Excessive sweating
Excessive sweating happens when the sweat glands (eccrine glands in particular) overreact to stimuli and are generally overactive, producing more sweat than what’s necessary. This can have a huge impact on your daily activities and life over all. What is excessive sweating or hyperhidrosis? Hyperhidrosis is characterised by excessive, non-functional sweating. In case you believe that you suffer from Hyperhidrosis you should seek medical advice, as it can be caused by a medical condition or be a side effect of medication.
Cause of excessive sweating
Why do I sweat so much? Sweat is essential to human survival and serves as the body’s coolant, protecting it from overheating. Sweat often appears when you are physically active or are located in a hot environment, but it can also be triggered when you are emotionally affected such as when you are feeling stressed, anxious or experiencing fear. Sweating can also be a response to hormonal changes such as puberty, pregnancy and menopause. That’s all normal but your experience can still be uncomfortable. Excessive sweating can also be a side effect of different medications or diseases. If you suspect the reason for your excessive sweating is caused by either or, you should seek medical advice.
Why do I sweat so easily?
People who are fit, will sweat more and faster than people who are not. That’s simply because they have trained their body to sweat whenever they are physically exerting. Meaning they start sweating when their body registers overheating.
Sweat is primarily induced by these three factors:
Physical
- Climate (heat and humidity)
- Physical activity (sports)
- Hormonal (puberty, menopause)
Emotional
- Embarrassment
- Stress
- Excitement
- Nervousness
- Fear
- Anxiety
- Anger
Medical
- Disease-included sweating
- Side effects from medication
Sweating at night
In most cases sweating at night is relatively harmless and easy to solve. We often get questions like: – why do I sweat so much at night? There can be many reasons for you sweating at night, a first step can be to use a thinner duvet and to lower the temperature in the bedroom. People who are suffering from hyperhidrosis do not often experience excessive sweating at night, this may be an indication that the sweating instead is caused by a medical condition or is a medical side effect. It is also very common for woman in menopause or taking birth control pills to sweat more at night as the oestrogen level in the body can be low or variable.
Our best tips to stop excessive sweating at night:
- Lower temperature in your bedroom.
- Use a thinner duvet.
- Avoid caffeine and alcohol 2-3 hours before bedtime. These drinks, like spicy foods, can increase sweat production. You can read more about which foods you should avoid in order to help get rid of uncomfortable sweating in this blog post.
- Relaxation! We know that’s easier said than done. But stress is another reason why many people occasionally wake up bathed in sweat. Practicing 10 minutes of mindfulness before bedtime, or after waking up from a sweaty night’s sleep, can actually reduce sweat production. At our Facebook page you can watch a number of videos by Kristina Trolle, a physical and mental health consultant, where she teaches how to “park” your thoughts before going to bed.
- Apply an effective antiperspirant. Perspirex antiperspirants have helped many people returning to dry nights and can thereby also help you to sleep undisturbed, waking up well rested the next day. We all sweat differently, therefore Perspirex has developed various effective antiperspirants to meet your personal needs to give you safe protection against sweat and the smell of sweat in any situation, even at night. The perspirants are available in both roll-on and lotion form that provides effective sweat reduction. We can help you to find out what antiperspirant fits your needs best. Take the test here.
- Make sure your blood sugar is stable. A side effect of low blood sugar can result in heavy, nocturnal sweating.
How to stop sweating
The treatment of excessive sweating is different depending upon the cause of the sweating. So, how to stop excessive sweating? You can reduce sweating by using antiperspirants. Antiperspirants are considered the first line of treatment for excessive sweating of the underarms, hands, feet, and sometimes face. Antiperspirants are inexpensive, easy to use and are called the first line of treatment because they are the least invasive. That’s also why experts tend to recommend you to try this first, before you try other more invasive treatments. In the second line comes medical treatments such as botox, which should only be used after medical consultation.