Night sweats in men are common and usually tied to something fixable: a warm bedroom, alcohol before bed, or a medication side effect. But when you’re regularly waking up with soaked sheets, it’s worth understanding the full range of causes, from the straightforward to the ones that need medical attention.
Your Bedroom May Be Too Warm
The simplest explanation is often the right one. Your body temperature naturally drops during sleep, and if your environment fights that process, you sweat. Sleep experts at the Cleveland Clinic recommend keeping your bedroom between 60 and 67°F (15 to 19°C), which feels cooler than most people expect. If your thermostat is set to 72°F or higher, that alone could explain waking up damp.
Bedding matters too. Heavy comforters, memory foam mattresses (which trap heat), and synthetic sheets all work against you. Bamboo sheets absorb more moisture than cotton and breathe better, making them one of the more effective swaps for heavy sweaters. Lightweight synthetic blends wick moisture away from your skin but can trap heat against your body, so natural fibers tend to perform better overall.
Alcohol and Spicy Food Before Bed
Drinking alcohol raises your heart rate and widens your blood vessels, a process called vasodilation. Your skin flushes with warm blood, and your body responds by sweating to cool down. This effect doesn’t stop when you fall asleep. Even moderate drinking in the evening can trigger noticeable night sweats, and the closer to bedtime you drink, the worse it gets.
Spicy foods and caffeine have a similar, though usually milder, effect. Capsaicin (the compound that makes peppers hot) triggers the same heat-sensing receptors in your body, prompting a sweat response. If your night sweats tend to happen on certain nights, tracking what you ate and drank that evening often reveals the pattern.
Low Testosterone and Hormonal Shifts
Men don’t typically think of hot flashes as something that affects them, but low testosterone produces exactly that. When testosterone drops, the brain’s temperature control center becomes less stable. It misreads normal body temperature as too high, then sends signals to widen blood vessels in the skin. You get a sudden flush of warmth followed by a cold, clammy sweat as your body overcorrects.
Testosterone levels decline gradually with age, typically starting in the late 30s or 40s. But some men experience a sharper drop due to conditions like pituitary problems, testicular injury, or certain medications. If your night sweats come with fatigue, reduced sex drive, difficulty concentrating, or mood changes, low testosterone is worth investigating with a simple blood test.
Men undergoing treatment for prostate cancer are especially prone to this. Hormone therapy that suppresses testosterone can trigger severe night sweats and hot flashes, sometimes for the duration of treatment.
Sleep Apnea Is a Surprisingly Common Cause
Obstructive sleep apnea, where your airway repeatedly collapses during sleep, is one of the most overlooked causes of night sweats in men. About 31% of people with sleep apnea report frequent night sweats (three or more times per week), compared to just 11% of the general population. That’s nearly triple the rate.
The connection makes sense when you consider what happens during an apnea episode. Your body is essentially struggling to breathe, which triggers a stress response. Your heart rate spikes, stress hormones surge, and you sweat. Many men with sleep apnea don’t realize they have it because they don’t remember waking up. If your night sweats come with loud snoring, daytime exhaustion, or a partner who notices you stop breathing during sleep, this is a likely culprit. Treating the apnea with a breathing device often resolves the sweating.
Medications That Trigger Sweating
Several common medications list night sweats as a side effect. Antidepressants, particularly SSRIs and SNRIs, are among the most frequent offenders. They affect the brain chemicals involved in temperature regulation, and sweating can start within weeks of beginning a new prescription or adjusting a dose.
Other medications linked to night sweats include drugs used to manage diabetes (especially those that lower blood sugar), hormone therapies, and methadone. If your night sweats started around the same time as a new medication, that timing is a strong clue. Don’t stop taking a prescribed medication on your own, but it’s a conversation worth having with whoever prescribed it. Dose adjustments or switching to a different drug in the same class often helps.
Infections and Immune System Responses
Your body raises its internal temperature to fight infections, and night sweats are part of that process. This is why you sweat during a cold or flu. But some infections cause night sweats that persist for weeks. Tuberculosis is the classic example, though it’s uncommon in most developed countries. Bacterial infections of the heart valves (endocarditis), bone infections, and abscesses can all produce drenching night sweats alongside fever.
HIV infection is another cause, particularly in early or untreated stages. If you have night sweats with unexplained fever, persistent fatigue, or unintentional weight loss, an infection screen is a reasonable step.
When Night Sweats Signal Something Serious
Most night sweats are not dangerous. But drenching sweats, the kind that soak through your sheets and wake you up, deserve attention when they come with other symptoms. Lymphoma, a cancer of the immune system, is the condition doctors are most concerned about ruling out. The pattern to watch for is a combination of symptoms: drenching night sweats alongside unexplained weight loss, persistent fevers, fatigue that doesn’t improve with rest, and swollen lymph nodes in the neck, armpits, or groin. Itchy skin and chest pain can also be present.
No single symptom on its own points to cancer. The concern arises when several of these symptoms appear together and persist for weeks. If that describes your situation, it warrants evaluation sooner rather than later.
Practical Steps to Reduce Night Sweats
Start with the factors you can control. Drop your bedroom temperature to the 60 to 67°F range, even if it feels cool at first. Your body adjusts quickly. Switch to breathable bedding: bamboo or cotton sheets, a lighter blanket, and a pillow that doesn’t trap heat against your head and neck.
Cut off alcohol and caffeine at least three to four hours before bed. If you exercise in the evening, try shifting your workout earlier. Intense physical activity raises your core temperature for hours afterward, and that residual heat contributes to overnight sweating.
If those changes don’t help after a couple of weeks, the cause is more likely internal. A blood panel checking testosterone levels, thyroid function, blood sugar, and inflammatory markers can cover most of the common medical causes in a single visit. If you snore heavily or wake up feeling unrested despite a full night’s sleep, a sleep study to check for apnea is one of the highest-yield tests you can pursue.