What Are the Causes of Hot Flashes at Night?

Hot flashes at night, or night sweats, feel like extreme daytime hot flashes. Many women, particularly those who are peri-menopausal or menopausal, suffer hot flashes during their waking hours, which may or may not involve sweating. When the flash appears during your sleeping hours, the victim tends to sweat profusely, soaking her bedclothes. The night time hot flash or night sweat is so intense that it will probably wake you. Hormones aren't always the culprit: There are medical conditions and some medications that may cause you to have night sweats.

Considerations

• If you are regularly experiencing hot flashes at night and don't believe it is due to hormones, consult with your doctor, who can run tests to determine if there is an illness that is causing the night sweats. A condition called idiopathic hyperhydrosis can cause night sweats because the body produces too much sweat, according to Emedicine.net. Other medical problems that can cause night sweats include tuberculosis, endocarditis (inflammation of the heart valves), osteomyelitis (bone inflammation due to infection), lymphoma or any serious infection. There are other conditions that can cause this as well. Mayoclinic.com has an entire list of illnesses that often lead to night hot flashes.

Medications

• Medicines that can cause night sweats include antipyretics, which are used to lower the body temperature; hypoglycemic medications that lower the level of glucose (sugar) in your blood; and antidepressants and medications that are taken to regulate your hormones (hormone therapy), according to Mayoclinic.com.

Hormonal

• If you are peri-menopausal or menopausal, your hormones are probably not in balance. In fact, hormonal imbalance peaks during peri-menopause. According to Womentowomen.com, the regulatory area in the brain is hoodwinked into thinking that the body needs to get rid of heat. The brain issues signals for blood vessels to dilate and for the heart to pump at a faster rate and for the sweat glands to open. A night sweat ensues.

Other Instigators

• You will increase your chances of having hot flashes at night if you are overweight, have great anxiety about something, if you smoke, drink alcohol and/or consume a lot of sugar and hot spices, according to Womentowomen.com.

Vasomotor

• Preventionhealthline.com notes that night sweats are sometimes the side effect of having cancer treatment and further describes night sweats as one of many symptoms called vasomotor. This means that the symptoms come from the body's thermo-regulatory center, which is impacted by the hormones that are circulating through our body.

Men Can Have Them, Too

• Men can suffer from night flashes as well, according to Sleep-deprivation.com. If a man has high anxiety or is suffering from an illness he may awaken, soaked to the gills in his own sweat. Something as simple as sleeping in a room that is too warm can cause night sweats.