This water is later reabsorbed in the colon. Normally water is pumped into the small intestine to facilitate digestion and absorption of nutrients. Of the different types of diarrhea (osmotic, secretory, exudative), nocturnal diarrhea is more often seen with secretory diarrhea. This disturbed sleep can sometimes aggravate diarrhea, especially in conditions like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Nocturnal diarrhea may affect sleep patterns when a person has to awaken from sleep in order to have a bowel movement. This is a feature that is present in a few gastrointestinal illnesses but is more often caused by diet, lifestyle, medication and psychological factors. Nocturnal diarrhea refers to loose, watery and frequent stool that occurs at night. Diarrhea at night should be investigated for all the possible causes of diarrhea, irrespective of the fact that it is occurring more frequently at nighttime.
However, some people may find that diarrheal stool is more likely to occur with eating certain foods or specific activities which may then cause the diarrhea to occur at those times. Diarrhea is usually not time-specific in that it does not typically occur at some times of the day and not at others.
