Cause

A simple and also the most common explanation for night sweats are hot summer nights, too warm bedding or a too high outside temperature, for example because the heating is set too high. But rooms that are too cold also cause excessive sweat production. Heavy alcohol consumption and spicy food can also lead to night sweats.

Alcohol leads to increased fluid excretion through sweat production, which removes not only water but also minerals from the body. Especially at night, alcohol stimulates the metabolism, which leads to heat production. Especially during alcohol withdrawal, sweating appears as a symptom.

Also increased psychological stress or nightmares, as well as nightly breathing stops (sleep apnoea syndrome) can lead to sweating at night. Because if the inner restlessness does not stop at night, the body is constantly under tension, which leads to an increased release of the stress hormones adrenaline and noradrenaline, which then leads to increased sweat production. At night, one’s own worries usually come to the fore more because the distractions that are present during the day are no longer there.If the night sweat still occurs after these causes mentioned have been eliminated, one should consult a doctor, because night sweat is not always caused by such harmless triggers.

Especially if the night sweat is accompanied by fever and a strong involuntary weight loss in the last months, one should consult the doctor. In this triad of fever, night sweat, weight loss, one speaks of the so-called B-symptoms, which can be a sign of a malignant disease. In addition to these causes, hormonal fluctuations are often responsible for night sweats, especially in women.

Sweating can occur, for example, during pregnancy or during the menopause. Medication can also lead to increased night sweating. Of course, infectious diseases also frequently cause night sweats.

This can be the case with quite harmless viral diseases, as they often occur in winter, but also with more dangerous infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria or HIV. In the case of influenza, night sweats often occur on the second or third day of the infection, when the fever drops again. Especially in the case of tuberculosis, it is relatively typical that, in addition to characteristic symptoms such as fever, weight loss, fatigue and coughing, night sweats occur in the early morning hours.

Night sweat occurs both in the early phase of the disease, when hardly any symptoms manifest themselves, and in a late stage. An inflammation of the inner skin of the heart, a so-called endocarditis, can also lead to night sweat. Rheumatic diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, can also provoke night sweats.

Usually, rheumatic complaints are first accompanied by night sweat and later by joint complaints. In addition, a defective function of the thyroid gland, namely hyperthyroidism, can stimulate the metabolism to such an extent that increased sweat production occurs at night. Another metabolic disease that can cause night sweats is diabetes mellitus.

Here, night sweats are a sign of imminent hypoglycaemia. If a patient has already had several cases of hypoglycaemia, night sweats or even dizziness and muscle tremors are increasingly absent as warning signs, so that life-threatening situations can arise. This is due to the fact that as the disease progresses, nerves are increasingly damaged, which can then no longer mediate sweat production.

Colds accumulate especially in the winter months. Mostly viruses are the trigger of a cold, which lasts for 3 to 4 days on average. In the course of this infectious process, different symptoms can occur depending on the pathogen.

Common symptoms are rhinitis, cough, sore throat, fever and headache. General malaise and night sweats can also occur during a cold. However, night sweat is usually not as strong for a simple cold as for more serious infections.

An example of an infection that causes severe night sweats is tuberculosis. A simple cold only causes pronounced night sweat in rare cases. Increased night sweats in the context of a cold are due to increased body temperature or even fever.

However, this light sweating is not called night sweat in the strict sense. Many people find increased night sweating very stressful. Problems sleeping through the night or falling asleep are often the result.

Furthermore, night sweats cause many people concern. It is often read that cancer can be hidden behind night sweat. However, these are rather rare in the population as a whole, so that there are often other causes behind night sweating.

One of these causes is stress. Negative stress can cause many different symptoms. One of them is night sweating.

This is usually preceded by evening brooding, tension and difficulty falling asleep. Headaches, palpitations and concentration problems can also accompany this. The experience of stress-related symptoms is very subjective and different for each person.

Therefore, the complaints caused by stress cannot be generalized. For example, some people complain of accompanying digestive disorders and other gastrointestinal problems such as diarrhoea.Before entering menopause, the production of female sex hormones (progesterone and estrogen) increases briefly. If the menopause then begins, the oestrogen level suddenly drops again.

This reactively increases the production of the stress hormones adrenalin and noradrenalin. These two hormones can then lead to increased sweat production and to the hot flushes generally associated with menopause. In some cases, this night sweat can be very heavy, so that the laundry is sweated through several times a night.

These typical symptoms do not occur in every woman during the menopause. Some are not affected at all. Not only in women do hormone fluctuations occur over the years, but also in men the testosterone level decreases with age, which can also lead to night sweats in men.

However, this is much less common in men than in women. Some drugs can be the trigger for night sweats. These include drugs that target the autonomic nervous system, i.e. the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, because sweat production is mediated via the sympathetic nervous system and is rather inhibited via the parasympathetic nervous system.

