[BlueGreenTabbyCat]

I have night sweats, as someone in their 30s who has been having night sweats for the past nearly 20 years I can say I don't think they are connected with the menopause. They started when I was in hospital trying to recover from an eating disorder and I was gaining weight, for most ED recoverers they stop once you hold a healthy weight but for me they didn't and only stopped when I proceeded to relapse.

The night sweats are something else- I will go to bed so cold I am shivering and unable to sleep I am that cold, then I am woken up a few hours later and soaking wet- in the past I have actually been able to wring out clothes I am that soaked- it feels disgusting and prevents me wanting to get anywhere near a healthy weight as a direct result.

I have no idea what causes them, it's not meds because I've been both on and off meds countless times throughout the years and it makes no difference. I had thought I was just too fat and this was why but being a weight which is currently deemed too low to be healthy I am unsure now.
I exercise during the day for quite a while every day though have gone through times when I've exercised much more and also times where I've done no exercise- it makes no difference.

Sorry this is so long, I'm at my wits end with this! It doesn't seem fixable so I am wondering if there are any meds which would help. I still get periods so don't imagine it's the menopause, I've no idea what else to try and if meds can help.

[vonmoxie]

I have night sweats due to a medical condition (sadly it's not menopause or at least I'd have some hope of it stopping at some point), and I do find that if I take a bit of benzodiazepine (for me it's Klonopin or Xanax) it's less likely to happen. As I don't want to become dependent, I save it for those times I have an important next day planned, and because I take it inoften, a really small amount works for me -- a quarter to a half of the smallest dose -- so I must be doing okay in that regard. As a caveat though, I've never seen it recommended for this use, so it might not work for everyone .. just something I noticed for myself.

Something else I do (besides wearing only cotton, and keeping an extra long sleeved shirt somewhere I can grab it without having to get up out of bed) is to keep one bare foot totally out from under the covers. This is proven* to help temperature regulation, as it relates both to heat and to cold. Weird, huh? But it really works.

I was thinking too, if you went to bed with a book to read or something, a good hour or more earlier than you plan to fall asleep, maybe you could get through that initial cold feeling long enough that you could re-adjust the covers in preparation for feeling hotter? **

You may have thought of / tried all these things, but it's what I found helped me anyway. Good luck. Stay cool!

*From: Sleep Hack: Keep Your Feet Outside Your Covers -- Science of Us

**From Harvard.edu: The Characteristics of Sleep | Healthy Sleep
Through a process known as thermoregulation, the temperature of our body is controlled by mechanisms such as shivering, sweating, and changing blood flow to the skin, so that body temperature fluctuates minimally around a set level during wakefulness. Just before we fall asleep, our bodies begin to lose some heat to the environment, which some researchers believe actually helps to induce sleep.

Well. Zoloft (sertraline) is sometimes prescribed for helping symptoms of perimenopause (including night sweats.) I have been through about 5-6 years of perimenopause but have had almost no night sweats. I have assumed it's because I take an antidepressant (Cymbalta/duloxetine.)

But - have you talked to your doctor about this? If it's being caused by something like hyperthyroidism or estrogen fluctuation or some other illness or hormone imbalance, it would be better to address the root cause than to try to find a medication to stop it. I'm not even sure if the usual medications used would work if the underlying cause is something other than estrogen fluctuations.

If your GP can't/won't help you, a practitioner of Chinese medicine might be able to.

It sounds like vonmoxie has some good suggestions. I do have mild night sweats sometimes and have noticed that they are more likely to happen if I am using polyester bedding. Those "down alternative" comforters are absolutely to be avoided in my opinion, except in very cold weather.

I hope you find some relief. It sounds very sleep-disrupting.

[BlueGreenTabbyCat]

Thanks for replying- I was worried no one would!

I have seen and spoken to my GP (and many GPs in fact!) most don't listen and shrug their shoulders, an ED dietition said it should normally go once a healthy BMI is reached- but it never did or does, one locum Doctor ran a test on my thyroid but it came back as normal so no further tests were done. I would love to get some sort of full hormone test as I have an instinctual feeling on this that it's something to do with my hormones- it isn't related to my periods/TOTM at all, but is related to eating and I struggle to not get rid of my food (I have bulimia and anorexia) if I have had a nightsweat the previous night- despite the times when I do keep my food down I will still be shivering before I go to sleep which I normally relate to not having eaten enough....I don't really understand. The only thing I can be sure will stop them is to not eat enough (as in massively under) or to get rid of what I have eaten.

