Shift work and night sweats

UM Review RN, ASN, RN · Oct 2, 2004

In my experience, there are a few causes of "night" sweats, which really occur when the person is asleep, no matter the actual hour of day.

A few reasons can be fever, menopause, HIV, lung conditions like TB or pneumonia, or even sleep apnea.

Jo Anne -OLD · Oct 2, 2004

I've got a patient with night sweats. Quiet night, so I conducted a night duty inservice about possible causes (she's too young for menopause, and in any case it's definitely only at night); one of the grads asked if night workers get day sweats, and I had no idea :)
Does anyone out there know, or know the mechanism involved? Is it a cyclical thing, or is it tied to sleep? I do know that the patients I've asked have all said that they woke up drenched, which seems to indicate that it's sleep related, but...

Meds that the pt is taking? Paxil?. I have seen many pts who take this SSRI and c/o night sweats.

Just a thought.....

Jolie, BSN · Oct 2, 2004

What about glucose instability. I had this problem when I worked nights, due to changes in eating habits on the nights I worked vs. nights off.

Jo Anne -OLD · Oct 2, 2004

Meds that the pt is taking? Paxil?. I have seen many pts who take this SSRI and c/o night sweats.
Just a thought.....

or alcohol related???

talaxandra · Oct 3, 2004

She presented with two episodes of intermittant headaches/neck stiffness/transient photophobia (LP/MRI NAD) ~ 10/12 post MVA (CHI, multiple facial fractures). No significant alcohol intake, no illicit drug use, no usual meds; the unit are thinking migraine or?TIA. Although the unit have noted the night sweats they don't seem to be investigating them. She hasn't had any since admission, thus far.

I worked for a while in ID, so I'm familiar with most of the causal factors, though the suggestion of apnoea was interesting - I haven't seen that before. She doesn't even snore gently, so I don't think that's it but I'll keep it in mind with other patients.

I'd never thought about the mechanism involved, and I know that if I pursue it I'm procrastinate myself away from studying, so I'll wait until the end of semester and then check out the literature.

Thank you all so much for your input. As I said to the morning staff, where else could I post an esoteric question like this and get a response in four minutes? :)

wam79 · Oct 3, 2004

coup;e of ideas to add

Fibromyalgia and some other rhumatological conditions can cause night sweats.

I think people with IBS c/o sweats also

hope this helps

UM Review RN, ASN, RN · Oct 3, 2004

Hmmm... this is interesting. Did they check her thyroid?

talaxandra · Oct 3, 2004

No, no thyroid function - like I said, they don't seem to be too concerned about it. She was only admitted on Friday, so maybe it's the weekend factor at play, but surely they could still write up a blood slip for, oh I don't kbnow, HIV/HBV/HCV/TFT etc

Bill, she doesn' seem to have any other symptoms. Well, except for her presenting issues, of course :) But nothing that sounds like IBS; we're a rheumatology unit (among other things), so my head goes to rheumatological issues quite quickly, but nothing I can tell so far. It's very interesting...

chemoqueen, BSN, RN · Oct 4, 2004

some lymphomas and hodgkins can cause night sweats.

No, no thyroid function - like I said, they don't seem to be too concerned about it. She was only admitted on Friday, so maybe it's the weekend factor at play, but surely they could still write up a blood slip for, oh I don't kbnow, HIV/HBV/HCV/TFT etc
Bill, she doesn' seem to have any other symptoms. Well, except for her presenting issues, of course :) But nothing that sounds like IBS; we're a rheumatology unit (among other things), so my head goes to rheumatological issues quite quickly, but nothing I can tell so far. It's very interesting...