My head sweats a lot: what should I know?

Head sweating may happen during the day, at night, or both. Notice whether it is limited to your scalp and face or occurs across your body, and whether it soaks sleepwear or bedding.

Sweating cools the body. Warm weather, vigorous activity, spicy food, alcohol, anxiety and fever can all increase it. Some medicines and changes in hormones can also alter sweating; menopause can cause episodes of heat and sweating, while an overactive thyroid may cause sweating alongside heat intolerance, tremor or a fast heartbeat.

If sweating mainly occurs during sleep, it is often called night sweating. It can accompany infections such as glandular fever or brucellosis, and some longer-term illnesses can also present with night sweating. These conditions are not established by sweating alone, especially when there are no other symptoms.

Keep a short record of when the sweating starts, what you were doing, the room temperature, foods or drinks beforehand, and any medicines or supplements. Record whether you have fever, weight change, palpitations, cough, swollen glands or tiredness.

Use a cool room, breathable clothing and gentle scalp care. Replace fluids after heavy sweating. Do not stop a prescribed medicine without advice; a clinician can check whether a treatment or dose may be contributing and decide whether examination or blood tests are appropriate.

Arrange a primary-care appointment if sweating is new, continues without an obvious trigger, regularly disrupts sleep, or is accompanied by fever, unexplained weight loss, marked tiredness, swollen glands, cough, diarrhoea or a racing heartbeat.

Seek urgent help for sweating with chest pain, severe breathlessness, fainting, confusion, severe weakness or signs of heat illness such as hot skin and altered awareness. A sudden severe episode can need prompt assessment even if the sweating settles.

Ask: Could my medicines, thyroid, hormones or an infection be contributing? Does the pattern count as night sweating? Which symptoms should I monitor, and do I need an examination or tests? Bring your symptom record and a complete list of medicines, supplements and recent changes.