I only have cotton sheets as I've only had my bed for 10 years but have been struggling with night sweats for nearly 20 and the cotton sheets thought was the first one I had when getting a new bed! I even made sure the bedding was as natural as I could afford. It seems cotton sheets make no difference...I I used to live in supported housing and have even spent time in hospital- plastic was the material of choice. It seems my night sweats are no better no worse than sleeping on a plastic coated bed. I find it helps to not have a big duvet though to keep cool so I tend to think it's about temperature regulation rather than my body just trying to get rid of excess fluids (which was another theory I had) but this can make sleeping harder as I'm colder before trying to sleep- it's as if my body has just lost the ability to regulate my temperature any more I could understand if they had started (and not stopped) after a decade of eating disorders but they came after my first recovery when I'd only been below a healthy weight some 18 months previous and only 2 years unwell in total. Yet aside from the times I've relapsed (now 4 and counting...) I've never been able to get rid of them.

I wish keeping a spare set of bed clothes was enough, but my duvet will be soaked, by mattress is wet and cold, my pillow is cold with it being damp. I end up having to change my sheets as well as my bed clothes or just forgo sleep that night- it seems to happen so early on as well, about an hour after going to bed. Just really odd. And annoying!

Thanks for the meds suggestions though- I will ask about those when I next see my psychiatrist.

Wow. Sounds like you need two beds! It does sound like your body's temperature regulation is not working correctly while you're sleeping.

The only other thing I can think of to suggest is to take a warm bath or shower before bed. This is sometimes suggested to help getting to sleep, since your body will cool down after the bath/shower and this mimics the natural dropping of your body temperature when you go to sleep. I don't know if that would help any.

Oh, and you could possibly experiment with taking melatonin, too.

I have had delayed-onset insomnia off and on for many years, so I've probably spent more time trying to learn what's supposed to happen to the body when you fall asleep than I would have otherwise.

If you have the money for it, you can get armband fitness monitors now, and some of them measure body temperature. I'll bet if you looked at a 24-hour graph of your body temperature, you might get some interesting info. about what's going on. (Not that you could get a doctor to do anything about it even then!)

[BlueGreenTabbyCat]

Originally Posted by jo_thorne

Wow. Sounds like you need two beds! It does sound like your body's temperature regulation is not working correctly while you're sleeping.

The only other thing I can think of to suggest is to take a warm bath or shower before bed. This is sometimes suggested to help getting to sleep, since your body will cool down after the bath/shower and this mimics the natural dropping of your body temperature when you go to sleep. I don't know if that would help any.

Oh, and you could possibly experiment with taking melatonin, too.

I have had delayed-onset insomnia off and on for many years, so I've probably spent more time trying to learn what's supposed to happen to the body when you fall asleep than I would have otherwise.

If you have the money for it, you can get armband fitness monitors now, and some of them measure body temperature. I'll bet if you looked at a 24-hour graph of your body temperature, you might get some interesting info. about what's going on. (Not that you could get a doctor to do anything about it even then!)

Thanks for the suggestions, all apart from the arm band which I really want to look in to (but don't have the/any money to right now and possibly wont for a very long time as I can barely afford to feed myself!). I

've been taking melatonin for about 3 years now- fantastic- am very pleased with it though I find that my body builds a resistance to it very quickly- as in within a few days and I have to up and up it and then not take it for a good few days or a week before I can get back to square one again. It is a life saver though and I try to juggle taking it where I can.

I've tried the warm bath thing (I don't own a shower), bit of a tricky one though as I struggle with eating disorders and being in a bath ends up with me feeling a wave of depression and feelings of self-loathing yet to be rivalled with anything else that I often find it makes it far harder to sleep. I've not kept tallys with when the night sweats happen- at the moment by trying to lose weight seems to mean I don't get night sweats every night, but on nights before my weight jumps or when I have in the past maintained a healthy weight- or even a lower cusp of healthy weight (but not in the anorexic weight range) I will almost always get them. I can't remember if a bath beforehand had changed that but do risk not sleeping at all for psychological/emotional reasons instead.

