As you start to treat your night sweats, you should take into account the different tactics your body utilizes to reduce heat and moderate your temperature, even while you rest.
Convection and radiation are 2 ways your body eliminates heat. I’ll explain how they help and how you might utilize them to reduce night sweats in men.
We have our hypothalamus to thank for perspiring. But we can also accuse it when we sweat too much. It is the part of our brain that regulates our body temperature and initiates sweating. At times it works well, but at times it over-reacts.
Just like a fire exudes warmth through heat transference from the flame to the air near it, so do our bodies radiate heat, albeit to a lesser extent. Radiation is one of the methods our body uses to eliminate heat.
As you’re sleeping at night, your bed, sheets and blanket will absorb some of the warmth you emit. However when they absorb so much heat that their temperature equals your own body’s temperature, they can’t take in anymore. So that heat just accumulates underneath the sheets and raises both the bed’s temperature and your body’s temperature.
To help make this work properly, you need to wear and use lightweight materials that breathe easily to allow that body heat to pass through your sheets and sleepwear. Allowing space between your bedding and your body and will help as well. Providing a way for the heat to escape will also help.
Just as you can reduce the heat of your beverage by blowing air over it, your body can cool itself when air passes across your skin. This is known as convection. We are all likely familiar with the experience of the way a breeze blowing in your direction presents a cooling sensation. This is an example of convection at work. It may not be air that is any cooler than you, but it is enabling your body to provide cool relief with convection.
To improve convection for night sweats relief you should provide air movement around you. Using a cross draft can do the job, but a bed fan or ceiling fan could perform better.
This should help you do your best to use convection and radiation to keep your body cool and avoid triggering night sweats. Luckily these techniques do not warrant pricey medicine or other remedies. Merely a bit of common sense and possibly a bed fan.