21M: Waking up after 5 hours of sleep to pee, and can't fall back asleep

[billwright123]

Every day I get only 5 hours of sleep at night. What wakes me up is the need to pee. After that, I feel extremely tired but can't physically go back to sleep. I would end up taking afternoon naps but stopped doing that a few weeks ago, but that didn't cure my problem.

This all started happening one day when I took Benadryl to fall asleep earlier. That day I woke up after 5 hours of sleep and felt the need to urinate. Every day since then I have been waking up to pee and can't fall back asleep after only 5 hours of sleep.

I feel extremely fatigued and my brain cannot function during the day. Like I said, I try not to sleep in the afternoon, but the next night I would still end up getting only 5 hrs sleep.

This has been going on for 3 months now and I don't know what to do. Any advice?

Note: I drink coffee daily but have been doing so before this all started, so I don't think caffeine is the issue. I also don't drink much fluids before bedtime.

Could the benadryl have caused a disruption in my sleep-wake cycle?

[morpheus1514]

Unlikely the benadryl is the sole culprit, and awakening to pee is very normal.  Many if not most, esp men as they age, do the same thing.  There's likely other issues going on, but hard to say what from just this post.  You can try in-bed relaxation methods when awakened in the night, but if you want a full comprehensive solution check out using a CBT sleep training system.