In some cases, night sweat only occurs in the initial phase of taking the medication, in other cases it occurs when the medication is taken for too long or at too high a dosage. If the night sweat is felt to be a burden, the medication should not simply be discontinued, but first consult the doctor treating the patient. Antidepressants in particular can cause night sweats.

Ten to twenty percent of patients taking antidepressants experience this side effect. In addition to antidepressants, drugs used to treat mental illness such as psychoses (atypical neuroleptics), antipyretic drugs such as paracetamol, drugs used to lower blood sugar and against asthma, and hormone preparations can also cause night sweats. Often the doctor will then prescribe an equivalent alternative medication or adjust the dosage.

In addition to excessive doses, withdrawal of certain drugs, as well as the withdrawal of alcohol and drugs also leads to heavy night sweats. Like any other drug, the pill unfortunately has side effects. These side effects may occur in some women, although the pill is generally considered to be very well tolerated.

Night sweats are not among the classic side effects of the pill. It is therefore obvious that night sweat has other causes than the pill. In principle, however, individual reactions and intolerances cannot be ruled out.

If complaints such as night sweat occur, one should at best consult the gynecologist treating the patient to identify the cause of night sweat. If necessary, the preparation can be changed or a hormone-free contraceptive method can be preferred. Alcohol consumption can have unpleasant consequences, one of which is night sweat.

Even small amounts of alcohol in the evening can cause increased night sweating and rob you of sleep. Pronounced alcoholism can lead to night sweats even days after consumption. Alcoholics should not take night sweats too lightly.

Night sweating can be caused not only by the direct influence of alcohol, but also by alcohol withdrawal. Heavy alcoholics can develop withdrawal symptoms within a few days. Other symptoms such as fever, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea or seizures are also indicative of an alcohol withdrawal syndrome.

Since alcohol withdrawal without medical supervision is life-threatening and can lead to death, you should seek immediate medical attention if you experience such symptoms. HIV infection is a chronic infection against which the body has to fight permanently. As a result, the body temperature of the patient can be constantly elevated, causing increased sweating at night.

Similar to tumors, HIV also causes a B-symptom, consisting of: Night sweat, fever and weight loss. A few weeks after infection with the virus, a so-called acute HIV infection, similar to a flu-like infection, occurs. During this phase the first night sweats often occur, accompanied by fever, fatigue and swollen lymph nodes.

This is followed by an asymptomatic phase.If the thyroid gland is responsible for night sweats, it is usually an overactive thyroid (hyperthyroidism). The increased sweat production occurs during the day as well as at night. Frequently, autoimmune diseases such as Graves’ disease lead to hyperthyroidism, in which the production of thyroid hormones is increased.

The hormones stimulate the metabolism more strongly. In addition to night sweat, there is also increased inner restlessness, mood swings, weight loss, an increased heart rate, and the aforementioned night sweat. In the case of cancer diseases, as already described under “Causes”, the so-called B-symptoms often occur, consisting of night sweat, fever, weight loss.

One speaks of a weight loss if one loses unintentionally more than ten kilograms of weight within six months. Lymphoma is a typical tumor disease that leads to B-symptoms. This is a tumor that originates in the lymph nodes.

In the initial phase, it often manifests itself through B-symptomaitk, a drop in performance, and painlessly swollen lymph nodes. Night sweats can also occur in the context of B-symptomaitk in chronic lymphatic leukemia, a blood cancer that originates from the lymphatic system. Incidentally, the complete triad of B-symptomatics does not always have to be present.

In addition to lymphomas and leukemias, myelofibrosis also frequently causes night sweats. Myelofibrosis is similar to leukemias, since it is also a disease of the bone marrow, the blood-forming system. In myelofibrosis, night sweat only occurs when the disturbed formation of blood cells shows its first effects.

In addition to night sweat, fever and unwanted weight loss then frequently occur. In addition to the B-symptoms, an unspecific pain/pressure pain in the left upper abdomen due to an enlarged spleen is also typical. Although the B-symptomatology is most common in lymphoma or leukemia, it can occur with any tumor.

The following topic might also be of interest to you: Stomach pains at nightTreated at night in connection with night sweats, a racing heart and breathing problems, this may indicate the heart as the cause. Typical of this is endocarditis, the inflammation of the inner lining of the heart. Endocarditis typically involves fever, chills, chest pain and night sweats.

A conspicuous sign of endocarditis is also signs of bleeding under the skin and nails. People with damaged or artificial heart valves are particularly at risk of endocarditis. Even after dental treatment, there is an increased risk of pathogens making their way to the heart and causing endocarditis.

In addition to endocarditis, cardiac arrhythmia or cardiac insufficiency can also lead to increased sweating. However, sweating does not typically occur at night in these diseases, but can occur at any time of day or night. In case of heart rhythm disturbances, the heart beats either too fast or too slow or irregularly.

This is often manifested by dizziness, even fainting and sweating. In the case of a cardiac insufficiency, there is typically shortness of breath, which occurs even under light stress, palpitations and heavy sweating. Under certain circumstances, night sweat is also a sign of heart stumbling.