Thanks for the suggestions; I wish I could have a shower where I live-I seem to be able to manage those much better and currently rely on the gym showers to wash every day because I hate the bath so much! I don't love the shower but I can tolerate it far more.

[Vossie42]

I had night sweats like yours for years. It turns out that I have sleep apnea, and that can cause night sweats. It took so long to diagnose, because I was normal weight. Doctors associate sleep apnea with people being overweight, not normal or underweight. Finally a neurologist got the bright idea of sending me to a sleep lab. Sure enough, I had sleep apnea. I haven't had any night sweats since I started using the C-PAP machine.

The connection between sleep apnea is this: As you probably know, sleep apnea is when you stop breathing while sleeping. To wake yourself up and start breathing again, the brain will signal to the body to produce adrenaline. And you know what adrenaline does to you. If you stop breathing multiple times while sleeping, your body produces adrenaline all night ling, hence the drenching night sweats.

Do you also wake up not feeling rested even with enough hours of sleep? Do you wake up with pounding headaches or migraines? Do you get sleepy during the day? More symptoms of sleep apnea.

Anyway, it's just a thought...

[BlueGreenTabbyCat]

Thanks- I am not sure if I have sleep apnea, I don't wake up with headaches but always wake feeling groggy and unrested but tend to shrug that off as not being able to fall asleep for hours (if at all) and so despite waking in the afternoon, often I've only been asleep for 5 or 6 hours.

I am planning on seeing my Doctor though- I've had other symptoms which I tended to ignore and just saw them as part of life, then called up what we here in the UK call NHS Direct which is basicly a Doctor on-call, they help you work out if you need to see an emergency Doctor, your own Doctor at a later date instead or could just go to a pharmacist. To cut a long story short, they felt my symptoms sounded like a hormonal response and as I'd been experiencing the same thing frequently I should ask to get my hormone levels checked.

So I ran through Google, looking for information on different hormones and what imbalances would look like and (I understand I am not a Doctor...) it looks like my symptoms- along with the night sweats and a load of other symptoms, match with the symptoms of lack of oestrogen.
It's not going to be easy getting a hormone check; funds within the NHS are tight as our current government seem intent on cutting as much funding to publicly used things as possible, but I'm not one to test medication until I find one which works, I like to know what is going on first!

It's going to be exhausting getting anywhere because I've got a battle to fight in my own head about putting myself first, asking for help and then going without sleep so I can wake up and book/get to an appointment, (which no doubts sounds easy to any layman out there...) so an appointment at least may take a while, actually getting help may take a while longer. But I'm hoping if they do run checks and show oestrogen issues, that if they treat it, maybe the night sweats will stop and I can sleep properly again!

[BudFox]

Have heard that hormone issues could be a factor, or insulin/blood sugar problems.

Also one of the classic symptoms of the parasitic infection Babesia is drenching night sweats. Can get this from the bite of a tick (often comes along with Lyme disease). Other common symptoms are chills, shortness of breath, headaches, severe fatigue, anxiety, depression, cognitive dysfunction, all sorts of behaviorial problems.

[Vossie42]

Originally Posted by BlueGreenTabbyCat

... so an appointment at least may take a while, actually getting help may take a while longer. But I'm hoping if they do run checks and show oestrogen issues, that if they treat it, maybe the night sweats will stop and I can sleep properly again!

Here are some simple ways to increase estrogen naturally: How to Increase Estrogen: 14 Steps (with Pictures) - wikiHow For myself, I found that too much estrogen was my problem. I had been consuming 1-2 servings of soy for a few years. Once I cut out soy products, I felt better, less moody and had fewer migraines. I say that to show that eating soy can have an effect on estrogen levels. For me, it had a significant (~25%) effect.

Yeah, it does sound a little more like something else rather than sleep apnea. A hallmark symptom of sleep apnea is the ability to fall asleep anywhere anytime. I've even fallen asleep at long traffic lights. Not good when you're the one driving the car, lol. You don't sleep well at all, but you do fall asleep.

