What exactly is sweat and where does it come from?

Sweat is mainly water but also contains some salts. However, its components will depend on what gland the sweat is coming out of.

The main function of sweat is to regulate body temperature. When your body starts to sense overheating, it produces sweat in order to cool you down. This is one of the reasons why it is so important to have a hypoallergenic and breathable latex mattress.

A lot of people believe that sweat only comes when you do exercise or move a lot. However, it can also come when you eat spicy foods, drink alcohol or when you're asleep, which often happens when you don't sleep on a breathable mattress.

Sweating At Night

Even though sweat is a natural way for the body to eradicate heat, excessive sweating may indicate something more serious, like sleep hyperhidrosis, which affects around 3% people in the world today. However, different people suffer from this condition for different reasons.

Causes for Sweating at Night

Low Blood Sugar (Hypoglycemia)

Hypoglycemia has a close connection with sweating at night. Excessive and unnatural sweating at night is one of the first symptoms that appear in this condition, along with trembling and unusual hunger. Usually, hypoglycemia is not as big of an issue as hyperglycemia. To start off, sufferers are recommended to eat more sweet food and fruits. If your blood sugar level is very low, you may be given glucagon injections and some medications to support the treatment.

Menopause

Menopause is the state in which a woman can no longer reproduce. Even though menopause is natural and usually starts after the age of 51, it can target younger females due to medical problems.

The signs and symptoms of menopause can be many but what is concerning is something known as ‘hot flashes’. Just as the name suggests, hot flashes are flashes of heat that cause your skin to suddenly feel warm. Along with this, your heart may start to beat faster and you’ll start to unusually sweat, especially in the upper body regions. This may commonly happen at night and make it very difficult to sleep.

Hot flashes can be unnaturally triggered too such as with the intake of very spicy foods or staying in a hot room; summers, therefore, can be extremely annoying.

Bad Bedding products

Your mattress, pillow and sheets can have a significant impact on how you sleep and sweat.

Often, mattresses mold around a person's body, making them warmer. These mattresses trap heat and body moisture as your body sinks into the viscoelastic foam and becomes “hugged”. Furthermore, if a mattress is not breathable and hypoallergenic, the odds that you will sweat at night are higher. Latex mattresses, on the other hand, absorb any heat that builds up.

Medications

Medications are one of the biggest causes of why people may sweat so much at night. However, not every medicine is a contributor to sweating.There are some specific categories of medicines credited with causing sweating at night.

• Anti-depressants – most psychiatric drugs are known to cause night sweats as a result of their side effects. Most of the popular ones such as Prozac are included in this. Depending on your dosage, the effect of the medicines will be directly proportional to the number of tablets you take every day. One surprising fact is that anxiety, depression and stress in general, lead to sweats as they tend to warm up the body. Their negative effects may increase at night because of the freedom of overthinking. The outcome of your anxiety and the anti-depressant combined may cause you to sweat even more.

• Antipyretics and antibiotics – antipyretics are basically drugs that are specifically taken to lower fever, like aspirin for example. Antibiotics are generally taken to stop the growth of micro-organisms. A popular example of an antibiotic would be penicillin. These drugs have a deep connection with night sweats. They tend to decrease your body temperature and cause your sweat glands to be abnormally activated without the presence of heat. This leads to cold sweating which is simply sweating without feeling hot.

How to stop sweating at Night

Here are some efficient ways to keep your house chill in the midst of summer’s heat and stop sweating at night:

Keep yourself hydrated – This is one of the easiest ways to stop sweating at night. Try to drink as much water as possible. As the body starts to lose water due to the heat, its internal temperature rises and causes you to sweat.
Try to drink as much water as possible to keep your body and your internal temperature regulated.

Eat/avoid certain foods before going to sleep- The food that we consume has a great impact on the way we sleep, including how much we sweat. Certain foods and nutrients contribute to more sweating at night. For example, processed foods, spicy food, foods that have a high fat content and alcohol.

Some foods that help reduce sweat are water-dense fruits and vegetables like cucumbers and apples, calcium rich foods such as beans, seeds, low-fat milk and yogurt, fiber-rich foods like oats and wholegrains. Also, magnesium-rich foods like spinach, almods and soy can reduce the amount of sweat released at night.

Turn off unused electrical appliances and lights ­– Did you know that depending on the type of bulb used, it can convert 80% of the electrical energy given to it into heat energy? That means that the bulb can radiate up to 80% of the electrical energy as heat energy in the atmosphere.
Although it varies from bulb to bulb, every bulb gives out a specific percentage of heat, the most efficient ones around 10%. Similarly, devices like your computer and your TV, both emit heat when they are turned ON. Hence, if you are not using any of them, either turn them OFF or put them at least in ‘sleep’ mode. This will help reduce the concentration and spread of heat in a particular area and help you to stop sweating at night.

Use a natural latex mattress and latex pillow- Latex products have an open-cell structure which encourages foam to breathe and optimize air circulation. This is one of the reasons that allows Vita Talalay to be breathable and hypoallergenic. The ventilation that a latex mattress provides, keeps the human body cool during the Summer and cold during the Winter. Unlike other mattress and pillow materials, a Vita Talalay latex mattress keeps you from sweating at night and improves your sleeping experience.

Become a heat reflector – Every colour of clothing that you wear has some ability to absorb and reflect heat. The darker the colour gets, the better the absorber it becomes. Similarly, the lighter the colour gets, the better the reflector of heat it becomes. Therefore, the black colour is terrible at reflecting it but tends to absorb it really well in comparison with white colour which is completely the opposite. During the evening time, try to dress up in white coloured clothing. This will not only help you stay cool but also help you to stop sweating at night.

By the way, the same rule follows for the indoor walls too, so make sure that your walls are painted white as there is no other efficient way to reflect heat than using the white colour.

Cut the caffeine intake – Caffeine is both described as a drug and a food additive. Around 600 common beverages, including tea and coffee, are known to contain caffeine. What caffeine does is boost your energy but also sweat along with the promotion of wakefulness. It works by stimulating your central nervous system and activating your sweat glands. Hot drinks in summer also increase your internal temperature leading to more sweats at night. Cutting the caffeine intake will dramatically help you to stop sweating at night.

Keep the bathroom exhaust fans ON – When you take a bath, the heat of the water tends to stay trapped in the bathroom for a long time. This heat can escape to the other areas of your house through the gaps. Hence, keep the exhaust fans turned ON for a longer period of time during the summer to allow ventilation and equal diffusion to take place. This will play an important role to help you stop sweating at night.