BS: Night Sweats

Subject: BS: Night Sweats
From: GUEST,Sweaty Yetti
Date: 13 Dec 06 - 03:57 PM

Hi
I was wondering if anyone has any insights on overheating to the point of sweating in bed - usually early in the morning. To the point of needing to change pyjama tops in the night.

This has come and gone over the last 15 years and recently I took to taking 1/4 asprin. This actually reduces the severity but is a paliative, I can tell if I miss a day it will return. Miss several (like for a tooth extraction) and it comes back to full effect in about 5 days. Nighttime heart arhytmia is likewise a co-factor and responds similarly.

The doctor can find no reason for it in blood tests - no anaemia, no thyroid indicators, no TB (I had X-Rays). He also thought the asprin should (in most people) actually cause overheating being pyrophillic. He described the arhytmia as ectopic and quite undramatic, and typical if it occurs when lying down. Certainly his explanation fits the feeling.

Apart from a little nagging concern about thyroid problems not always being obvious in blood tests in the early stages I am reassured by the investigation but I have an inqiring mind and wondered if there were other things to consider.

OK 'catters - any ideas.

I am very fit for a fifty something, not overweight, male (just in case HRT is suggested - maybe it could be), and no other long term medical problems, and very few short term ones like colds etc.

Subject: RE: BS: Night Sweats
From: Rapparee
Date: 13 Dec 06 - 06:03 PM

Is there a sleep clinic attached to a nearby hospital? If so, they could put you up for the night, all wired up and attached to machines.

Subject: RE: BS: Night Sweats
From: Cluin
Date: 13 Dec 06 - 06:05 PM

Beware Spontaneous Human Combustion.

Subject: RE: BS: Night Sweats
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 13 Dec 06 - 06:08 PM

Well ectopic heartbeats are worrying but not a problem so don't worry I used to get it a lot. The hot sweats are a difficult one to pin down, I did suffer from them a little bit too, but they went, I just put it down to the male menopause.
G

Subject: RE: BS: Night Sweats
From: bobad
Date: 13 Dec 06 - 06:48 PM

The usual diagnosis, when nothing definite is pinned down, is "a virus."

Subject: RE: BS: Night Sweats
From: Sorcha
Date: 13 Dec 06 - 07:18 PM

My dad had them when he was taking progestrin (SP?) prescribed by the Dr. Are you taking any female hormones at all? Perhaps a testoserone patch might help. There IS a male menopause and the female hormones do increase, or at least have more effect as the testosterone level goes down.

Subject: RE: BS: Night Sweats
From: GUEST,Jack Campin
Date: 13 Dec 06 - 07:47 PM

Well it could be polonium-210 but...

...it's more likely to be an allergic reaction to old bedding (either house dust mites or decaying foam releasing formaldehyde). Does it still happen if you sleep on much newer bedding in a different house?

Subject: RE: BS: Night Sweats
From: Slag
Date: 13 Dec 06 - 09:59 PM

I've had 'em all my life. Some nights the bed is literally sopping wet (no, and no jokes needed at this point.). I have always easily perspired and I drink plenty of liquids. I don't have a clue as to why but it must be a metabolic thing. I have measured a low T3 and T4 on thyroid and tried taking thyroid meds but they had no effect. I just live with it.

Subject: RE: BS: Night Sweats
From: Bagpuss
Date: 14 Dec 06 - 03:08 AM

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=57394

Subject: RE: BS: Night Sweats
From: MBSLynne
Date: 14 Dec 06 - 03:16 AM

Try sage tea before you go to bed.

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: BS: Night Sweats
From: GUEST,Sweaty Yetti
Date: 14 Dec 06 - 04:34 AM

Sage tea - is that wise advice?

Thanks everyone keep them coming - I will follow the link at dinnertime.

It may be bedding etc, the mattress is 5 years old, latex.

Will try changing the bedclothes more often.

Subject: RE: BS: Night Sweats
From: GUEST,Sweaty Yetti
Date: 14 Dec 06 - 04:46 AM

Room not too hot, tried warm bed to get into - can't stand hot bed. Tried cold bed. Bed sock, wooly hat - nothing seems like that seems to change things.

I do live with it - for 15 years off and on. Asprin keeps it down to the level of night needing to change the pyjama tops. And it the only indicator. Chocolate and Horlics instead of weak instant coffee during the evening does not change anything.

Other beds usually indicates excerise and alcohol during the evening and yes, it does seem less of a problem then, but the degree of improvement is in the region where other parameters changing like the events of the evening could be confusing the issue.

Subject: RE: BS: Night Sweats
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Dec 06 - 06:58 AM

sleep in a big fridge.

