If you are worried about sweating while you sleep, it will help you understand why your body sweats when you do. Once you understand what happens when you sweat at night, you’ll have a better idea of what steps to take to stop the sweat.
Your Internal Thermostat
We all have an internal thermostat. It is the size of an almond and is located at the top of the brain stem. It’s called the hypothalamus.
The hypothalamus performs vital functions in the autonomic nervous system. It controls your sensation of hunger and thirst, your sleep cycle and, most relevant to this discussion, your body temperature.
This internal thermostat performs thermoregulation by receiving signals from temperature-sensitive neurons in your brain and temperature receptors in your skin.
Confuse your hypothalamus
Unfortunately, the hypothalamus can be susceptible to a number of outside influences, most often unusual hormonal fluctuations and medications (both over-the-counter and prescription). When your hypothalamus receives mixed signals from these sources, it sends mixed signals to the rest of your nervous system.
This is why menopause causes hot flashes and why so many medications have the side effect of sweating while sleeping.
Common targets for these mixed signals from your hypothalamus are your sweat glands.
Tassels Sweatshirt
The human body presents tassels of eccrine sweat all over the body on its skin. Although these glands excrete water, electrolytes, and toxins, their main function is to perform thermoregulation, in other words, to regulate body temperature. So when you’re sweating, your hypothalamus tells your sweat glands to create an evaporative cooler on your skin.
Human sweat puffs are fairly simple body parts. They just do what their hypothalamus tells them. So it’s important to realize that when you sweat, you do so because your brain has told your sweat glands to fire up.
Negotiate with your hypothalamus
So if you really want to stop sweating in your sleep, you need to figure out why your brain tells your sweat glands to activate at night while you sleep.
If your hormones are to blame, investigate which foods and supplements might be mediating your hormonal fluctuations. If you are taking a medication with night sweats as a side effect, you may want to consult your doctor about adjusting or changing your medications.
If it’s just your skin’s sensors telling your brain you’re hot, then you need to take steps to better control variables like your sleep environment and diet to stay cool at night.