Hopefully you can make an appointment for the afternoon. Is there any way to have someone stay with you who can wake you up in time for the appointment? Bribe the person with an offer to cook dinner. People are easily bribed with food.

I hope you get this straightened out.

[BlueGreenTabbyCat]

Well, I've booked an appointment with a Doctor who at least I know wont make me feel like a fraud for visiting! But the appointment wont be for another few weeks...fingers crossed they allow a referral. I'm going to go armed with a list of all my symptoms.
What I'm worried about is being told to just take The Pill because they mess with hormones and maybe will mess with mine to correct things. Pills worry be; I worry about longer term effects and would rather know exactly what I am taking and why rather than the shooting-fish-in-a-barrel approach.

I'm brazen enough to argue someone to the floor (with words alone!) but if that someone refuses to allow my request then the only hope I'll have will be to keep going back again and again and...

The odd thing is though, I am lactose intolerant so actually already consume a fair amount of soya, perhaps more than I'm supposed to- I get through half a carton a day, sometimes more so it just feels a bit odd that I'm getting so many symptoms that match with oestrogen deficiency. I hope the tests can explain what the hell is going on here!

[BudFox]

I wonder if the soya is part of the problem somehow. Some say it really messes with endocrine including thyroid, is hard to digest, impairs mineral absorption, and is a common food allergen. Not sure about the UK but here in the US it is a heavily GM'd crop that is

Do you have access to any integrative/functional med docs there? My experience is that these kinds of docs look for root cause rather than throwing pills at everything. Or naturopathic docs or chinese medicine docs.

[-jimi-]

I will try to cover just one foot. I need some magic too.

When I go into REM sleep my core temp just plummets. I have different amounts of REM sleep every night so some nights are OK. In the past I suffered from overdreaming, I had more than 2x the normal amount of dream sleep and a quick REM onset (immediately after falling asleep).

Luckily this is much better. But it's still sucky to wake up and being cold inside out. When it goes below 95 F I start to feel really crappy. So my issue is more with being cold. In winter I can use a heating blanket and it helps some.

Sleep is a weird thing. I wonder why there isn't more research on it connected to other things.

Hello BlueGreenTabbyCat.
Ask you GP to test your FSH levels, it's a straightforward blood test, usually done 2-3 times to see how it changes. Easiest way to find out if it is the peri menopause. If it is (even if it isn't!) try black kohosh from Boots. They had a 3 for 2 deal a while ago. It's a natural form of oestrogen. Good luck! Both worked for me.

[BlueGreenTabbyCat]

Thanks so much for suggesting what to ask- I've got an appointment booked but the next available (unless it's an emergency/I actually get through on the phone) is in 2 weeks so I'm hoping to have built up my confidence in asking and knowledge of what I'm asking for by then. I'm thinking of the wait as home-work time! I'll ask about the FSH levels and remember to ask for several tests over time not a once-only deal.

I wish they were more interested in finding out the root reason. I have had so many various issues and beyond an xray which wont ever pick up anything aside from a major break, Doctors I see don't seem as interested in finding the reason as much as suggesting pills. I'm hoping the fact these symptoms I've been having (eg night sweats dating back about 8 years now on and off yet I've never been suggested to have my hormones tested, just shrugging shoulders and offered The Pill...) I'll keep reading up on things and hope if I go to the appointment better armed with the sole intention of finding out the reason for all this, at least if I get refused I'll know I've tried my hardest.

[BudFox]

Originally Posted by BlueGreenTabbyCat

I wish they were more interested in finding out the root reason. I have had so many various issues and beyond an xray which wont ever pick up anything aside from a major break, Doctors I see don't seem as interested in finding the reason as much as suggesting pills.

Seems majority of mainstream docs are simply not trained to figure out root cause. They are trained specifically in disease management with drugs, aka clinical pharmacology. I guess part of the appeal of this system is that neither doc nor patient has much responsibility.

I think you really do have to avoid that whole system, as a general rule, if you want to maintain or restore true health.

