12 Tips | How To Stop Waking Up Sweaty With Causes

While a little nighttime sweat is normal, having to change your bedding due to sweating is cause for concern. If it continues for several days, you will start wondering how to stop waking up sweaty. The sleep disruption that comes with the sweaty sensation can also hurt your life. Even if the sweating itself isn’t keeping you up at night, the underlying problem may be, and before long, you won’t feel or perform at your best every day.

Sweating at night versus night sweats are two distinct conditions. Although there isn’t a formal definition, according to some experts, true night sweats are defined as needing to change your bedding due to excessive sweating. Others define it as simply sweating at night even though your bedroom isn’t particularly warm.

How to stop waking up sweaty

1. Keeping your bedroom cool

Keep your bedroom between 65- and 68 degrees Fahrenheit. Keep a window open while you sleep, get a fan, or adjust the thermostat in a calm neighborhood.

Even if a warm sleeping environment isn’t the cause of your night sweats, maintaining a cold bedroom will help lessen the symptoms and make it simpler to get back to sleep if you wake up during the night sweating.

A woman sleeping on a bed comfortably

2. Change up your pajamas and sheets

Choose natural, breathable fabrics, and try sleeping with fewer blankets. You can also experiment with cooler bedding and a more permeable mattress. Choose thinner, moisture-wicking pajamas or do without sleepwear entirely.

3. Avoid caffeine before bedtime

Your body temperature will rise if you consume alcohol, coffee, exercise, or eat before bed. Numerous apps can help you determine when to cease doing these things each day based on the circadian rhythm to prevent interference with your sleep.

4. Avoid spicy food

Spicy meals may cause night sweats because they raise the body temperature, so it may be worth choosing something bland to cease perspiration while asleep.

5. Prior to going to sleep, relax

Setting aside time to relax before bed can help quiet a racing mind and reduce nighttime stress and worry, which are major causes of night sweats. Read, write in a journal, or practice yoga before bed. 

Try outlining all of your responsibilities for the following day before night if you frequently worry about them.

6. Get qualified assistance

If changing your sleeping environment and lifestyle changes don’t reduce your nighttime sweating, see a physician to rule out any medical conditions and drug side effects.

If you regularly perspire a lot at night, you should also seek medical attention, especially if you also experience any of the following symptoms:

  • Loss of weight without cause
  • High fever and chills
  • A cough

In addition to ruling out alternative causes of night sweats, a doctor can make treatment suggestions like hormone therapy, medication, or even CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy).

One study found that group and self-help CBT helped women going through menopause experience fewer night sweats.

What causes sleep sweating?

1. Sleep environment

Your body will start to sweat while you sleep if the room is too warm. Even though it might seem simple, finding the ideal temperature is not always simple. The temperature of your bedroom will be influenced by many factors, including your pajamas, bedding, and the weather.

Additionally, as our bodies cool down and warm up throughout the night, you might feel comfortable at one point and start to sweat at another.

2. Anxiety and stress

One of the many ways stress and anxiety show up is through night sweats. Excessive sweating might result from stress-related nightmares and nighttime panic attacks.

A lady looking streesed holding her hands on her head sitting in front of her laptop

3. Alcohol

Alcohol is a sleep-inducing nightcap. It wakes you up in the middle of the night and makes you perspire more than usual. Alcohol makes breathing more difficult by speeding up your heartbeat and relaxing your airways. These two effects can also raise the body temperature hence resulting in you sweating.

4. Pregnancy or menopause

Hot flashes, also known as hot flushes, are typical menopause symptoms of shifting hormone levels. You may have them at any time of day or night, and they often last for a short period, leaving you hot, clammy, and perspiring.

Additionally, women may experience hot flashes during pregnancy, right after giving birth, and during perimenopause, the time before menopause.

5. Medications

An adverse effect of several drugs is excessive nighttime perspiration. These include painkillers, diabetic drugs, antidepressants, and even some dietary supplements, such as calcium and niacin.

6. Issues with medicine

Specific medical disorders might also bring on night sweats. These include hypoglycemia, hyperhidrosis, hormonal issues, hyperthyroidism, gastroesophageal reflux disease, autoimmune conditions, neurological issues, and different cancers.

Obstructive sleep apnea, the sleeping disease that causes the airways to relax and your breathing to temporarily stop while you sleep, also frequently produces night sweats.

Is it normal to sweat a lot in your sleep?

It’s perfectly normal to sweat to lower your body’s temperature. Therefore, sweating while you sleep is expected, especially if you’re trying to sleep in a hot room or under several blankets.

Even though you might not even be hot, night sweats frequently occur. Even though night sweats are fairly common — according to one study, 41% of participants reported having them recently — it’s still important to try and identify the underlying cause.

Night sweats can easily disturb sleep, affecting how you feel and perform during the day. They can also have an underlying cause that you should address.

FAQ 

When should i be concerned if i sweat when i’m asleep?

If you also have unusual weight loss, a high temperature, a cough, or chills, you should be concerned about sweating while asleep. If you frequently wake up soaked in sweat, you should talk to a doctor to identify the underlying cause and prevent sleep disruption.

Why do i sweat while sleeping in a cool environment?

Alcohol, stress, worry, menopause, pregnancy, specific drugs, or certain medical problems may be to blame for your night sweats, even if you’re sleeping in a cool area. ‍

Why is temperature such a factor in sleep?

Increased alertness and a reduction in rapid eye movement, and slow wave sleep are the traditional effects of exposure to heat or cold. Thermoregulatory changes, which impact the mechanism controlling sleep, are significantly correlated with these thermal environment impacts on sleep stages.

Final thought

It’s not always a cause for concern if you perspire while you sleep. Sometimes it’s as easy as sleeping in a warm room or overly comfortable pajamas. But medical conditions that require treatment can also cause night sweats.

Speak to your medical provider if you frequently perspire while you sleep or if it affects your sleep quality. They can identify the issue causing the night sweats and ensure it’s fixed.

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