Sweaty sheets aren’t sexy.

Especially when they happen while you were formerly blissfully asleep, and now you are sweaty and disgusting and awake.

For years and years I have had issues with waking up sweaty. I’m not talking about the predictable side effects of 100 degree temperatures. I’m talking about sleeping in your own bed with a perfectly reasonable ambient temperature and still waking up drenched. I always thought I was just really sensitive to external temperature. Or something. It wasn’t until I also started researching the secondary effects of adrenal fatigue that I found out they are related.

Wait, what? Why didn’t anyone mention that before?

Great question. I don’t know. I don’t know why I didn’t find it before. I don’t know why googling about night sweats gets you a list of very scary possibilities and down at the bottom a brief ‘oh, and it could be hormone imbalance’.

You know how I feel about that.

I found this information recently. The site is commercial, selling a supplement about which I have no opinion having not really looked into it. The information is clear and concise, and that’s why I’m linking to it:

Hormonal imbalances associated with progesterone deficiency are also directly tied into the health of the adrenal glands.

When your body is under stress and needs more cortisol, the body may have to direct more of its resources (pregnenolone and progesterone) to make that cortisol.  This causes two more problems. 

First, a percentage of progesterone is being used to make cortisol.  You can NOT make cortisol without progesterone.  The adrenal glands literally steal the progesterone, which leads to lower levels of progesterone.  This throws off the balance of progesterone to estrogen. This affects fertility, PMS, hot flashes, night sweats.  This is significant problem for women in pre- and post- menopausal stages, when hormone production becomes highly dependent on the adrenal glands!

Secondly, it reduces the available pregnenolone that is needed to produce DHEA, testosterone and estrogen which means it produces less of the anti-aging hormone (DHEA), testosterone and estrogen. The adrenals simply don’t have enough resources to produce enough cortisol and our sex hormones and a major reason for low testosterone for both men and women and a main cause of loss of libido.

Remember all that trouble I was having with my legs swelling that I didn’t understand? Now I know its estrogen imbalance. Progesterone is the side that gets rid of the swelling, estrogen causes it. Estrogen is stored in the fat cells, of which I have plenty. If all my progesterone is trying to create cortisol, then it isn’t doing any progesterone work…

The endless cycle.

The bottom line, for me? I started taking some OTC progesterone. It is very readily available as creams, and it has made a truly amazing difference in my life.

And my sleep. Now that I’m on progesterone regularly, and the cortisol, (and dhea, because they are all a team) no more night sweats. How simple was that?