8 Reasons for Night Sweats
People often complain to their doctors about night sweats.
Of course, if you don’t sleep in a room with a high temperature or use too many covers, you should pay attention to the fact that in the morning your pajamas are soaked with sweat.
A study in the US stated that of 2,267 patients visiting their GP, 41% experienced the discomfort of night sweats, suggesting that this symptom is quite common.
Sweating is a heavy flush that can have several explanations. To find out the cause, you should talk to your doctor, as well as go through a series of laboratory tests.
Here are some of the known factors that can cause night sweats:
1. Menopause
The hot flashes that accompany the period of menopause can cause frequent cases of sweating in women of this age.
It is important to know that hot flashes and other symptoms of perimenopause may precede the actual menopause several years before the menstrual cycle has stopped.
2. Idiopathic Hyperhidrosis
If someone in your family has had a problem with excessive sweating before, it seems to be genetics. The medical term for this is idiopathic hyperhidrosis. Your body produces too much sweat.
This can happen even when you are sitting or at rest, or you may wake up in the middle of the night covered in sweat for no apparent reason.
3. Infections
The most common infection diagnosed in people with night sweats is tuberculosis. But there are other infectious diseases that can be associated with night sweats:
–endocarditis(inflammation of the heart valves)
–osteomyelitis(inflammation of the bones)
–abscesses(boils, inflamed tonsils, diverticulitis and others)
–AIDS virus (HIV) infection
4. Oncological diseases
Sweating is an early sign of some types of cancer. The most common one associated with sweating is lymphoma. Usually, other symptoms such as fever and unexplained weight loss appear along with the sweating.
5. Medications
A number of medications can cause night sweats. Between 8% and 22% of people taking antidepressants complain of night sweats.
Medicines such asaspirin or fever reducers such as acetaminophen can also work.
Many other drugs, incl. cortisone, prednisone and prednisolone, may also be associated with skin flushing or night sweats.
6. Hypoglycemia
Low blood sugar levels (hypoglycemia) can also cause sweating. People taking insulin or oral antidiabetic medications may experience hypoglycemia at night, leading to sweating.
7. Hormonal disorders
Sweating or flushing of the skin can be associated with a variety of hormonal disorders, including pheogromocytoma (a type of adrenal gland tumor), overproduction of hormones called catecholamines), carcinoid syndrome(overproduction of certain hormones by tumors of the lung or gastrointestinal tract) and hyperthyroidism(excessive levels of thyroid hormones).
8.Neurological diseases
Sometimes sweating can be associated with certain types of neurological diseases. It can occur in autonomic dysreflexia, post-traumatic syringomyelitis, stroke and autonomic neuropathy.
In conclusion, it can be said that night sweats represent a relatively harmless inconvenience, but they can also be a signal of the presence of a certain disease.
People who complain of unexplained night sweats should at all costs seek medical attention and not ignore the problem lightly.
