It’s not exactly uncommon to wake up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat.
You may just need to lower your thermostat or kick off an extra blanket or two. It could also be some type of medical condition or even be tied to your last meal. Regular sweating is normal.
Unless you’re waking up drenched in sweat night after night, the experts say there’s probably not too much to worry about.
Simply adjusting the thermostat by a couple of degrees or removing extra bedding might do the trick. If you’ve recently come down with a virus or some sort of infection, though, that could be the cause. There are also some more serious diseases that could be to blame, or the night sweats could be tied to a medication. Sometimes it can happen even with over-the-counter pain meds like aspirin. If it seems concerning, it’s always best to talk to your doctor and rule out anything serious. Again, night sweats do happen from time to time and sometimes all it takes to solve the problem is to make some simple adjustments to sleep time. Lose some extra layers and try turning down the thermostat at night.
You can also make some adjustments to your lifestyle. Try moving your workout to a time a little earlier in the day. You can also try moving up your last big meal of the day. While spicy food tastes great any time of day, eating it too close to bedtime can sometimes, unfortunately, lead to sleep problems like night sweats. A heavy meal slows down digestion. Also, sometimes going to sleep too soon after eating spicy food high on the hot pepper scale causes things like acid reflux, which again interferes with your sleep. You don’t have to give up what you love, just be smart about when you eat it.