Is getting up to pee at night ruining your relationship?

Getting up to pee during the night could be ruining your relationship new research has found.

Almost one in five people who have to visit the toilet a lot during the night have to sleep in a separate bedroom to their partner, the survey found.

Arguments fuelled by a lack of sleep caused the bedroom schisms. Where people needed to use the bathroom several times each night, 37 per cent of people in couples had to go and sleep in the spare room.

One-quarter of the 531 Irish people included in the survey, which was carried out in June, say Nocturia, as the condition is called, has put a strain on their relationship.

Severe sufferers find that their relationship will be affected by their nocturnal ramblings in one out of every three cases.

And getting up a lot to pee has knock-on effects during the day. Some 64 per cent of sufferers report that waking during the night affects their work performance the next day.

Over three-quarters say it has a negative impact on their overall mood and 76 per cent of sufferers say it impairs their concentration the next day.

And it isn’t only work that is affected. Some 60 per cent of sufferers said their condition had a negative impact on their exercise regime. Nearly half (49 per cent) said it also had a negative impact on meeting friends and socialising.

Adults affected by the condition "are unable to achieve continuous sleep and cannot feel rested the following day," said Dr Declan Keane, consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at the National Maternity Hospital, Dublin.

Tiredness and irritability can have a huge effect on an adult’s ability to concentrate and perform everyday tasks, he added.

“Sleep deprivation can have a negative impact on all aspects of people’s lives, including their relationships,” he said.

Nocturia is a condition that causes sufferers to wake during the night to urinate. Of those surveyed in June, half wake most nights, 44 per cent wake every night and 40 per cent of sufferers wake more than twice per night to urinate.

Men and women can be affected at at any age, but it becomes more common as people grow older.