Medically, sweating when awake is called "spontaneous sweating"; Sweating during sleep is called "night sweats". Night sweats is a syndrome name of traditional Chinese medicine, which is characterized by abnormal sweating after falling asleep and stopping sweating after waking up. "Stealing" means stealing. Ancient doctors used thieves to sneak around at night every day to describe this disease. Whenever people fall asleep, or just close their eyes and fall asleep, sweat leaks like thieves.
Some patients suffer from night sweats as soon as they fall asleep, some sleep until midnight, and some just close their eyes for a while. The amount of sweat is very different. According to the clinical manifestations of night sweats, it can be divided into three types: light, medium and heavy.
Most patients with mild night sweats are prone to sweat when they fall asleep deeply, or at 5 o'clock in the morning or before waking up1~ 2 hours, and the amount of sweat is small. Only when they wake up, they feel a little sweaty all over the body or some parts of the body, and no sweat is released again after waking up. Generally not accompanied by uncomfortable feeling.
Most patients with medium-sized night sweats can sweat out soon after falling asleep, or even make their sleeping clothes wet. When they wake up, they stop sweating. After wiping the sweat on their bodies, they will stop sweating when they fall asleep again. In this type of night sweats, patients often feel hot and sweaty, and sometimes feel dry mouth and throat after waking up.
Patients with severe night sweats are prone to sweat. Soon after falling asleep or when I just close my eyes and am about to fall asleep, there will be a lot of sweat pouring out at night, and I can wake up after sweating, and the sweat can converge instantly after waking up. You can sweat again when you fall asleep. Sweating is large, and the sweat often has a light salty taste, or it is mixed with sweat and odor at the same time. Sweat can even make the bedding wet, and you can't sleep well unless you change your sleeping clothes several times a night. Some severe patients can make the bedding wet, and when the bedding is thin or the mat is used, sweat can print sweat marks on the bed board. These patients are often accompanied by obvious feeling of baking, and their mood is also irritable. They are thirsty after sweating and like cold water. Usually, it may be accompanied by low fever or hot flashes, five-upset fever, red cheekbones, dizziness, emaciation, fatigue, dark urine, less urine and dry stool.
Light and medium night sweats will not do much harm to the body, but patients with severe night sweats will often worsen their condition for a long time and develop into "symptoms", which seriously threatens their health and life safety.
How to distinguish between physiological and pathological night sweats?
Night sweats can be divided into physiological and pathological, especially the incidence of physiological night sweats in children is very high, which sometimes makes parents very nervous, so it is necessary to master how to distinguish physiological and pathological night sweats.
(1) Physiological night sweats: In childhood, the skin is very tender, contains more water, is rich in capillaries, has vigorous metabolism, and the autonomic nerve regulation function is not perfect, so it is easy to sweat during activities. If children have too much activity before going to sleep, the functional metabolism of various organs in the body is active, which can increase the body's heat production. During sleep, skin blood vessels dilate, sweat glands secrete more and sweat profusely, which is beneficial to heat dissipation. Secondly, eating before going to bed can enhance gastrointestinal peristalsis, increase the secretion of gastric juice and sweat glands, which can cause children to sweat more after falling asleep, especially within the first 2 hours of falling asleep. In addition, if the indoor temperature is too high, or the quilt cover is too thick, or when using electric blankets, it can cause sweating during sleep.
(2) Pathological night sweats: After some children fall asleep, they sweat mostly in the middle of the night, which is often caused by low blood calcium. Low calcium can easily increase the excitability of sympathetic nerve, just like turning on the "faucet" of sweat gland, which is especially common in children with rickets. However, night sweats are not unique manifestations of rickets. We should make a comprehensive analysis according to the feeding situation and outdoor activities of children, and also check blood calcium, blood phosphorus and wrist X-ray films to determine whether children have active rickets.
Night sweats in children with tuberculosis are characterized by sweating all night. In addition, there are symptoms such as flushing, low fever and emaciation, loss of appetite, and mood changes. Examination of erythrocyte sedimentation rate, anti-tuberculosis antibody, chest X-ray, etc., can often find abnormalities. One thing to pay attention to is to check whether there is lymphadenopathy in the neck in detail, which is very valuable for the diagnosis of tuberculosis in children.
To sum up, all causes and diseases that affect the body's thermoregulatory center and increase the excitability of sympathetic nerves can cause night sweats in children. As parents, children should be carefully observed and judged after comprehensive analysis, and drugs should not be taken blindly to avoid adverse consequences.
How should patients with night sweats maintain themselves?
Chinese medicine believes that "sweat is the heart fluid". If night sweats persist for a long time, the heart yin is very damaged and should be actively treated. At the same time of treatment, we should pay special attention to self-care. There are mainly the following points:
(1) At the same time of drug treatment, we should strengthen necessary physical exercise, develop regular living habits, and pay attention to the combination of work and rest.
(2) In terms of diet, it is necessary to explore the rules of diet avoidance that are beneficial or harmful to one's own illness and syndrome, and carry out diet therapy and recuperation that is most suitable for one's own. In the case of patients with yin deficiency, blood heat and hyperactivity of fire due to yin deficiency, they should abstain from spicy hot food, do not drink alcohol, and eat more fresh vegetables for nourishing yin and clearing heat, so that the secretion function of sweat glands can be firmly restored on the basis of body health.
(3) When conditions permit, properly adjust the temperature and humidity of the living environment. For example, the living environment of people with yin deficiency and blood heat should be slightly cooler.
(4) Patients' bedding, bedding, pajamas, etc. should be removed and washed frequently or cooled in the sun to keep it dry, and should take a bath frequently to reduce the stimulation of sweat on the skin.
(5) Family members of patients with severe night sweats and long-term bed rest should pay special attention to strengthening nursing to avoid bedsores. Also pay attention to observe the patient's complexion, consciousness and sweating, and report to the doctor in time if there are any special changes.