It’s time to get real intimate — and no, I don’t mean about sex. I mean about that thing that’s even more personal and intimate than our sex lives: our bathroom lives.
It’s no secret that some of us might spend a little too much time in the bathroom. And no, I don’t mean after you have too much cheese. At the beginning of the day or before I’m about to go to sleep, I’ll admit, I’ll stay on the toilet even when I’m not still using it. This is when I like to catch up on my current events (AKA, scroll TikTok for half an hour). And even though, yes, I could totally just get up and do the same thing on my couch or my bed, something about unwinding on the toilet is just relaxing. Don’t look at me like that, I know you all do it too.
But it turns out that staying on the toilet for longer than you need to is not only wasting a bunch of your time time (and is kinda gross), but it’s also pretty dangerous.
How Long Can I Sit On The Toilet For?
“Sitting on the toilet for an extended period of time places a lot of pressure on your pelvic floor muscles and rectum,” gastroenterologist Dr. Michael Schopis tells Betches. “This constant pressure can ultimately lead to hemorrhoids, which are swollen veins that occur on the internal or external part of your anus, as well as anal fissures, which are tears in the skin of the anus.”
Either way, sitting on the toilet for a long time can eventually lead to a lot of pain, bleeding, even anal discomfort (and not the good kind). So when is it time to finally flush? Dr. Schopis says that he and other doctors recommend capping your toilet-sitting time to just five minutes. And you especially don’t want to sit there and continue pushing or straining.
Now if you’re sitting there thinking, even when I don’t scroll, there’s no way I can get in and out of the bathroom in five minutes, don’t worry. There are ways to make sure you’re going to the bathroom regularly.
“The easiest way to accomplish this is to ensure you get adequate fluid intake of 2-3 liters of water per day, and roughly 25-30 grams of fiber per day either through diet or supplementation,” Dr. Schopis says. I think we can all handle drinking roughly half a gallon of water a day — especially if you have a cute Stanley cup.
And if you’re really serious about staying safe on the bowl, keep your phone away or at least set a timer so that you’re not just sitting around and lingering. I promise you can get back to your scrolling off the toilet.