I have been doing a lot of reading on this subject. It is an incredible story really. Mainstream medicine markets itself as sophisticated, hi tech, cutting edge, superior to all other forms of medicine, with gleaming expensive machines, complex procedures and screenings, endless jargon, and an aura of omniscience. But when you peal away this veneer, what's left is rather crude and paltry and even kind of insane. Anyway sorry if this an annoying rant, just some thoughts...

[possum220]

Originally Posted by BlueGreenTabbyCat

Thanks so much for suggesting what to ask- I've got an appointment booked but the next available (unless it's an emergency/I actually get through on the phone) is in 2 weeks so I'm hoping to have built up my confidence in asking and knowledge of what I'm asking for by then. I'm thinking of the wait as home-work time! I'll ask about the FSH levels and remember to ask for several tests over time not a once-only deal.

I wish they were more interested in finding out the root reason. I have had so many various issues and beyond an xray which wont ever pick up anything aside from a major break, Doctors I see don't seem as interested in finding the reason as much as suggesting pills. I'm hoping the fact these symptoms I've been having (eg night sweats dating back about 8 years now on and off yet I've never been suggested to have my hormones tested, just shrugging shoulders and offered The Pill...) I'll keep reading up on things and hope if I go to the appointment better armed with the sole intention of finding out the reason for all this, at least if I get refused I'll know I've tried my hardest.

I can drive myself batty by googling symptoms and trying to work it out.

The best thing you can do is to keep it simple. Write a list of what is happening to you. Give that to the doctor. They are the ones that went to medical school. Find a doctor who listens to you. (That is not easy).

From reading this thread I would like to say ......... Sleep Apnoea (Cant spell that) can occur no matter what a person's weight. It does occur more in those who are heavier, but it still occurs in people who are an average weight. That can be investigated by a sleep specialist. I am clueless about our bodies mechanisms that cause sweating,

Our bodies shiver when we are cold in order to generate heat. Being below an average BMI can play merry havoc with our hormone levels. Any doctor that specializes in eating disorders should be able to explain the effect that all of this has on our bodies. A basic hormone test will determine what direction you need to go. An endocrinologist can sort out the hormones if the basic hormone test comes back.

Something is obviously wrong with where you find yourself at the moment. I am sorry that you havent been listened in the past and trying to fob you of with hormones replacement therapy.

Is it at all possible to see a a doctor who is empathetic with your situation? You deserve to be listened to and helped. Please dont stop until you find that doctor.

[neverending]

I have found that some of the psych meds actually cause night sweats. Unfortunately I don't remember which ones did it for me. I have been on to many and never kept a record about it.

[vonmoxie]

Originally Posted by neverending

I have found that some of the psych meds actually cause night sweats. Unfortunately I don't remember which ones did it for me. I have been on to many and never kept a record about it.

Viibryd is one. My friend got night sweats from them after only a few days taking them, and it's also listed on the insert as a side effect.

[BlueGreenTabbyCat]

Originally Posted by possum220

I can drive myself batty by googling symptoms and trying to work it out.

The best thing you can do is to keep it simple. Write a list of what is happening to you. Give that to the doctor. They are the ones that went to medical school. Find a doctor who listens to you. (That is not easy).

That's exactly what I did; initially I thought I was having a reaction to a pill I'd been taking for the past 5 years for period pains. My symptoms began to get worse and new ones added to them about 4 months ago. In the UK we have a service where we can phone a Doctor at the weekends or if you can't get to see your own Doctor, the person I spoke to said on the phone my symptoms sounded very much like a hormonal imbalance. I was so ill I didn't ask much but when I was feeling stronger was able to look up hormones affected by TOTM and worked out which it sounded like applied to my symptoms and other symptoms I'd not even thought were symptoms (eg the night sweats). I am now waiting to see my own Doctor to run tests to check if my guess was right.

Originally Posted by possum220

From reading this thread I would like to say ......... Sleep Apnoea (Cant spell that) can occur no matter what a person's weight. It does occur more in those who are heavier, but it still occurs in people who are an average weight. That can be investigated by a sleep specialist. I am clueless about our bodies mechanisms that cause sweating,

I am going to mention sleep apnea too- though I am a bit unsure if this is what is causing things as I don't tend to get any of the other symptoms such as a headache when waking and even when I don't get a night sweat (it seems to be linked to if I am gaining weight or not in my mind and if I try to lose weight they don't happen) I still will wake up feeling just as groggy as if I did have a night sweat.