Subject: RE: BS: Night Sweats
From: GUEST,Sweatty Yetti
Date: 14 Dec 06 - 07:52 AM

cool idea

However------------

I used to get them when I went to bed in a freezing bed and still get them when I pre-heat the bed.
On the principle that the body is operating on expectation and the temperature of the bed when entered is indicative of expectations of the rest of the night. I guess my brain ain't that smart or as the Doc put it (re asprin) - perverse.

Subject: RE: BS: Night Sweats
From: GUEST,Sweaty Yetti
Date: 14 Dec 06 - 08:02 AM

well the link http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=57394 (should work properly - the blickie above doesn't but the text is correct)

says much but the only thing that appears to fit the co-factors is:
Idiopathic hyperhidrosis – Idiopathic hyperhidrosis is a condition in which the body chronically produces too much sweat without any identifiable medical cause.

So know I know!
Slag - does that make ya feel any better? Thought not.

Subject: RE: BS: Night Sweats
From: JennyO
Date: 14 Dec 06 - 08:09 AM

We're ALL sweating tonight here in Sydney. 25 degrees C and the humidity is high. Even a sheet will be too much tonight!

Subject: RE: BS: Night Sweats
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 14 Dec 06 - 04:22 PM

Idiopathic means "arising spontaneously or from an obscure or unknown cause". So this diagnosis literally means nothing more than "produces too much sweat without any identifiable medical cause." Brilliant diagnosis. Good to know the medics know what's up...

Subject: RE: BS: Night Sweats
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 14 Dec 06 - 08:52 PM

Just Old Scratch preparing you for the hereafter-

Subject: RE: BS: Night Sweats
From: MBSLynne
Date: 15 Dec 06 - 02:57 AM

Hmmmm...lost a post again. I said....I assume you use natural fibre bedding? And nightclothes?

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: BS: Night Sweats
From: GUEST,Sweaty Yetti
Date: 15 Dec 06 - 03:35 AM

Natural fibres - sometimes - no apparent correlation. Pyjamas - yes. Natural fibres there.

Subject: RE: BS: Night Sweats
From: Slag
Date: 15 Dec 06 - 03:40 AM

Idiotic hyper-hydration??Yop that sounds about right. Don't let it sweat ya yetti. I could look aat it this way: wet dreams every night!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Night Sweats
From: rich-joy
Date: 15 Dec 06 - 03:56 AM

SAGE is great for excessive sweating - capsules or tea ...

Cheers! R-J

Subject: RE: BS: Night Sweats
From: GUEST,Sweaty Yetti
Date: 15 Dec 06 - 05:21 PM

I got some liquid and I can't say it is the most invigorating drink of my life. AND the overall effect before I go to bed is one of clearing the sinuses - wiered. And it says on the bottle for "menopause". But says the shop - "men can have a menopause" - sure - but testosterone and it's loss is not the same - would the medicine/ingedients be the same? OK less testosterone means a higher percentage of oestrogen - especially if the fat cells are secreting it - which they do. But my weight is hardly excessive - for my age I would be regarded as below the norm for weight, though not scrawny.


Who knows.

Subject: RE: BS: Night Sweats
From: wysiwyg
Date: 15 Dec 06 - 05:31 PM

Do you sleep so deeply that you do not throw off the covers while asleep when you get too warm? Are you wrapping yourself up so tight that you just get too hot in the deep-sleep portion of the night? If so, drink some bedtime water. It will make you get up in the night to pee, and you can adjust the covers then while still mostly asleep for a lighter cover for the rest of your sleep.

Our bedroom gets way too warm toward dawn, when we close the bedroom door at peetime, to shut out the dawning light that would otherwise awaken us shortly-- but the heat builds up too much then, so we have had to adjust the timer on the thermostat to bring the heat up a little later in the morning.

As far as natural fibers for bedding-- you are using a mattress pad, right? If it's just sheet on mattress, that would cause a lot of heat buildup.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Night Sweats
From: GUEST,Sweaty Yetti
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 07:44 AM

Long term results
It seems to be subsiding.
I have substituted the 1/4 asprin for nuts. Hazel Nuts (actually filberts from USA) &/or almonds (shelled - from the cooking shelves of the supermarket) and it is now managable.

The general feel - having listened to my body - is gut flora may be implicated (or a result of the same unspecified cause). Certainly things I hadn't noticed gone - are back in the diurnal rhythms.

If I do wake-up and feel the problem is threatening (in a mild way) I just expose a limb to cool the situation. I doubt the bedclothes are too much. One fairly slim duvet and no heating from about 10pm and the thermostat is set around 15 degC anyway.

Anyway thanks for all the ideas.