While many women experience occasional night sweats with no real issues, other women experience more severe symptoms that can disrupt their sleep and negatively impact their daily lives. Read on to learn more about treating and managing night sweats.
Symptoms of Night Sweats
Many women seek help for managing night sweats. Typically, a woman will not notice the effects of a night sweat until she has already woken up with her skin and sheets damp with sweat. If a woman is awake during a night sweat, then its symptoms are identical to those of a hot flash:
- Flushed skin
- Sudden rush of heat
- Rapid heart rate
- Dizziness
- Nausea
For night sweats, however, there are a few added symptoms that can greatly affect a woman's daily life. These symptoms include:
- Insomnia
- Inability to concentrate
- Irritability
- Exhaustion
- Stress
Some women might find that during the daytime, they cannot escape the effects of night sweats as they try to cope with sleep loss. If a woman finds that her night sweats are negatively impacting her life, she can easily seek help for night sweats.
Ways to Manage Night Sweats
There are many strategies that can help with night sweats. The most basic and readily available involve lifestyle changes, while slightly more rigorous approaches require alternative medicines or prescription medications.
Some important lifestyle changes can help women cope with night sweats. Many are as simple as adjusting the sleeping environment, while some involve eliminating triggers of night sweats. Some tips include:
- Wearing lightweight, breathable pajamas
- Sleeping in lightweight bedding
- Keeping the room cool
- Avoiding hot showers or baths
- Avoiding spicy food
- Limiting caffeine and alcohol intake
These changes might be enough for many women to help cope with night sweats, but many others may need more powerful treatments. For those women, options that involve alternative medicines are an effective way of complementing lifestyle changes. In the worst of cases, prescription medications can be used as a last resort. Of course, women should discuss their treatment options with a doctor in order to gain help for managing night sweats.
More Information
These are just some of the steps a woman can take to help manage her night sweats. Read on by clicking on the links below to learn about different treatments for night sweats.
Sources
- Boston Women's Health Collective. "Hot Flashes, Night Sweats and Sleep Disturbances." Our Bodies, Ourselves. 2006.
- The National Institute of Health.(n.d) "Signs of the Menopausal Transition." Retrieved from www.nih.gov.
- Von Muhlen, DG, et al. "A community-based study of menopause symptoms and estrogen replacement in older women." Maturitas. Sept 1995; 22(2): 71-8.