Night sweats?!

[NicoleBx]

For the past week I've been waking up multiple times in the night sweating and all clammy. This has only been happening since I've had health anxiety so of course I'm worrying that it could be something serious! I sleep in minimal clothing at night anyways and was just wondering if anyone else has had this problem and it's turned out to be nothing? Im only 23 so it's deffo not the menopause ! However I am on the implant but never had these problems before its only been recently? Any advice would be brilliant! Xx

[Mindknot]

You've answered your own question there... "only had them since you've had health anxiety"?

This is from the symptoms page (http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/articles/symptoms):

Temperature waves, sweating, feeling cold or chilled

What you feel:

For no apparent reason you break into hot or cold sweats. You may also experience hot flashes or excessive sweating for no reason.Some people really feel a panic or anxiety coming on by a whole wave washing through them of extreme heat or icy coldness. When your symptoms feel particularly irritable, suddenly, you feel very cold or chilled. Often this chill is difficult to shake, and only after the symptoms subside does the chill lift.

What causes this:

When high levels of stress biology are present, any nerve or system controlled by the involuntary nervous system can experience erratic and inappropriate biological responses. The respiration system is no exception. This is a common symptom and isn't one to be concerned with. It's just annoying and sometimes awkward in social settings.

For the record, I had it too when I was at my most anxious, and they stopped when I started to work on managing my anxiety.

[Gregg_]

This has been my main battle since July.

After a period of not feeling 100% I was sent for a CT scan which picked up a slightly enlarged spleen. Everything else came back fine (blood tests, chest X-Rays etc) and multiple doctors and nurses and a haemotologist told me I was fine, there was no concern.

My problem started when I went home and googled "enlarged spleen" and I obviously focused in on Lymphoma and one thing that freaked me out was night sweats. I had had them a few months earlier during warmer weather/stressful times but they went because I wasn't aware they were a symptom of anything so I didn't worry, but because I had this huge anxiety over Lymphoma I started to panic and focus on them to the point where I was going to bed thinking "PLEASE DON'T LET ME WAKE UP SWEATING" and guess what....I started to wake up sweating.

Now that was around the end of July/early August and it's still a battle of mine. One thing I have noticed however, is that the brief periods of me stopping thinking about them (usually when another worry takes over for a week) they actually stop. So what does that tell you?

I've just had a viral infection which has then come out in a cold and for the past three nights I've woke up sweating. Now even though I know that I'm sweating out the cold and virus and this is normal, my anxiety wants to tell me I'm seriously ill again. And it's an exhausting battle that has ruined months of my life. I know the facts, I know I'm well. However the mind takes control and the fear becomes so overwhelming that it's just crippling. I usually love the autumn/lead up to Christmas, however this year it's been utterly miserable.

My Dad sweats at night and doesn't think anything of it (he can't believe how worried I have been over the past few months, but he hasn't seen all the things I've seen on Google).

I can assure you that anxiety night sweats are 100% normal. It's difficult to control because they are subconsciously there. It's like trying to control your dreams. The best way I have found to cope (and I'm still trying to figure this out) is to separate your mind from you. Understand that it's not the event of you waking up in the night sweating, that's normal, it's the thoughts that you think that comes with it and this causes the suffering.

[matrix123]

Before diagnosed with anxiety I had pretty bad sweating... All night as you say. It was just anxiety and it did go away