29.03.2024

Why do people sweat at night

Your doctor will review your medical history and review your test results to find the true cause of excessive sweating. Here are just a few of the possible ones.

If your bedroom is stuffy or you like to sleep in warm pajamas, in this case night sweat is a normal reaction of the body.

If everything is in order with the sleeping conditions, but nevertheless in the morning you wake up in sweat, this is a signal – you should contact a specialist.

Hormonal disorder

The correct balance of hormones in the body is also responsible for maintaining the functioning of the sweating system. Failures in the functioning of one or several glands of internal secretion often lead to an increase in the amount of sweat secreted, even at night, when metabolic processes slow down and body temperature decreases.

In my patient population, increased night sweats are usually associated with a hormonal imbalance – when I normalize it, sweating goes away. Anyone who suffers from such a problem would recommend consulting a doctor. The doctor should rule out the most obvious causes.

For example, men about 45 years old. At this age, male sex hormones fall. We must go to the urologist-andrologist, he will cure you pretty quickly.

Night sweats can be a call to get an examination by an oncologist. In some cancers, such as lymphomas, night sweats are one of the earliest symptoms. However, most often in people with undiagnosed cancer, there is also a sharp decrease in weight and fever.

Sweating often accompanies an increase in body temperature in tumors, it can also be associated with tumor intoxication (general weakness, lethargy, decreased appetite, dry mouth), but sometimes it is a separate manifestation of the disease. Most often with malignant tumors, increased sweating occurs at night. It can be expressed so much that patients are forced to change their underwear after each awakening.

Tumors in which excessive sweating (hyperhidrosis) is one of the typical manifestations:

Hodgkin’s lymphoma

In this case, generalized hyperhidrosis is characteristic against the background of a wave-like increase in temperature. The tumor process affects the lymphatic formations, therefore, with such a disease, enlarged lymph nodes are found in the cervical, axillary, inguinal and other areas.

Neuroendocrine tumors

Neoplasms from enterochromaffin cells can be located in different parts of the digestive system – in the intestine, stomach, pancreas, and also in the bronchi. Tumor cells produce serotonin and various hormones, so one of the main manifestations of the disease is hot flashes, accompanied by redness of the skin, profuse sweating, diarrhea or bronchospasm.

Pheochromocytoma

Neuroendocrine tumor of chromaffin cells of the adrenal gland. When adrenaline is released into the blood, blood pressure rises sharply, a large amount of sweat is released and the heart rate accelerates.

Tumors of the nervous system

In some cases, such neoplasms can also lead to the release of vasoactive substances, in particular adrenaline, into the bloodstream, which leads to increased sweating.

Medication

The most common medications that can cause night sweats are antidepressants. It is noted that from 8 to 22% of people taking antidepressants sweat excessively at night. As a rule, after the end of the course of taking sweating comes back to normal. You may experience night sweats when taking antipyretics, such as aspirin, acetaminophen, ibuprofen, and so on.

Menopause

Hormonal changes, a decrease in estrogen levels in the blood lead to hot flashes that can occur not only during the day, but also at night. This is the most common cause of night sweats in women.

Say a woman is 50 years old and has started night sweats. Often during the day she is thrown into the heat. There is no need to guess, menopause begins. You need to go to the gynecologist-endocrinologist to get appropriate therapy. By the way, early menopause can begin at 35 years. And taking hormonal contraceptives disguises her. With the abolition of such drugs, symptoms will appear.

Hypoglycemia

Hypoglycemia is a pathological condition of the body in which the blood sugar level is lowered. In the daytime, a person takes insulin or other oral antidiabetic drugs, but it is impossible to regulate the level of blood glucose in a state of sleep. The body comes to the rescue, which responds to a decrease in blood sugar concentration by the release of adrenaline, which is accompanied by sweating. Often, such manifestations of hypoglycemia wake a person.

Infections

Most often, night sweats are associated with classic tuberculosis. But it is worth familiarizing yourself with the list of other infectious diseases that can lead, especially in the chronic stage, to night sweats. Pneumonia, chronic tonsillitis during an exacerbation, fungal damage to internal organs, infectious mononucleosis and even HIV infection.

Previously, increased night sweats were a marker of tuberculosis, but I do not think it is worthwhile to make such correlations; nevertheless, quite often all of us undergo examinations to exclude it. Sweating is on a much larger scale.

Neurological diseases

Sweating increases with stimulation of the sympathetic nerves. Therefore, often neurological diseases, such as autonomic dysflexia or post-traumatic syringomyelia, can cause increased night sweats. But do not be in a hurry to get scared, such diagnoses are made with serious pathologies, for example, with damage to the spinal cord as a result of spinal injuries.

H Eurolog nical pathology should, perhaps, one of the last places on the cause of the night sweats. In such cases, it is often attributed to VVD, and what is called vegetative-vascular dystonia in our country is a comprehensive and meaningless term, which most often hides an incomplete assessment of the patient’s health status. Night sweats are usually a symptom of endocrine or infectious pathology. Therefore, before you go to a neurologist and get a diagnosis of “vegetative-vascular dystonia”, you must completely exclude all possible causes in other organs and systems.

If there is no specific reason for excessive sweating, use the following tips to improve your sleep quality.

  1. Sleep in a well-ventilated area.
  2. Use breathable non-synthetic bedding; discard a heavy blanket.
  3. Use a clinically proven antiperspirant for those parts of the body that sweat the most.
  4. Stop drinking alcohol, caffeine, spicy foods 2-3 hours before bedtime.
  5. Practice breathing exercises before bedtime and after waking up.
  6. Maintain a normal weight, exercise regularly.
  7. Drink plenty of water throughout the day.
  8. Anticholinergic drugs can reduce perspiration, but they should only be used as directed by a doctor.

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