Being able to get a good night’s rest and ensure a high quality of sleep is vital for your health and well-being in general.
However, that can be difficult if, for instance, you find yourself up half the night, scratching at yourself relentlessly. Itchiness at night, when you’re tucked into the bed, can happen for all manner of reasons. It might be an issue with the bedding, it might be a health factor affecting you, or it might even be that you have an unexpected guest.
Here, we’re going to look at a few common answers, signs that they might be the issue, and what you can do about them.
Skin issues
There are all kinds of issues that can affect your skin, both short-term and long-term, that can make you feel itchy, especially at night. Most of us get at least a little more itchy due to changes in body temperature and hormone levels, naturally, as we approach sleep.
Hydration plays a factor, too. Don’t drink enough water and your skin will become dry, which makes it easier to irritate. However, if you have signs of eczema or psoriasis, such as flakes of dry skin that come off when you’re scratching, then you might want to get in touch with a dermatologist for advice on how to manage the systems and prevent flare-ups from happening in the future.
Bed bugs
Most of us certainly don’t like to think of the possibility that we might have bugs in our bed but many of us may be entirely unaware of it as bed bugs are so tiny that usually they cannot be seen by the naked eye.
If you think you might have them, look out for signs such as reddish stains on your bed or unexplained dark spots on your skin, which is where you have most likely been bitten, and get in touch with a pest agency about how to get rid of bed bugs.
Bed bugs are notoriously resistant to most common forms of household pest control, so hiring professionals is the most likely path to success.
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Dust mites
Bed bugs are not the only pest that can make your home in bedding and cause itchiness. A lot of people confuse dust mites and bed bugs as the same thing, but dust mites do not feed on human blood, rather, they tend to eat the dead skin that we shed at night.
However, this can be just as irritating, especially for those with sensitive skin, so it’s worth getting rid of them in the first place.
New sheets
A lot of people find that changing their sheets can suddenly make them feel a lot itchier when they go to bed for the night. However, this is most prevalent in brand-new bed sheets. This is most commonly caused by the presence of sizing, a starch that is designed to keep sheets crisp and smooth in their packaging, but that can be irritating.
Washing your bed sheets usually gets rid of this, hopefully making things more comfortable again. However, some people have also found that certain fabrics, especially synthetic fabrics like terylene, can make them feel itchier so it might just be a case of learning what your bedsheets are made of and avoiding those that cause irritation.
Photo by Cassidy Dickens on Unsplash
Allergic reactions
Sometimes, it might be the sheets, but it might not be because of the quality of the fabric, but rather an allergy that you have developed. Similarly, you might have an allergy to a component of the products that you use to wash or soften your fabrics.
Asking your doctor for an allergy scratch test is going to help you learn which elements you might need to avoid.
Hormonal changes
Changes in the hormones in the body can cause a whole host of changes throughout, and this can include changes in the skin, as well. The most common is that you can find your skin becoming dry which, in turn, will cause it to become itchy.
This is most especially common in menopause when your skin produces less of the oil that keeps the skin hydrated, but this also happens to pregnant women as well. Finding a good skin cream to keep your skin hydrated should help.
Itchiness at night, when you’re trying to sleep, is a very irritating issue, but it’s usually one that can be dealt with.
Take the time to test and rule out the various potential problems above to see which one is affecting you, and use the right solution for the job.
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