What Causes Night Sweating?

Sweating occurs in response to an increase in body temperature and is one of the body's natural responses. Many different situations, such as increased ambient temperature, physical exercise, anxiety and fear, lead to an increase in body temperature. In such cases, it is considered normal to see increased sweating in the body. However, in some cases, the body increases sweat production without factors such as physical exercise or an increase in ambient temperature. This may be a symptom of some underlying diseases. At this point, night sweats are one of the conditions that are frequently encountered and may indicate extremely important health problems.

What is Night Sweat?

Night sweats cause a person to change their clothes and bedding regardless of the physical conditions of the sleeping environment. It can be described as a state of sweating enough to cause a need for a shower or to take a shower. Night sweats are classified into three different degrees as mild, moderate and severe night sweats in order to better define the problem. In the case of mild night sweats, the person only feels sweating during sleep, and their clothes or bedding do not get wet. In moderate night sweats, especially the underwear of the person gets wet during night sleep and the person needs to change their underwear in the morning. In the case of severe night sweats, both the person's clothes and bedding get wet, and night sleep is often interrupted in such night sweats. Severe night sweats, which may even cause the need to take a shower in the morning, is a serious problem that greatly disrupts sleep comfort. Because night sweats are an important health problem that can point to various types of cancer, infectious diseases, side effects of some drugs, sleep-related problems and some other diseases. Hyperhidrosis can be defined as excessive sweating during daily activities for no known reason. This condition usually occurs as a result of overgrowth of sweat glands in the body and working harder than normal. In the case of hyperhidrosis, sweating occurs intermittently in episodes. This is not a disease It is considered as a problem that disturbs the person socially and seriously disrupts the comfort of daily life. Night sweats, on the other hand, is the case of sweating more than normal during sleep and may occur due to various diseases. Being able to make this distinction correctly is extremely important for the diagnosis and treatment of the current health problem.

What Causes Night Sweating?

Night sweats can have many clinical causes. In order to diagnose the underlying disease correctly, first of all, the excessive sweating problem called hyperhidrosis should be completely excluded and the severity of night sweats should be determined correctly. However, how often sweating recurs, the presence of other accompanying symptoms, the patient's age, gender, current health problems, routine drug treatments and many other criteria are extremely important in order to detect the disease that causes night sweats. Some of them can be listed as follows:

  • Many hormonal diseases and most hormone treatments can cause night sweats. The most common disease among these is ovarian failure. This situation, which is characterized by the inability of the ovaries in the female reproductive organs to perform the ovulation process, can occur as a serious health problem or as a result of menopause, which is one of the natural stages of life. Night sweats in women are largely associated with menopause. Night sweats seen in this period usually occur together with the complaint described as hot flashes.
  • Diabetes is also among the causes of night sweats. Overdose of insulin administered at night, skipping meals, or excessive exercise during the day can lead to low blood sugar and hypoglycemia at night. Night sweats in diabetic patients is a condition that occurs largely as a result of hypoglycemia.
  • Other endocrine diseases that cause night sweats can be listed as hyperthyroidism (hyperthyroidism) and endocrine tissue tumors.
  • HIV, tuberculosis , brucella and fungal infections and infectious diseases such as infective endocarditis, infectious mononucleosis (kissing disease) and subcutaneous abscess are serious diseases that can cause night sweats.
  • Night sweats is one of the most common findings in the presence of malignant diseases, especially Hodgkin's disease. However, night sweats are frequently encountered in the majority of patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
  • Another disease associated with night sweats is gastroesophageal reflux disease. This disease, which can be defined as the reflux of stomach contents into the esophagus, is one of the common diseases of the digestive system that can occur in almost every age group. In this direction, sleep apnea due to congestion is considered to be one of the causes of intense night sweats.
  • Many prescription or over-the-counter medications, as well as some herbal products, can cause night sweats. These drugs can be listed as mainly antidepressants, antipsychotics, cholinergic agents that act on the nervous system, insulin and other hormonal drugs.
  • How to Prevent Night Sweat?

    Night sweats, It is a state of excessive sweating that occurs independently of the physical conditions of the environment in which the person sleeps, such as temperature and humidity, and is not associated with situations such as anxiety and stress. Since it usually indicates other underlying health problems, it is not possible to prevent night sweats by external interventions such as cooling the environment, removing one's clothes, not using a quilt or similar cover while sleeping. In order to solve this problem, first of all, the main problem causing the problem must be correctly identified and cured.

    It is important at this point to correctly recognize the health problems that can cause night sweats. The person should first distinguish between night sweats and other sweating problems such as hyperhidrosis, and then observe additional symptoms that may accompany night sweats. For example, in case of night sweats caused by menopause, accompanying hot flashes can be seen. Combining these findings is extremely important to solve the problem.

    Which doctor to go to for night sweats?

    Treatment of night sweats is only possible with the treatment of the underlying disease. . Therefore, in order to cure this problem, the condition causing the problem must be diagnosed. When determining which doctor to consult for the treatment of night sweats, other complaints accompanying this problem should also be considered. In this direction, the person should know the diseases that can cause night sweats and follow the other symptoms seen in him. For example, if the person is using a drug from the antidepressant class, he should first share it with the psychiatrist who plans the treatment, and the drug dose should be changed if necessary. It is seen that he does not evaluate it as a situation and does not share it with the physician during the examination. This condition, which greatly disrupts the sleep comfort of the person, can lead to sleep problems and many other related disorders if left untreated. Therefore, the importance of night sweats should be understood and this problem should be treated effectively together with other underlying health problems. If you also suffer from night sweats, do not neglect to follow the accompanying disease symptoms and share the night sweats problem with your physician along with these findings.

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