Night sweats (2024)

FAQs

Night sweats? ›

It's normal to sweat during the night if the room or your bedding is making you too hot. Night sweats are when you sweat so much that your night clothes and bedding are soaking wet, even though where you're sleeping is cool. Adults and children can get night sweats.

It's normal to sweat during the night if the room or your bedding is making you too hot. Night sweats are when you sweat so much that your night clothes and bedding are soaking wet, even though where you're sleeping is cool. Adults and children can get night sweats.

In some cases, night sweats are a sign of a medical condition. In others, they may be caused by a medicine that you are taking. The most common causes of night sweats are related to hormonal changes in females, such as occur with: menopause or perimenopause.

“I see patients about night sweating all the time,” says Aris Iatridis, M.D., a sleep medicine specialist and pulmonologist at Piedmont. “The most common cause of night sweats is menopause, but other illnesses and medications can also play a role.”

Changes in hormones due to other conditions, like pregnancy or a thyroid disorder, may also cause night sweats. Medical issues: A variety of disorders can have night sweats as a symptom, including types of cancer, spinal cord injury, chronic fatigue syndrome, and mercury poisoning.

Night sweats are repeated episodes of very heavy sweating during sleep, heavy enough to soak your nightclothes or bedding. They're often caused by an underlying condition or illness. Sometimes you may wake up after sweating heavily, particularly if you're sleeping under too many blankets or your bedroom is too warm.

Episodes of excessive sweating that occur during sleep and soak a person's bedclothes and bed sheets, which may cause the person to wake up.

Functional vitamin B12 deficiency is common and a major cause of morbidity. It can manifest with a wide variety of symptoms including fatigue and drenching night sweats. Low threshold should be kept to measure markers of vitamin B12 deficiency in patients presenting with these symptoms.

In other cases, the cause may be thyroid or liver disease, or a sleep disorder like obstructive sleep apnea. Night sweats can also be a symptom of a serious health issue like lymphoma, a type of cancer that affects lymph nodes, bone marrow and other parts of the lymphatic system.

Your room, mattress, and pajamas could all influence whether you sweat during the night. Your bed may be adorned with several cozy blankets that cause overheating. Similarly, your pajamas could be too heavy, or your mattress may not be breathable. Adjusting the environment may help alleviate your night sweats.

How do you know if your night sweats are from anxiety? ›

Night sweats can be very disruptive to your sleep and are a common symptom of anxiety. They usually come with other symptoms such as restlessness, difficulty sleeping, irritability and racing thoughts.

The night sweats women experience can be a sign of decreased estrogen levels. Estrogen is a vital hormone that controls many physical processes. But as you approach menopause, your body gradually produces less estrogen.

Hormone disorders—Night sweats can be a result of problems in the hormone-producing glands (endocrine system). If a person receives too much or too little of a hormone, such as serotonin, it can result in flushing and sweating.

On average, you sweat about 25ml per hour of sleep under temperate conditions (around 85 degrees Fahrenheit). ² If you sleep for an average of eight hours, that's around 200ml of sweat per night. This would equate to a drop in weight of approximately 200g overnight.

Although both of these common menopause symptoms produce feelings of being overheated, they are different phenomena. A hot flash can occur during the day or night and may or may not be associated with sweating, whereas night sweats are periods of intense sweating that occur at night.

Most infections can cause a high temperature (fever) with some sweating, and therefore any infection can cause night sweats. However, a fever at night causing night sweats is more common with certain types of infections.

What causes night sweats? Several medical conditions can cause night sweats. In women, night sweats are often caused by decreased estrogen levels—which can be due to the menopause transition or the body's hormone fluctuations after giving birth.