Posts Tagged ‘stress’

Insomnia From Night Sweats

Posted in Health on February 14th, 2010 by Jim – Comments Off

Modern humans harbor so much stress it is no wonder that cases of insomnia are on the rise. Whether we are worrying about the economy, our health or something relatively trivial like that subtle insult by our co-worker, there are always seems to be something to keep us awake at night.

Unfortunately, our hypothalamus likes to add one more reason for us to not sleep: night sweat. What is our hypothalamus? It is the part of our brain that governs our body temperature and helps regulate our nervous system. For whatever reason — perhaps we’ve subjected it to too much stress over the centuries — they hypothalamus is surprisingly susceptible to manipulation by external factors.

One of the most common side-effects of many medications is night sweating. This often is because our hypothalamus simply does not how to properly react to the changes the medication is enacting within our system.

Everything from infections to disease to hormonal changes can lead our hypothalamus to make sharp changes to our body temperature at inopportune times — like when we’re trying to sleep the night before a big presentation or performance or when women persevere through menopause night sweats.

The first step to addressing this form of insomnia is to recognize that there is probably some explanation for why our bodies are amplifying our natural perspiration mechanism. A visit to the doctor may be a good idea, but you should also take some basic steps like using some lighter bed sheets and sleepwear made from breathable, natural fabrics.

Having an alcoholic drink near bed is not going to help; our body will only want to seep that alcohol out of our pores while we sleep. A hot drink is also not a good idea; you want to keep your temperature under control when you have the chance before you go to bed. So a hot buttered rum is definitely not the best idea for a night cap if you are concerned with night sweating.

So if you are missing sleep from night sweats, take some action to find out why you are sweating at night and then take some common sense steps to curb the problem.