Night Sweats and Chills Question

NightHawkeye · Post by **NightHawkeye** » Sat Feb 04, 2006 5:27 pm

A couple of weeks ago it seemed like I was blazing a new trail with my own special variety of sleep apnea, but now I’m not so sure. In searching around the internet, one place I stumbled across talked about a survey of apnea sufferers which found 66% of those with sleep apnea experienced excessive night sweating. Here’s the link: http://sleepdisorders.about.com/gi/dyna ... weats.html

My personal experience used to be night sweats on occasion, followed shortly by getting really cold. Sometimes arrhythmias occurred after sweating and before getting really cold. Since starting xPAP I don’t get really cold any more. Since starting xPAP the apnea, sweating and getting cold has only occurred once, and it occurred as the result of an exceptionally long apnea. I was able to directly connect the apnea with lowering my body temperature by over a degree from my normal body temperature.

The sweating followed by getting cold happens all the time to patients in surgery and anesthesiologists have a term for it – redistribution hypothermia. It sure fits what I experienced, but I’ve not been able to find anything at all connecting it with apnea, so it’s just my own personal hypothesis at the moment. Sure seems hard to think that these haven’t been connected yet, but considering that OSA wasn’t “discovered” until 1980, who knows. . .

Anybody else experience night sweats followed by chills (especially before starting CPAP)?

Regards,
Bill (just trying to connect the dots)

Goofproof · Post by **Goofproof** » Sat Feb 04, 2006 8:16 pm

I always wrote them off to touches of the flu bug. (Mild) Maybe the reason you don't have them anymore is all that HH air on the inside cooks you like a Turkey in a Microwave. (From the inside out)

In my case it would be more like a Pig Roast.

Sergeant Bob · Post by **Sergeant Bob** » Sat Feb 04, 2006 11:43 pm

I never got the chills before starting CPAP but, I used to sweat profusely.
I would wake up and the sheets would be soaked.
Since going on CPAP I no longer "sweat the bed".

Julie · Post by **Julie** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 5:10 am

Hi, being cold after sweating is normal - it's just the 'water' evaporating, which feels cold until it dries. Or am I missing something more profound?

NightHawkeye · Post by **NightHawkeye** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 8:46 am

Julie wrote:Hi, being cold after sweating is normal - it's just the 'water' evaporating, which feels cold until it dries. Or am I missing something more profound?

Julie, thanks for giving me the opportunity to clarify. It would be "normal" to be slightly cool after sweating, usually associated with feeling good, but then one would return to "normal" within a matter of just a few minutes.

What I'm asking about is "chills", the sort one might associate with the flu for instance. In my case chills were also sometimes accompanied by shivering.

These symptoms went away immediately when I started xPAP. My sleep doc admits to not having a clue as to how to account for them. I suspect that this is just another common, but unrecognized, symptom of sleep apnea.

Regards,
Bill

SLEEPYCD · Post by **SLEEPYCD** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 9:28 am

TO ALL,
HAVING NIGHT SWEATS IS A COMMON SYMPTOM OF OSA. ALONG WITH SNORING, DAYTIME SLEEPINESS, HIGH BP, DEPRESSION, INSOMINA, WEIGHT GAIN, CHOKING, FREQUENT URINATION AT NIGHT, MORNING HEADACHES AND DRY MOUTH, IRRITABILITY, CONFUSION, ECT, ECT. USE YOUR CPAP FOR AWHILE (TOOK ME ABOUT 2-3 MONTHS) AND YOU WILL REALLY START TO NOTICE A DIFFERENCE MENTALLY AND PHYSICALLY!!!! GOOD LUCK!!
CAROLYN

NightHawkeye · Post by **NightHawkeye** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 11:10 am

OK, we've pretty well established that the sweating is common. Julie's answer suggests that she thinks the chills are too, but no one else has chimed in as having experienced that.

So, just in case the original question has gotten lost, I'll repeat it.

NightHawkeye wrote:Anybody else experience night sweats followed by chills (especially before starting CPAP)?

Regards,
Bill (appreciative of your sincere responses)

SLEEPYCD · Post by **SLEEPYCD** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 12:25 pm

NIGHTHAWKEYE,
YES, IN ANSWER TO THE QUESTION, NIGHT SWEATS FOR ME WERE FOLLOWED BY THE CHILLS!!!! I THOUGHT IT WAS PERIMENOPAUSAL SYMTOMS (48 YR OLD FEMALE IOWAN). AFTER CPAP USE OF A COUPLE MONTHS NIGHT SWEATS AND CHILLS DISAPPEARED ALONG WITH MANY OTHER NASTY SYMPTOMS!!!! HOPE IT WORKS FOR YOU!!!
CAROLYN

NightHawkeye · Post by **NightHawkeye** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 2:06 pm

SLEEPYCD wrote:I THOUGHT IT WAS PERIMENOPAUSAL SYMTOMS . . .

