Waking up flushed and covered in perspiration can occur after a particularly disturbing nightmare, but several external causes can also result in excess sweating throughout the night. For instance, your bedroom may simply be too hot or your body may be trying to fight off an infection. However, chronic night sweats often indicate an underlying health condition (i.e., hypoglycemia or perimenopause).
The eight most common causes of night sweating are…
1. Overheating
If you like to sleep in sweatpants (or in fuzzy pajamas like me) night sweats can occur during the night if your body overheats. This is typically and innocently due to a combination of high temperature and thick pajamas.
Sweating due to overheating will usually cause flushing and mild perspiration. Alternately, characteristic night sweats are often far more extreme, according to WebMD, causing numerous hot flashes during the night that have you waking up wet with perspiration that saturates your bedclothes, the sheets, and the mattress.