Night Sweats

You wake up in the middle of the night, cold, clammy and uncomfortable.  Your night clothes are soaked.  The damp bed sheets cling to you.  Worst of all, by the time you get up, change your night clothes, change the bed and snuggle under the blankets again, you're wide awake.  A lot of the time it's almost impossible to get back to sleep.  Disturbed sleep - that's why, even though night sweats isn't actually a sleep disorder, I chose to discuss it here.

Night sweats, or nocturnal hyperhydrosis, can be caused by many things.  Sweating is a natural body function, but if it becomes bad enough to wake you up night after night, wet and shivering, it has gone beyond "natural."  Stanford Medical Center lists the following  as possible causes:

• Any illness where you suffer from a fever. 
• Diabetes Insipidus
• Hyperthyroidism
• Secretion from certain cells in the brain
• Anemia
• Hypothalamic lesions
• Epilepsy
• Strokes
• Cerebral palsy
• Migraine
• Spinal cord infarction
• Head injury
• Familial dysautomia
• Anti-nausea medication used in pregnancy
• Obstructive sleep apnea