symptoms

Sweating at night - causes and therapy for night sweats

Sweating at night - causes and therapy for night sweats / symptoms

Nocturnal sweating

Night sweat is the term for heavy sweating at night during sleep. It is not a disease, but a symptom that accompanies various diseases. People who suffer from it wake up in the night with sweat-drenched clothes and damp sheets. This night sweat has nothing to do with waking up in a sweaty bath because it is too warm in the room; Doctors recommend a temperature of 18 to 21 ° C at night.


contents

  • Nocturnal sweating
  • Normal sweating
  • Excessive sweating
  • therapy
  • Excessive sweating and sleep disturbance
  • Mental work

Normal sweating

Sweating is vital. The human body regulates the temperature. The moisture cools the skin, the blood in the capillary network gives off heat and flows up to 2 degrees colder through the veins to the heart. A regulated body temperature of 37 degrees Celsius is optimal for the body to function. For example, the enzymes in the blood work best with this heat, and the red blood cells can bind the oxygen well.

Nocturnal sweating may be associated with fever, but may also indicate mental health problems. (Image: Peggy Blume / fotolia.com)

Whenever the organism works, we sweat: we sweat in the heat, we sweat with fear, with excitement, and we sweat when we work. The body does not care about the contents of our emotions, but strong emotions such as anxiety drive the bloodstream, and the sweat protects us from overheating.

Millions of sweat glands pave our skin and produce about one liter of sweat per day. Most sweat glands per square centimeter lie on the feet - which leads to the notorious "cheese feet" or sweaty feet - the few glands we have in the area of ​​the lower leg.

The sweat not only cools our body, it also strengthens the acidity of the skin and repels harmful germs. For the most part it consists of water. But sex hormones and fatty acid convert the water into odorants.

  • Sweat cools the skin, because when it evaporates it loses heat, along with the blood vessels.
  • Sweat regulates the mineral balance because it eliminates saline, calcium and magnesium.
  • Sweat strengthens the immune defense, because immunoglobulins neutralize harmful germs.
  • Sweat creates a pH of 5 on the skin and thus blocks microbes.
  • Sweat glands are coupled to the hair roots with scent glands, which secrete perfumes especially in extreme emotions.

Excessive sweating

Excessive sweating at night can be a sign of illness, especially for all types of fever such as flu infections, flu, malaria or glandular fever. Sweating itself is not pathological in these cases; on the contrary, the body tries to regulate the excessive temperature in order to maintain bodily functions.

Excessive sweating at night is often due to such acute infections, but also to chronic infections such as bronchitis, tuberculosis or AIDS.

Other causes of nocturnal sweating are:

  • Hyperthyroidism
  • climacteric
  • Diabetes mellitus
  • Rheumatoid arthritis
  • allergies
  • Cancer, especially leukemia
  • multiple sclerosis
  • epilepsy
  • depressions
  • anxiety disorders
  • psychosis
  • the so-called burnout syndrome
  • stress
  • exciting dreams
  • overweight
  • underweight
  • alcohol
  • other drugs, for example heroin
  • pregnancy
  • Hormonal disorders and hormonal changes

Nocturnal sweating is therefore a nonspecific symptom, but almost always indicates a disturbed sleep, and indicates an imbalance in the organism: Sleep is the most important time for the body, because in sleep we regenerate ourselves. In the dream we process the impressions of the day and our questions of life, and the brain builds new experiences. But also the "hardware" of the body needs sleep: the organs regenerate, so the immune system is strengthened; the muscles build up as well as the bones. Sweating at night can be an alarm signal.

If we often sweat at night and also bother with respiratory distress, we should visit the family doctor. He refers us, if necessary, to a specialist. Depending on the condition, it can be an internist, a psychologist, a sleep specialist, a neurologist, an allergist, an endocrinologist or an oncologist.

The doctor examines since when, how much and on what occasions we sweat excessively. He asks about weight loss, mental moods, lack of appetite and the heart rhythm. "Common suspects" are pre-existing conditions such as infections, diabetes, hyperthyroidism, hereditary diseases or mental health problems.

After taking a medical history and examining the body, a blood sample is taken to see how the blood cells are put together, whether the liver and kidneys are functioning, what the levels of adrenaline, norepinephrine, and sex hormones look like, and, last but not least, how the thyroid gland looks is working. The blood picture often gives an insight into a basic disease.

Those affected often wake up sweaty and find it hard to sleep again. (Image: Innovated Captures / fotolia.com)

therapy

There is no specific therapy for excessive sweating, but the therapies help against the respective diseases.

Excessive sweating and sleep disturbance

If the night sweats "only" at a disturbed sleep, simple measures do not work miracles, but help.

This includes:

  • breathable clothing
  • air-permeable bedding
  • fresh air
  • Room temperature between 18 and 21 degrees
  • Relaxation, for example through yoga exercises, positive thoughts of success before sleep, deliberate idleness before bed rest, put the to-do-list aside and instead put a notebook next to the bed to write down spontaneous inspirations
  • recurring nightmares are a cause of waking up in the sweaty atmosphere, but calming music and movies help (if you suffer from sleep disturbances you should not necessarily watch horror DVDs before you fall asleep)
  • Avoid heavy, spicy and high-fat food in the two hours before falling asleep, as well as alcohol, coffee and cigarettes in the evening.
    put on a twilight phase, so dim the light one hour before sleep, light candles, etc.
  • stabilize the biorhythm, so if possible, fall asleep and get up at about the same time. Those who keep themselves artificially awake, demand his body, and reacts with sweating.

Mental work

Sweat is not a disease, but a means of the body to ward off disease. The dreams are the "guard dogs of the psyche," and sweat is their healing potion. Against mental overload the body controls as well as against physical.

When sweating breaks out at night, without any underlying disease, and without us sweating profusely during the day, it suggests we are straining our unconscious by not taking mental issues seriously.

If we talk beautifully about everyday life and suppress what we suffer from, dreams show us the way. When we wake up in a sweaty bath or feel sluggish despite sleep, and besides, our pajamas are wet, something is wrong: we ignore our problems, but the unconscious can not be deceived; it works in sleep.

The night sweat is annoying in this case, but our advisor. We should write down exactly what we dreamed, what decisions we make, which situations trigger stress, and tackle them.

However, the excitement of our unconscious is not necessarily negative. Sexual dreams also stimulate the flow of sweat, as well as exciting "stories" of our unconscious. Especially in puberty and young adults, the hormones sometimes run at full speed and nocturnal excitement is then completely normal. (Dr. Utz Anhalt)