Excessive body heat at night can be unbearable for those who suffer the resulting night sweats. Lying awake drenched in sweat, wishing for relief makes for a long night and an even longer day. Causes of high nighttime temperatures vary, ranging from a side effect of your workout routine to a side effect of a serious illness. Solutions to excessive body heat are just as varied, including turning down the thermostat and purchasing a bed cooling system. 

• Menopause can bring physical discomforts such as hot flashes and night sweats. 75% of menopausal women experience hot flashes.

• Pre-Menopause: Just like menopause, pre-menopause can cause hot flashes due to decreased levels of estrogen in the female body. In addition to flushing and sweating, other symptoms include trouble sleeping, headaches, racing heart, and mood swings. 

• Fluctuating Hormones: While menopausal women experience hot flashes, women of all ages can suffer hormonal flux, which also causes an increase in temperature.

• Hormone Disorders: Several hormone disorders cause sweating or flushing. Among them are hyperthyroidism, pheochromocytoma, and carcinoid syndrome. Hyperthyroidism is the result of an overactive thyroid, which then produces too much of the hormone thyroxine, which speeds up one’s metabolism, causing unpleasant symptoms, including a sensitivity to heat. Symptoms of the cancer lymphoma include night sweats among many others.

• Medications: Certain medications cause night sweats. 8-22% of people taking antidepressants suffer night sweats. Other psychiatric drugs are also linked to night sweats. Medicines like aspirin and acetaminophen taken to reduce fever can lead to sweating. Those are just a few of many medications that cause night sweats or flushing.

• Hypoglycemia can cause night sweats in people who are taking insulin or in people who experience a drop in blood glucose. 

• Neurological conditions, including stroke and autonomic neuropathy, can cause night sweats.

• Autonomic neuropathy, damage to one’s autonomic nerves, can cause night sweats. 

• Cancer: Certain cancers can cause night sweats. People who suffer from Carcinoid Syndrome already have carcinoid tumors, which release chemicals into one’s bloodstream. The resulting symptoms mimic other conditions like asthma, irritable bowel syndrome, and menopause. A person suffering from carcinoid syndrome may feel their skin grow warm while also turning red.

• Hormone-blocking drugs used to treat cancers, also known as hormone therapy, can also induce night sweats.

• Infections: While tuberculosis is associated with night sweats most commonly, other bacterial infections, such as endocarditis (an infection of the inner lining of the heart), osteomyelitis (inflammation in the bones), and abscesses can cause night sweats. HIV infection’s symptoms also include night sweats.

• Autoimmune disorders are another cause of night sweats. 

• Sleep disorders, including obstructive sleep apnea, cause night sweats. 

• Hyperhidrosis is a common disorder resulting in excessive sweating. 2-3% of Americans experience excessive sweating.

• Higher Metabolism: Metabolism is the rate at which one burns food to fuel the body. This process of powering your body with energy causes a temperature increase. A higher metabolism leads to a higher body temperature. On average, the male metabolism is 23% higher than that of a female. 

• Exercise: Changes in your exercise routine, including changes in the intensity, can cause your thyroid to release more hormones to support the shift in activity, and exercise can increase one’s metabolism. Between the increase in hormones and the increase in metabolism, one can suffer night sweats as a result.

• Anxiety Disorders: When anxiety causes one’s heart rate to increase, blood pressure to increase, breathing to grow shallow, and muscles to tense, the body will heat up, and sweating will result.

While those suffering night sweats can turn down the thermostat and remove the blankets, there are technological solutions to night sweats, as well, including cooling mattresses, bed fans, and mattress covers pumping cold water through vessels beneath the sheets. When comparing bedjet and chilipad bed cooling systems, one should factor in which method is more comfortable and more appealing. 

With so many bed cooling solutions in the marketplace, one need not suffer night sweats no matter the cause. Turn those long, sweaty sessions into cool, restful nights.