Sweaty Sleep Among Athletes: Understanding Causes, Solutions & My Anecdotes
Maybe your peri-menopausal aunt gets night sweats but have you ever woken up at night drenched in sweat and wondered why? I have. It’s extremely unpleasant especially when, at first, you think it might not be sweat (yuk). Anyway, I’m 100% sure I’m not going through menopause so it’s something else.
The Causes
For athletes or wannabe athletes like me who experience night sweats, there could be several underlying causes. Sweaty sleep can be triggered by factors like increased training volume or intensity, leading to higher core body temperature during sleep. Proper refuelling after intense exercise is also crucial to avoid night sweats. Alcohol or hormonal shifts can be causative factors and even hypoglycaemic events can too.
These episodes of extreme perspiration disrupt sleep and have long-term consequences if left untreated.
Benefits of solving
Quality sleep is paramount for athletes’ mental and physical well-being, as well as performance. Sleep is essential for muscle repair, increased blood flow, and hormone release, all vital for optimal athletic performance. Poor sleep can weaken the immune system, increase the risk of injuries, and deplete energy and nutrient stores, hindering daily performance.
Investigating, Tracking With HRV and Sleep Trackers
The sweat events coincided with heavier-than-usual training and tended to occur, say, around 4 in the morning which was also a time when I used to need to go to the loo (incidentally that particular issue was completely resolved when I had my appendix out..#strange)
I couldn’t find a definitive link to a certain level of training load and even my best sleep trackers couldn’t get to the bottom of my periodic night sweats. There was no link to HRV events as I at first suspected and the sweats probably also did not coincide with any particular sleep stage.
I also looked more closely at my blood sugar levels at night the times when I was wearing a Supersapiens glucose patch. I *DID* get some short, below-range sugar events some night. These are hypoglycemic events and shouldn’t really happen so I’ll keep my eye on those but, in any case, they did not coincide with the sweat events.
Perhaps linked to blood glucose levels, I’ve also read that mangoes eaten later at night can cause night sweats. I do love a good mango but rarely for supper.
The doctor did a few cursory tests (I can’t remember what they were) but nothing out of the ordinary was found by them.
The product that solved it
Over time I tended to notice that the time of year (summer vs winter) was a factor and that sweats never happened when I used a fan in bed in the summer. I’ve always been a hot sleeper but my problem seemed to be linked to excesses of temperature…maybe room temperature…maybe seasonal temperature…maybe core temperature from high training load…maybe all of them.
To cut to the chase, the product that solved my little problem was the Eight Sleep smart mattress. The mattress has scientifically validated HRV tech and temperature sensors to monitor your sleep stages and the bed temperature. It has a bedside unit that either cools or heats water that runs through the mattress and which regulates your bed temperature. So it’s air conditioning for the bed in summer and heating in the winter. It’s pretty cool!…literally!!! It does more than provide a fixed bed temperature as it takes into account your sleep stage essentially making it cooler in deep sleep and warmer before you wake up.
Eight Sleep has 100% increased my sleep quality and, so far, entirely eliminated my night sweats. It hasn’t cured the underlying issue but it has stopped the symptoms.
An added benefit is that if you have nighttime air conditioning in your house (I don’t) it will mean you should be able to turn it off and save money. It is an expensive product and if money is tight it would perhaps only make sense to consider it if you were replacing your mattress in any case. There is also a variant of the product that goes on top of your existing mattress that’s a bit cheaper but has the same smart temperature regulation abilities.
Eight Sleep is also used by many pro athletes, presumably to have a cooler bed to reduce recovery times.
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