Why do we get night sweats? and do we also have them in the day, but just not notice?

[Quarry]

[AussieNeil Partner Administrator]

I certainly notice them during the day, but either have them far less often then, or they are less noticeable, perhaps because they more often manifest as a hot flush or they get overlooked because I'm active. (I rarely get really soaking sweats at night; usually I experience sudden skin dampness which can vary in intensity and duration.) I expect we tend to notice sweats/temperature changes more at night because that's when our core temperature is lowest and any changes impact our ability to sleep (well it does for me).

As to why we get night sweats, I don't think I've ever come across an adequate explanation. Hopefully your question will find us one! An internet search is swamped with references about night sweats being a symptom of leukaemia among other things, though I did find one where a physician who treats cancer patients claims it is because our body is trying to fight the cancer by increasing the body temperature, in which case, why isn't it more constant as it is when we are ill?

See

everydayhealth.com/leukemia...

I personally suspect that leukaemia can disrupt our temperature regulation system via messing with our cytokine production. To me, this is consistent with the way a healthy immune system purposely regulates the body temperature to fight infections - hence fevers and sweats when we are ill, e.g. with influenza, and remembering that we have a broken immune system.

In the article below, you'll note that the pro-inflammatory interleukin-1 is produced by B-lymphocytes.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inter...

Note that in the section "Biological activity', the article mentions that other tissues intensely produce Interleukin-1, with B-lymphocytes getting a secondary mention, but we typically have B-lymphocyte levels 10's to 100's of times greater than normal, and they are busy using cytokines to control their micro-environment, thereby extending their survival.

The above is all surmise on my part - I too would like to hear from someone in the know!

Neil

[HAIRBEAR_UK Founder Admin]

If I remember from reading, even the experts are still puzzled. The exact mechanism that causes night sweats is still not known, perhaps a release of hormones or cytokines by tumour cells in the night causes the reaction?

I am also interested in the latest expert theories.

[Cllcanada Top Poster CURE Hero]

Just like CLL related fatigue there is no definitive answer to the cause of night sweats... as far as I'm aware.

Frequent soaking night sweats are however a red flag, to take into consideration with other factors in a pretreatment discussion with your doctor.

~chris

[Quarry]

Thanks for info guys. I am recently diagnosed (good new year present...) and wait for which type I have (will be a brithday present!). However, at 52, I am still intending to live a very long time and am reasonable optimisitic as I am fighting off colds etc and haemoglobin has self-risen. I am also lucky as my consultant is happily a CLL specialist (a benefit of living in Oxford, where a lot of medical research is done). However I do now what is causing the sweats (CLL), but it looks like still no-one knows why.

I only found out due at regular blood donation, when they refuse to take blood as my haemoglobin was too low, and said I should go to GP! This might be a good reason for encouraging people to donate....!

I am only scratching the surface of what I need to learn re CLL, but WBC count is obviously important and I will be asking next week. I have focussed to date on the obvious (at last test self-cured) haemoglobin problem. When I know which type I have, I will start proper research.

Andy

[splashsplash]

My GP told me that when I had menopausal night sweats, they were caused by my body struggling to do repair work while I slept. She said that by still trying to run at 120%, as I always had done pre-menopause, I was putting too much pressure on the repair team at night.

The trouble with having a CLL diagnosis is your immediate reaction is to live life at 200% while you're well enough, thereby stressing out those immune armies - catch 22 if ever there was!