When there is excess sweating during night and your sleep gets disturbed due to it, then it’s called a night sweating. Better be sure that you are not sleeping in a bedroom that is unusually hot or you are not wearing too many bedclothes, since they also cause you to sweat. Whereas true night sweats are hot flashes occurring during night that drenches the clothes and sheets and not related to an overheated environment or thick layer of clothing.
There are umpteen reasons for a night sweat and the doctor will have to study the health history in detail to come to a conclusion or find a relevant cause. Sometimes proper tests are done to decide if you have any underlying health conditions that are causing the night sweat.
Here are few of the more common reasons for a night sweat:
MENOPAUSE
Women undergoing the menopause stage in life will experience hot flashes during their sleep and this will cause the night sweat. This is a very common cause of night sweat.
INFECTIONS
Conditions like tuberculosis infection is a common reason associated with night sweats. Sometime bacterial infections like endocarditis which causes inflammation of the heart valves, osteomyelitis (bone inflammation) and abscesses can be the reason for night sweats. Those affected with HIV will also experience night sweats.
CANCER
Many medical researchers infer that a person suffering from cancer can experience night sweating. The most common of them all is Lymphoma which is sure to cause night sweats. People with undiagnosed cancer will also have other symptoms like unexplained weight loss and fever.
HYPOGLYCEMIA
Those with low blood sugar can also suffer from night sweats. Patients taking insulin or oral diabetes medications may at times get hypoglycaemic at night and this will be accompanied by severe night sweating.
HORMONE DISORDER
A person suffering from hormone disorder including carcinoid syndrome and hyperthyroidism. Sweating or flushing is a common occurrence for such people.
NEUROLOGICAL CONDITION
Health conditions like autonomic dysreflexia, posttraumatic synriongomygelia, stroke and autonomic neuoropathy can cause increased sweating and this will continue in to the night to give night sweats.
Some other reasons for night sweat include medications and diseases affecting the sweat glands.