So, this is a weird one that took me years to figure out.  I’ll describe the symptoms, what foods triggers them, and why this occurs.

The Cold Chills:

In the dead of night, maybe every 30 minutes or so, and every time I move even the slightest bit, it metaphorically feels like someone just beamed me outside into 20 degree weather, dumped a bucket of ice cold water on me, and forced me to drink an ice cold glass for water all at the exact same time. Basically, the sensation of freezing cold is an internal and external sensation from which you cannot escape. No amount of blankets or hot water to drink will prevent me from this repeating battle with the cold. It lasts ALL NIGHT LONG.

The Night Sweats:

I‘m not talking about feeling a little flush and sweaty here. No, I’m talking about waking up in the dead of night in a pool of your own sweat kind of sweaty. My hair is saturated, my sheets and pillow are saturated, and it’s not localized to one area, the whole darn length of me top to bottom is saturated. Mix in the cold chills and a natural inclination to cover up, and it only gets worse.

These aren’t symptoms that happen every night. Nope, they occur once in a blue freaking moon with seemingly nothing in common.

So what is it? What’s the commonality? What’s the correlation that is also the causation?

Natural Laxative Intolerance.

Notice that I did not say lactose, I said laxative.

Actually, it’s more like an all-out laxative REJECTION. It’s brought on by many foods that are natural laxatives, and you’re body’s response to it is as though you just had way too much and it goes spastic and try’s to sweat it all out. For awhile I thought this was intermittent food poisoning or something. One, because I could eat the same food and not always end up with these symptoms, and two, because the foods didn’t seem to have anything in common.

However, the reason I could on rare occasions eat these foods with no chills or sweats, was because I already had at least 1 tablespoon of one of the foods the day before, which reduced my intolerance to the other food enough to NOT trigger these symptoms. Of course, in the beginning I didn’t know what these foods were, so I had no clue I was reducing my intolerance to them by having small amounts every day or every couple of days.

So, what foods are the culprits?

Any food or drink with even a little bit of milk in it, whether it’s plant-based or animal-based.

This includes typically cow’s milk, soy milk, almond milk, coconut milk, and even coconut oil on occasion.

Well, I may not have a complete list here, but I’m sure you’ll get the overall picture. This includes foods such as: ice cream, yogurt, frozen yogurt, Greek yogurt, mayonnaise, ranch dressing, some creamy soups,  etc.

However, this does not include cheese.

Solution:

I you have at least 1 tablespoon of one of these foods every day (like a little mayo on a sandwich), these symptoms when eating quite a bit more than that are not triggered. You may still experience any gas or bloating associated with consuming these foods if you normally do, but the cold and night sweats should stop occurring. BUT, don’t miss a day or you may end up right back freezing and sweating all night long, which can be not only really gross, but also very painful, since the cold chills are so strong that your already very tight and sore muscles are forcefully contracted over and over again – a very painful thing to endure.

Happy Sleeping!!