Why do I feel dry and thirsty at night?

If you feel dry mouth and thirst at night, you can drink more cold boiled water to replenish water. If the thirst is not caused by lack of water, you should seek medical attention in time, because some diseases can cause such symptoms, so you must be vigilant against the disease, check your body in time and diagnose the cause.

1. Oral diseases

Oral diseases such as chronic submandibular gland inflammation, mumps, oral gland stones, etc. can lead to oral gland lesions and reduce saliva secretion, thus causing dry mouth symptoms; and many elderly people have aging and reduced function of tissues and organs, and atrophy of oral glands, which reduces saliva secretion and causes dry mouth. This type of dry mouth in the elderly is physiological dry mouth, and they can go to the dentistry department for a specialist examination.

2. Hyperthyroidism

Hyperthyroidism (hyperthyroidism) can also cause dry mouth symptoms. Clinical symptoms include dry mouth, sweating, heat intolerance, thyroid enlargement, and exophthalmos. Hyperthyroidism has a slow onset and its early symptoms are not obvious, so it is easily ignored by patients. However, with the help of thyroid function laboratory tests, it is easy to get a clear diagnosis.

3. Lungs do not distribute fluid, kidney yin is insufficient

Traditional Chinese medicine believes that dry mouth involves the lungs, kidneys, spleen and stomach. Lung fluid deficiency and kidney yin deficiency can cause dry mouth. Eating spicy and hot foods can also cause dry mouth. At this time, drinking water alone is not enough, and you also need to nourish yin and produce fluid. Drinks such as watermelon juice, lotus root juice, pear juice, milk, and sour plum juice can help quench thirst, so you should adjust your life starting with your diet.

4. Diabetes

In the early stages of diabetes, patients often experience discomfort such as dry mouth and thirst. Further development may lead to polydipsia, polyuria, polyphagia and weight loss, which are the typical "three mores and one less" symptoms. Due to increased blood sugar, diabetic patients suffer from increased osmotic urination, which causes a large loss of water in the body, resulting in dry mouth and thirst. In most cases, the degree of dry mouth and thirst is proportional to the degree of increase in blood sugar. Therefore, dry mouth is one of the signs of diabetes. So if you feel that you often have dry mouth, it is best to go to the hospital for a check-up.

5. Sjögren's syndrome

People with Sjögren's syndrome may also experience dry mouth. Sjögren's syndrome is an autoimmune disease that often affects the exocrine glands. Dry mouth and dry eyes are the most prominent manifestations. In the early stages, patients often experience a lack of saliva, dry mouth, or a sticky feeling in the mouth, followed by difficulty swallowing. They must use water to swallow dry food (such as biscuits), and may wake up at night due to dry mouth. Experts explain that the dry mouth of Sjögren's syndrome is caused by the destruction of the saliva glands by immune cells, resulting in reduced saliva secretion. However, the patient's body is not dehydrated, so he often likes to drink small amounts of water multiple times. This is different from the thirst caused by diabetes. The thirst caused by diabetes is due to increased blood sugar and osmotic diuresis leading to dehydration in the body. Patients need to drink plenty of water to replenish water.