Menopause and Night Sweats

Night sweats means sweating during the night. Women over the age of forty often experience night sweats.

Night sweats are common in menopausal women because of the decrease in estrogen hormone levels.

But it is not true that night sweats should be present in all menopausal women compulsorily

Due to the estrogen deficiency, your hormones levels fluctuate. Your blood vessels expand and contract on an irregular basis. As the blood flow increases, a feeling of heat and flush starts on the face, neck and chest.

Your body temperature increases and you may sweat and as the sweat evaporates you feel chilled and weak. Depending on the intensity of hot flash, you may feel tired, lose sleep, headache. Your body may become red as flash occurs.

Low levels of estrogen affect several parts of the body: the skin, vagina, vulva, bones and breasts.

Along with night sweats, you may experience hot flashes. Night sweats occur in the night while hot flashes occur in day time.

When you experience night sweats, your clothes will become wet and your bed will become wet. Due to the wet bedding and clothes, your sleep may be disturbed frequently in the night. You have to change your clothes whenever your clothes become wet.

Night sweats occur in men also. Due to the decrease in androgen levels, men may experience night sweats. The night sweats last from 30 seconds to thirty minutes in both men and women.

Menopause night sweats disrupt your sleep and lead to insomnia. Menopause night sweats cause irritability because your clothes become wet.

Night sweats are also caused by other conditions such as illnesses, taking spicy foods before bed time, exercising before bed time, hot weather, stress, alcoholic drinks, caffeine, tobacco, anger, hot drink and hot weather.

You keep extra pair of clothes beside your bed so that whenever you are experiencing night sweats you can change your dress immediately.

You can prevent night sweats by including lots of fluids in your daily routine. Drink lots of water as it is the best therapy to avoid night sweats. You eat fresh fruits and vegetables daily.

Keep your bedroom cool. Your bedroom should be well ventilated to avoid night sweats. Keep the fan on and lower the room temperature.

Don’t take spicy foods or caffeine as they stimulate and can cause night sweats. Smoking, alcoholic drinks should be avoided. Exercise is the best way to relieve yourself but do not exercise before bed time. Exercise three to four hours before bed time.

Meditation is the best technique which can be used for hormonal balance, relieves stress and makes your mind and body calm.

Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) is one of the solutions for menopause symptoms. It is the short term treatment for menopausal symptoms such as night sweats, hot flashes and vaginal dryness. Before taking HRT, you have to discuss with your doctor about the side effects also.