Maybe not, Carolyn. It was definitely not perimenopausal in my case.

I'm guessing quite a few others fall in this category also.

Regards,
Bill

Julie · Post by **Julie** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 3:33 pm

Hi, well I didn't realize you'd meant actual chills, but I've been thinking and wonder if it's possible you didn't just have some other kind of problem simultaneously that had nothing to do with apnea. People can have low level infections, fever, etc. that never get diagnosed (even when seen by MD's), and while they may not really have daytime symptoms, they're more aware of them at night, and often they just go away by themselves. However, I would like to just put something out here, don't mean to worry anyone, but one symptom of TB (yes, good old TB) is night sweats. I had sweating before going on CPA., but more usually during daytime naps, for some reason, and do not have TB! But if you're having them on CPAP, and have any reason at all (travel, living in a high immigrant or just not upwardly mobile area) to think you might had some exposure, your MD can do a 1 min. test for you. The likelihood is pretty remote, but in fact it has come back in many areas in recent years, due to the above, and it's not unheard of, unfortunately.

NightHawkeye · Post by **NightHawkeye** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 5:33 pm

Julie wrote: I've been thinking and wonder if it's possible you didn't just have some other kind of problem simultaneously that had nothing to do with apnea.

Julie, one physician diagnosed me with hypothyroidism based strictly on symptoms because all the objective tests came back "normal". Thyroid meds helped some, but a few years ago after my last trip to an emergency room in the middle of the night, my physician demanded that I cut down the thyroid medication. I've had more tests in the past 27 years than I can even begin to remember.

Since starting xPAP a month ago my body temp has been between 97 and 97.6 degrees at night, compared to always being below 96 prior to xPAP, sometimes just above 94 degrees, definitely hypothermic, and I would definitely be shivering.

It seemed that apnea didn't fully explain my symptoms, and I continued searching the web until I came across "redistribution hypothermia". Here's a link that explains it pretty well: http://www.outpatientsurgery.net/2002/os11/buying.shtml

Redistribution hypothermia just explains everything I've been experiencing for the past 27 years at night and so I'm left to wonder whether it's just me or whether there are others. Responses so far make me think there are others, and that this is not uncommon, although perhaps not many experience it to the degree I did. The first stage of redistribution hypothermia is sweating, and the second stage is chills (which tend to be more profound when one is skinny).

Regards,
Bill

Julie · Post by **Julie** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 5:50 pm

Hi again. Well, I've been working in big teaching hospitals my whole life, and never, ever heard of redistribution hypothermia, which of course does not mean it doesn't exist, but it also struck me while reading your link that those people were trying to sell you some things, and it reminds of those recent (few yrs) ads talking about 'social anxiety' when they're trying to sell psychoactive meds on TV. I guess there might be some situation in which a psychiatrist would attribute the term 'social anxiety' to a patient, but I've yet to hear of that either. It's much more likely that it's just an exaggeration of shyness, possibly even agoraphobia, or general anxiety, period. If you think you fit the term (redis. hypo.) though, why not ask your MD if it's valid, common or otherwise, and whether it's likely that you have it. I'd be very interested to know what she says.

NightHawkeye · Post by **NightHawkeye** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 6:00 pm

Julie wrote:Well, I've been working in big teaching hospitals my whole life, and never, ever heard of redistribution hypothermia . . .

Ask your anesthesiologists, Julie. They better have learned about it. Their very livelihoods depend upon it.

Whether or not "Redistribution Hypothermia" exists or not is not in question, Julie. Here's just one of many links at the National Institutes of Health website to a study dealing with redistribution hypothermia.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/quer ... t=Abstract

The only reason I posted the other link was because it explained things in simple terms. (Geez, I should know better.)

Regards,
Bill

cvansant · Post by **cvansant** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 11:11 pm

WWIW:

I had been having night sweats virtually every night, with occasional chills after, for years. No change after months of CPAP..

What did help was a visit with a pulmonologist. He suggeted my acid reflux (Known about for 10+ years but not treated other than Tums.)as a possible cause for my: persistant coughing, difficulty breathing deeply, and the scarring in my lungs. Prescription: 20MG omeprazole twice a day. Voila! No more waking up with a damp/wet pillow.

Ida never thunk it, but it works for me.

Clif

NightHawkeye · Post by **NightHawkeye** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 5:48 am

Hmm. . ., I wonder if that's related to the vagal nerve. When my sleep doc prescribed Protonix for me we had a discussion about the vagal nerve being related to all sorts of unusual phenomena and being stimulated by acid reflux.

Protonix sure helps my acid reflux but hasn't affected the apnea at all. Oh well. . .

Regards,
Bill

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