Why do I sweat in the middle of the night? Am I suffering from a disease?

Some friends sweat while sleeping and only realize it after waking up. This situation can be divided into two categories for analysis. One is physiological night sweats and the other is pathological night sweats. To cure this situation, we must find out the corresponding causes.

1. Physiological night sweats

This type of sweating while sleeping often occurs in children because their skin is very tender, contains more water, has rich capillaries, and has an active metabolism, but their autonomic nervous system regulation function is not yet fully developed. Therefore, children tend to sweat when they are active. If they are more active before going to bed, their body metabolism will be more active, leading to increased heat. When they fall asleep, their sweat glands will secrete more, causing them to sweat profusely to help dissipate heat. In addition, if the child eats before going to bed, the secretion of gastric juice will increase, causing a corresponding increase in the secretion of sweat glands, making the child sweat a lot while sleeping, especially in the first two hours of sleep. In addition, when the human body is sleeping, the indoor temperature is too high and the quilt is too thick. These environmental factors will cause physiological sweating during sleep.

2. Pathological night sweats

After falling asleep, if sweating occurs mainly in the first half of the night, it is usually caused by low blood calcium.

Low calcium will increase the excitability of the sympathetic nerves and increase the secretion of sweat glands. This phenomenon of sweating during sleep is more common in patients with rickets. If a patient with tuberculosis sweats while sleeping, he often sweats all night, accompanied by symptoms such as extremely red face, loss of appetite, and mood swings. Many diseases that affect the body's temperature regulation center and excite the sympathetic nerves can cause pathological sweating during sleep.