I started getting the night sweats a long time ago the first time I recovered weight wise from anorexia in a hospital. It was common-place to have night sweats whilst doing this but they seemed to die out for everyone else once they got to a healthy weight. The trouble is once you are at a healthy weight the physical support just stops and though talk therapy is available for a limited amount of time, the therapists will know nothing about night sweats or what they indicate. I only ever found they went away if I made my weight go down. Even if my weight is unhealthily low they will still happen, but as long as I am making my weight drop they will hold off. It results in some parts of my week having night sweats and other times not so.

Currently I have managed to maintain a BMI of between 16.5-18.5 for a year or two now, night sweats have been an issue throughout. Prior to this I relapsed from a BMI of 20 down to 16 and my night sweats stopped. This is not the first time I've relapsed with the same results on my night sweats (I think I'm on relapse number 5 now?) It's pretty hard to not see that as weight linked rather than it being a case of sleep apnea but I will mention it as a suggestion any how. The really difficult thing for me is that when I have been at a higher weight (BMI 20-23) I had night sweats every single night and sometimes several times a night. I maintained that weight for about 2-3 years and it was enough to put me off being a higher weight alone even without the fear of weight gain. It's the biggest appetite suppressant I've experienced to remind myself that every thing I put in my mouth could result in a night sweat. [/QUOTE]

Originally Posted by possum220

Our bodies shiver when we are cold in order to generate heat. Being below an average BMI can play merry havoc with our hormone levels. Any doctor that specializes in eating disorders should be able to explain the effect that all of this has on our bodies. A basic hormone test will determine what direction you need to go. An endocrinologist can sort out the hormones if the basic hormone test comes back.

Something is obviously wrong with where you find yourself at the moment. I am sorry that you havent been listened in the past and trying to fob you of with hormones replacement therapy.

Is it at all possible to see a a doctor who is empathetic with your situation? You deserve to be listened to and helped. Please dont stop until you find that doctor.

Fingers crossed something will work out after my appointment which is this week. If not I'll end up booking more and more appointments until something is done. My only concern is that if everything that is tested ends up being fine and nothing shows up as abnormal, where do I go from there?

[BlueGreenTabbyCat]

Originally Posted by neverending

I have found that some of the psych meds actually cause night sweats. Unfortunately I don't remember which ones did it for me. I have been on to many and never kept a record about it.

I'm not taking anything atm but was suggested Prozac by quite a few psychiatric types over the years. I used to take Seroxat (which is Paxil or Paroxotine by it's other names) and after trying to come off that am really wary of any meds -at all, even the non psych. types, it takes me seriously years to consider anything unless I am at dire straits. I have already got a list of things that will prevent me taking things and aside from weight gain, night sweats is a very close second! I worry about the menopause already despite (hopefully!) it being some time off yet!

[arabianhorselover]

Prozac can help with hot flashes. Also Gabapentin. Check this out:

Gabapentin User Reviews for Hot Flashes at Drugs.com

[BlueGreenTabbyCat]

Originally Posted by arabianhorselover

Prozac can help with hot flashes. Also Gabapentin. Check this out:

Gabapentin User Reviews for Hot Flashes at Drugs.com

Wow, really?? I've actually found that since taking Prozac I've had night sweats increase at least three-fold if not more. I'm actually considering stopping taking them because of the night sweats alone. I really can't hack having night sweats, they mess with my head and I feel like I shouldn't be eating any food anymore, food has also been very messed up (I have an eating disorder) since starting Prozac but I really think a great deal of that is a direct result of the night sweats.

I've tried Gabapentin before but the side effects were unbelievably bad for me so I stopped.

[arabianhorselover]

Well, it is possible that the night sweats are unrelated to the Prozac.

[emijec]

celexa hVe me drnchung night sweats, it felt like I got out of the shower and jumped straight into bed without drying with a towel... I suspect it had to do with serotonin levels... as soon as I stopped it took about 1-2 weeks to disappear... skip to now.. back in meds- Zoloft, and I'm starting to get light night sweats.