for wees only, and I wouldn't camp without it now. I hated trekking to the loos!

I once peed in a nappy as I was too scared to go to the loo in the dark the last time I went camping

A large lenor bottle. Has big hole at top and lid that stops the kids knocking it over and spilling it all over the tent.

@Samanabanana did it work? That's why I'm thinking tena lady!

Am the only one that tiddles just outside the tent?

@millimat I can confirm tent-nappy-wee was a great success! It was a size 6 nappy, if that makes any difference to absorbancy

Word of warning - a size 5 nappy couldn’t absorb my middle of the night camping wee last year! 😳

She-wee.

I think as soon as you need the loo you need to get up, wee in a bucket or a travel John and then go back to sleep. The problem is you lying awake deliberating. Wake up, pee, back in warm sleeping bag.

Thank you for all your suggestions. I bucket / porta potty etc won't help. Once I'm awake and out of the sleeping bag I'm wide awake.

No caffeine after lunchtime, avoid booze in the evening

@TheoriginalLEM nope, me too! Though investing in a shewee, or the like, before the next trip!
Sadly can't help with the getting back to sleep, I'm exactly the same.

Also are you warm enough? If you're waking at say 2amabdcabt get back to sleep after just 3 or 4 hours of sleep I'd suspect you're not warm enough, or it's the thought of not being able to sleep and ooh how will I cope tomorrow etc thst are keeping you awake.

Wake up, need loo. Go immediately. Get into bed and don't worry about sleeping. Just lie there and enjoy the sounds outside or listen to your own breathing etc. As someoen who works a lot of festivals, the best advice I e ER got when trying to sleep in the day, random hours was just to just go and lie down and chill, not try to sleep. Always makes me sleep!

I have terrible anxiety around needing to wee in the night when I’m in any situation away from home. Like you I find I wake up and can’t work our if I need to wee or not, I worry that if I do and don’t get up I’m going to go back to sleep and wet the bed (this has been a problem for me in the past) so I decide I should get up but then get anxious about waking people and by the time I finally get up I’m wide awake. Half the time I only wee a tiny amount and I feel like if I’d been at home I would have been able to hold it and sleep til morning.

Now I wear Tena Maxi Pants to bed if I’m staying away from home and knowing I have them on means 90% of the time when I wake up I’m able to go back to sleep because the fear of wetting the bed goes away as I’m protected. If I do wake up again still needing a wee I would usually get up to do it but they are absorbent enough to hold an adult full bladder if necessary so if getting out of the tent wasn’t an option you could use it to avoid waking up so fully. They sell them at most pharmacies so easily available too.