Night Sweats
Medical Author: Melissa Conrad Stoppler, MD
Medical Editor: William C. Shiel, Jr, MD, FACP, FACR
Introduction
Doctors in primary care fields
of medicine often hear their patients complain of night
sweats. Night sweats refer to any excess sweating occurring
during the night. However, if your bedroom is unusually hot or you are using too
many bedclothes, you may begin to sweat during sleep - and this is normal. In order to distinguish
night sweats that arise from medical causes from those that occur because one's
surroundings are too warm, doctors generally refer to true night sweats as
severe hot flashes occurring at night that can drench sleepwear and sheets, which are
not related to an overheated environment.
In one study of 2267 patients visiting a primary care physician, 41% reported
experiencing night sweats during the previous month, so the perception of
excessive sweating at night is fairly common. It is important to note that
flushing (a warmth and redness of the face or trunk) may also be hard to
distinguish from true night sweats.
What are the causes of night sweats?
There are many different causes of night sweats. To
determine what is causing night sweats in a particular patient, a doctor must
obtain a detailed medical history and order tests to decide if an underlying
medical condition is
responsible for the night sweats.
The following are some of the known conditions that can cause night sweats.
Menopause
The hot flashes that accompany the
menopausal transition can
occur at night and cause sweating. This is a very common cause of night sweats in perimenopausal women.
Idiopathic hyperhidrosis
Idiopathic hyperhidrosis is a condition in which the
body chronically produces too much sweat without any identifiable medical cause.
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