Should I be worried about night sweats?

Dr Mark’s reply

Night sweats are quite a common complaint. You have dismissed your bedroom temperature and an overly warm duvet, but you might be surprised by just how many people ignore these basics, particularly if they sleep with a partner who feels the cold more than they do.  

The fact that the night sweats have been going on a while, and you are otherwise well, is somewhat reassuring, but there are a number of possible medical causes to consider.  

• Stress/anxiety is the most common trigger I see, but others range from hormone changes associated with the menopause or an overactive thyroid gland, to underlying infection (including TB) and autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis.
• Excessive sweating can also be a side effect of some types of medication, including antidepressants such as citalopram and sertraline, opioid painkillers like high dose codeine, and some treatments for Parkinson’s disease and dementia. 
• Last but not least, albeit less commonly, night sweats can be a feature of some types of cancer, particularly leukaemias and lymphomas. 

So, please book an appointment to discuss your symptoms with your GP. And while you are waiting to see them, take a thermometer to bed with you. If you wake during the night when you are having a sweat, then take your temperature and note it down – and try to do this on more than one night to make sure you are not spiking a low fever. It will help your GP rule out fever/infection. 

After examining you, they will almost certainly want to do a range of blood tests, and probably a chest X-ray, to whittle the list down and identify the most likely cause. We don’t always find one.