What Causes Night Sweats?

Most people associate night sweats with menopause. And while it’s definitely a symptom, night sweats can be caused for other reasons...and it’s a lot more common than you may think. These are a few reasons why you may be soaking through your jammies (and not going through menopause or perimenopause)

Medications

One of the reasons why I’m not a fan of prescription medication is because it just masks health-related ailments (instead of getting to the root cause of the symptom ) and may cause other issues along the way. Certain medications, like antidepressants, diabetes medications, and some forms of birth control can disrupt the body’s ability to regulate temperature.

Hormonal imbalance

Your body has several dozen hormones, and they all have important jobs. The two big ones are estrogen and progesterone. Estrogen is the main female sex hormone that helps control your menstruation cycle. Progesterone helps maintain pregnancy. These two major hormones shift up and down throughout a woman’s life. Night sweats can be a result of that fluctuation.

Anxiety

Got a big meeting or important event coming up? I don’t blame you if those things make you feel anxious. When you’re feeling that way, your body may naturally respond by going into fight-or-flight mode. That increases the hormones and neurotransmitters adrenaline and cortisol and ultimately, the body’s temperature rises. The body then triggers sweating to cool off. (Aren’t our bodies amazing?!)

Diet

A diet high in refined carbohydrates and refined sugar results in frequent insulin spikes. That can lead to an overproduction of testosterone (yes, testosterone! Women have it too, just in very small amounts.) The overproduction of testosterone leads to an overproduction of estrogen. And that excess estrogen needs to be broken down and excreted. Those excretions are night sweats.

So when it comes to night sweats, there is a trickle down effect. Meaning, there is something else going on in your body that’s triggering them. If you’re suffering from night sweats and want to know why, drop your info in the form below and we’ll get you set up with a complimentary Nutrition Response Testing consultation.