Tuesday, March 16, 2010

waking up sweating

Question
I'm a 62 year old male-excellent health, avid runner, 40 miles a week, 2 marathons a year, low cholesterol, resting heart rate of 44bpm.  Take diovan for Bp, nexium, and half a crestor....once in awhile wake up after about 2 hours of sleep drenched in sweat...happened last night and did take a loratadine prior to bed...don't know if that was the cause or not,,, have taken that many times before but w/o the sweating problem....I do have anxiety about things though and think about them at bedtime....any thoughts?  Thanks


Answer
It could be a side effect from the loratadine.   also try these tips.



You must reset your sleep clock. Do the following religiously for

4-6 weeks though many have seen changes in as little as  2 weeks.

You must go to bed and awaken the same time every day regardless

of how much or little sleep you got the night before. This starts to

reset your sleep clock.  3 hours before bedtime stay away from

tea, coffee, caffeine, caramel colored soda like, coke,pepsi, ginger ale,

or root beer, chocolate and exercise .All these make for restless sleep.

Make sure room is quiet and dark. When you go to bed if you start to

twist and turn or if you wake up in the middle of the night and cant

go back to sleep, twist and turn for only 20 minutes, then get up, go

into a different room and read a book or magazine only! No computer!

When you start to doze immediately go back into the bedroom.Do this as

many times as you awaken during the night.It will lesson.This retrains

the brain into thinking that the bedroom is for restful sleep only.

30 minutes before bedtime take a hot bath and immerse hands under the

water.Latest research states that the palms of the hand when immersed

in hot water send signals to the brain to relax. 15 minutes before bedtime\

drink a glass of warm milk. Milk when heated contains tryptophan, a

natural amino acid sleep inducer. Go to sleepnet.com click on disorders

insomnia for more tips. Feel free to email again , Karel