Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion Helpful Tips Dehydration at Night & Kidney Health

Anybody get dehydrated when sleeping? I do and it is really annoying me. Especially now that I have my inflammation well under control.

It isn't from diabetes (fasting blood sugar is fine), and in my case it isn't Sjogren's Syndrome.. Especially since the dehydration only occurs when I am lying down. I don't even have to be asleep, as I can get it from lying down reading a book, etc. It takes about an hour or so of being horizontal for the dehydration to really become apparent.

I think the dehydration has something to do with my kidneys. A lot of other problems I have had in the past pointed to the kidneys being weak.. just little things like brown urine, poor tolerance of coffee / drugs / food additives, etc.

I have found 2 or 3 things that help, but they are either not reliable or a real nuisance:
* Fasting : had a gut infection once that completely cleared my gut out. I couldn't keep any food down so I decided I may as well try doing a fast. To my amazement having a completely empty gut caused a complete remission in all symptoms.. dehydration included..
* Bromelain : only works for a week or two and then your body gets used to it
* Lying flat on belly : I hate doing this as it is so darn uncomfortable. Fortunately my neck isn't so stiff or I wouldn't be able to breathe at all!

I would like to know how many of us AS folk are getting this dehydration, so please reply if you get this problem from time to time.

cheers,
z

Don't confuse this post with the more common 'dry mouth' symptom we get. What I am talking about affects the entire body (every inch of my skin becomes dehydrated) and it *only* occurs when I am lying down.

Hi Zark,
I can't really say that dehydration is worse at night or any other time of the day. With me it comes when it comes. Sometimes it does ocurr overnight, other times it is within a couple of hours. Last night for example. I work night shift and a couple of hours after dinner, my lips were splitting, my hands were shrivelling up, under my eyes were going all dry and wrinkly and my eyes and mouth had no moisture whatsoever. It's like all of the moisture in my body is being sucked out by a giant super sucker from the inside or my body is burning inside. I know it's all food related, it's just finding out what. I've read your blog and am amazed because your food list and mine could be almost identical. I am thinking also that anything packaged, bottled or canned is dynamite. One question, what do you use for a sauce on vegies. Steamed vegies and dry salads get so boring. All the sauces have either vinegar or thickener or tomatoes. I could eat vegies all day long if I could just find something yummy to put on them!
Kim

Right now I am fruit fasting using pears, .. so I am restricting myself to just pears and water. It is about the fourth day and the night dehydration seems to have only just started to improve. My back / neck / hips are great! (no pain and almost zero stiffness) and energy levels are really high. If the dehydration does clear significantly, then I will start adding foods back one by one and try and figure out what is causing the dehydration.

My gosh your reactions are pretty harsh ! But yes, it is different from my dehydration as mine is *only* at night. . . I get up first thing in the morning I have a big drink of water and after that I'm back to normal in about 30 minutes.

>> One question, what do you use for a sauce on vegies. Steamed vegies and dry salads get so boring.
>> All the sauces have either vinegar or thickener or tomatoes.

Still experimenting here. The main sauces I use are a) mayonnaise (although I worry a bit about its vinegar content.. such a weird reaction if it is true) and b) tomato puree, to which I add something sweet and something salty .. eg: sweet soy sauce, soy sauce, and fish sauce (the starch added to soy sauce seems to be converted by fermentation? anyway no noticeable reaction so far).

I've got Sjorgen's and get the mouth thing as well as styes from dry eyes

Hi again Zark
when I lived in Canberra 2000-2003 I used to
wake up dehydrated and with pain in my joints.
It was only earlier this year I had my health
problems classified as Crohn&AS and looking
back now these joint pains I guess was AS but
the dryness I don't really see as AS, more
likely due to the dry climate. Every time I
went to Sydney or the coast, it got much
better.
All the best/Andreas

>> the dryness I don't really see as AS, more likely due to the dry climate. Every time I went to
>> Sydney or the coast, it got much better.

yeah maybe, climate can certainly do strange things to the body / immune system. for example :

.. My eczema seems to start up every winter in sydney.
.. a cousin had really severe asthma. He grew up in Canberra, and says that whenever he stays in Queensland his asthma / allergies clear up
.. a friend of mine has some weird skin problem called 'folicleitis' (spelling?) and it hits him whenever he returns to sydney (which is where he grew up). He keeps going over to China and also found his skin problems clear up whilst over there.. presumably that is why he keeps going back there for 'working holidays'

I will have a chance to go to singapore in a few months, perhaps it will clear up when/if I go.

Hi Zark

I kept thinking about your comment about dehydration
yesterday and realised that I did not tell the whole
truth in my previous email. After I moved back to
Sweden 2003 I kept having problems feeling dehydrated
and having headache during night and morning.
Actually I had to change appartment for this, since
I was so sensitive to the dry and bad air in the
appartment is was living. I try to avoid flats where
they "recycle" the air, and prefer to live on groundfloor
and in older houses. Usually newly built houses have
terrible air in them, and the higher up, the warmer
and worse the air becomes.

Hi, Kim....I have just started an online research out of desperation and stumbled upon these letters from you guys. Your description was an exact match of what I told my doctor about how the water or moisture was just totally being SUCKED out of my entire body! These are old posts. What did you do to remedy the situation. I feel like I am going to die if I don't do something.

Hi zark,

One thing (and a very possible cause of people feeling dehydrated), is the medications they take before going to bed in the evening.

Lately, I have been on four medications that do cause much dehydration both when I am awake during the day and also when I go to bed at night.

"Amitriptyline" can cause a very dry mouth just a few minutes after you take it and if you take two of them before you go to bed, you can hardly talk as your mouth is so dry.

"Flexoril" will also cause the same dry mouth condition as will "Oxybutynin" which really gets you dehydrated if you take it twice a day as prescribed.

"Imipramine" is another I have used over the last year and it dries you up fairly quickly.

Of course, the meds we use are not always to blame but it wouldn't hurt to check our meds and see if dehydration is something this med could possibly cause.

OldGeorge