But sometimes⏤and we’ve all done this⏤you’ll hold your pee to finish one more email, or so you don’t miss the end of a movie, or just because you’re too lazy to walk to the bathroom from the couch.

但有時，而且我們都一定做過這樣的事——憋尿只為了多完成一封電子郵件，或是不想錯過電影結局，或只是單純懶得從沙發站起來走到廁所。

You’ve probably heard people say that that’s bad for you. And it is!

你可能聽過別人說這樣對身體不好，沒錯，真的不好！

But only if you do it frequently and for a really long time, and it almost always isn’t life-threatening.

但只有當你很頻繁且憋很久，才會對身體有害，偶爾憋尿不會要了你的命啦！

If you’re an adult, your bladder can hold up to about half a liter, or two full cups of pee, before you’ll feel the need to... let it go, as Elsa might say.

如果你是成人，你的膀胱大約可承裝半公升、或是兩大杯的尿，低於這個量，你應該還不會感受到想要「let it go」，就像艾莎可能會說的。

Your bladder wall is lined with receptors that can measure how full your bladder is, and when it’s reached capacity, these receptors send your brain a signal that it’s time to hit the can.

你的膀胱壁上佈滿了能夠測量尿液容量的感測神經，當膀胱達到容量上限時，感測神經會發送訊號給你的大腦，告訴你該去尿尿囉！

Most adults have control over their bathroom urges, meaning you can choose to pee right away after receiving these signals, or to hold it for a bit if you’re not near facilities.

大多數的成年人都能夠掌控尿急，意思就是當接收到尿尿訊號時，你可以選擇立刻去上廁所， 或是當附近沒有廁所時，可以再憋一下尿。

If you do decide to hold it, the cylindrical sphincters in your bladder close up tightly to keep all of the urine from leaking through your urethra.

當你決定要憋尿時，在你膀胱裡的柱狀括約肌會緊緊地收縮，以將尿液保持在膀胱中，避免流進你的尿道。

But if you hold it in for long periods of time a lot, like if you’re a trucker who’s on the road for hours on end, for years, then you might find yourself facing some not-so-fun long-term effects, like urinary retention and increased risk of infection.

但假如你經常長時間地憋尿，就像假如你是位卡車司機，長時間駕駛卡車，在多年後， 你可能會發現你要面對一些不怎麼有趣的慢性症狀， 像是尿滯留，它會增加感染的風險。

Urinary retention is the inability to empty your bladder completely.

尿滯留是指你沒辦法把膀胱中的尿液排乾淨。

Constantly holding in your pee can weaken your bladder muscles, which can be the cause of urinary retention as you age.

持續憋尿會使得膀胱肌肉變得鬆弛，這就可能導致年老時會有尿滯留的情況。

Your bladder can also become a breeding ground for bacteria if it’s constantly holding large amounts of urine, which slightly increases your chances of getting a bladder or urinary tract infection.

當你持續憋了大量的尿液，你的膀胱也可能會成為細菌的滋生地，這會稍微增加膀胱和尿道感染的機率。

Which sounds bad enough, but what if you held it in for longer?

這聽起來已經夠糟了，但你如果又再憋得更久呢？

Think about Tycho Brahe, the 16th-century astronomer who supposedly died from a bladder that burst after he held his pee for too long.

一位十六世紀的天文學家 Tycho Brahe，據說他因為憋尿憋太久，而死於膀胱破裂。

Well, long before you get anywhere near your bladder bursting, odds are your body will ignore your brain's attempts to hold in the pee, and you’ll just wet yourself; however, in certain very rare, very extreme cases, bladders do burst.

其實，在你膀胱破裂之前，你的大腦就會忽略憋尿的意圖， 讓你直接尿在褲子上；然而，在非常極端罕見的例子中，膀胱才會破裂。

When this happens, it’s almost always in people who already had a damaged bladder, like from a pelvic injury, though there are a few reports of bladders bursting in people who seemed perfectly fine before.

這幾乎只會發生在膀胱已經受損的人身上，像是骨盆受傷；只有一些少數報告表示，有些膀胱破裂的人是擁有健康的膀胱。

In those cases, it’s generally because the person was drinking a lot, and the alcohol dampened the signal to their brains that was telling them they needed to pee, like right now.

在這些案例中，通常是因為他們喝了很多酒，而酒精抑制了本應傳遞給大腦要立刻尿尿的訊號。

But again, it’s incredibly rare.

但再次強調，這是非常非常少見的狀況。

So, if you do hold your pee in a few hours longer than you should, probably nothing super terrible will happen⏤unless you consider wetting yourself in public super terrible.

所以當你憋了比平常還久的尿，可能也不會有什麼非常不好的狀況會發生， 除非你把「當眾尿褲子」當作非常不好的狀況的話。

Totally understandable if you do!

如果你這麽做的話我完全能夠理解。

Thanks for asking, and thanks especially to all of our patrons on Patreon who keep these answers coming.

謝謝你們的提問，特別感謝在 Patreon 上一直持續贊助我們的人，使得這些問題可以被解答。

If you’d like to submit questions to be answered or get these Quick Questions a few days before everyone else, go to patreon.com/scishow.

假如你想提問並獲得解答，或是比其他人還要早得到這些問題的答案， 請造訪 patreon.com/scishow。

And don’t forget to go to youtube.com/scishow and subscribe!

同時也別忘了訂閱我們的 Youtube 頻道！