Sweating at night

Summer is here, and the situation will become more serious for friends who sweat a lot when they sleep at night. Often when they wake up in the morning, they will find that the bedding on the bed is soaked. This is a serious phenomenon. Many people need to dry their quilts every day, otherwise they will feel uncomfortable sleeping at night. If it is cloudy or rainy, it will be even more troublesome. Therefore, many friends who sweat a lot when they sleep at night want to solve this problem and avoid the interference caused by sweating.

In fact, sweating at night can be divided into two forms. If it occurs while you are awake, it is generally called spontaneous sweating in traditional Chinese medicine. If you sweat while you are asleep, it is called night sweats. Night sweats are called a disease in traditional Chinese medicine. So if your night sweats are severe, you need to go to a regular hospital for a doctor's diagnosis and use reasonable medication to relieve the symptoms. Here are some related issues about sweating at night, I hope it will be helpful to you.

Some patients with night sweats start sweating as soon as they fall asleep, some start sweating after falling asleep at midnight, and some start sweating just after closing their eyes for a while. The amount of sweat produced varies greatly. According to the clinical manifestations of patients with night sweats, they can be divided into three types: mild, moderate and severe.

Most patients with mild night sweats sweat easily when they are deep in sleep, at around 5 a.m., or 1 to 2 hours before waking up. The amount of sweat is small, and they only feel a little sweat all over the body or certain parts of the body after waking up, and no sweat will be secreted again after waking up. It is usually not accompanied by any discomfort.

Most patients with moderate night sweats will sweat soon after falling asleep, and their sleeping clothes may even be soaked through. The sweat will stop after they wake up, and they will not sweat again after wiping the sweat off their bodies. This type of night sweats causes the patient to feel hot and sweat, and sometimes to feel dry mouth and throat after waking up.

Patients with severe night sweats sweat easily. Shortly after falling asleep or just closing your eyes and about to fall asleep, you will sweat a lot. You will wake up after sweating, and the sweat will stop instantly after waking up. Falling back to sleep may cause sweating again. The amount of sweating is large, and the sweat often has a light salty taste, or is mixed with sweat odor. Severe sweating can make the bedding soaked, and one cannot sleep well without changing sleeping clothes several times a night. Some seriously ill patients can make the bedding soaked. When the bedding is thin or a mat is used, sweat can leave sweat marks on the bed board. These patients often have a noticeable feeling of hotness, irritability, dry mouth and tongue after sweating, and like cold water. It may be accompanied by low fever or hot flashes, fever in the five hearts, red cheeks, dizziness, weight loss, fatigue, dark urine, small urine volume, and dry stool.

Mild and moderate night sweats will not cause much damage to the body, but for patients with severe night sweats, the condition will often worsen over time and develop into "dehydration", which seriously threatens the patient's health and life safety.

How to distinguish physiological from pathological night sweats?

Night sweats can be divided into physiological and pathological types. The incidence of physiological night sweats is especially high in children, which sometimes makes parents very nervous. Therefore, it is necessary to master how to distinguish between physiological and pathological night sweats.

(1) Physiological night sweats: In childhood, the skin is very tender, contains more water, has abundant capillaries, has active metabolism, and the autonomic nervous system regulation function is not yet perfect, so children are prone to sweating during activities. If children are too active before going to bed, the metabolism of various organs in the body will be active, which can increase the body's heat production. During sleep, the blood vessels in the skin will dilate, the sweat glands will secrete more, and the child will sweat profusely to help dissipate heat. Secondly, eating before going to bed can enhance gastrointestinal motility, increase gastric juice secretion, and increase sweat gland secretion, which can cause children to sweat more after falling asleep, especially within the first 2 hours of falling asleep. In addition, if the indoor temperature is too high, or the quilt is too thick, or electric blanket is used, it can cause profuse sweating during sleep.

(2) Pathological night sweats: Some children sweat mainly in the first half of the night after falling asleep, which is often caused by low blood calcium. Low calcium can easily increase the excitability of the sympathetic nerves, just like turning on the "faucet" of the sweat glands. This situation is particularly common in children with rickets. However, night sweats are not a unique symptom of rickets. A comprehensive analysis should be conducted based on the child's feeding conditions, outdoor activities, etc. Blood calcium, blood phosphorus and wrist bone X-rays should also be checked to determine whether the child has active rickets.

Night sweats in children with tuberculosis are characterized by sweating all night long. In addition, there are other symptoms such as flushed face, low fever, weight loss, loss of appetite, and mood changes. Abnormalities can often be found by checking erythrocyte sedimentation rate, anti-tuberculosis antibodies, chest X-ray, etc. One thing to note is that a detailed check of the neck for enlarged lymph nodes is extremely valuable for the diagnosis of tuberculosis in children.

To sum up, any causes and diseases that affect the body's temperature regulation center and increase the excitability of the sympathetic nerves can cause night sweats in children. As parents, we should observe our children carefully and make a judgment after comprehensive analysis. We should not give medicines blindly to avoid adverse consequences.

How should patients with night sweats take care of themselves?

Traditional Chinese medicine believes that "sweat is the fluid of the heart". If night sweats do not stop for a long time, the heart yin is severely damaged and should be actively treated. While receiving treatment, you should also pay special attention to self-care. The main points are as follows:

(1) While taking medication, you should also strengthen your physical exercise, develop a regular lifestyle, and pay attention to the combination of work and rest.

(2) In terms of diet, one should find out the dietary rules that are beneficial or harmful to one’s condition and adopt the dietary therapy that best suits one’s condition. Patients with yin deficiency, blood heat, and yin deficiency and hyperactivity of fire should abstain from spicy and irritating foods, avoid drinking alcohol, and eat more fresh vegetables that nourish yin and clear heat, so that the secretory function of the sweat glands can be restored firmly on the basis of body health.

(3) When conditions permit, adjust the temperature and humidity of the living environment appropriately. For example, the living environment of those with yin deficiency and blood heat should be slightly cooler.

(4) The patient’s bedding, bed boards, pajamas, etc. should be washed or air-dried regularly to keep them dry, and the patient should take a bath regularly to reduce the irritation of sweat to the skin.

(5) For patients with severe night sweats and long-term bedriddenness, family members should pay special attention to strengthening care to avoid bedsores. Also pay attention to the patient's complexion, consciousness, and sweating amount, and report any special changes to the doctor in time.

Do you understand the related issues about sweating while sleeping at night? You can check which type of sweating you have and then use medication reasonably. A good sleep at night is very important, so everyone should pay attention to this situation to avoid affecting normal life and work.