When I’ve been sick, I’ll feel like crap. Then one night I’ll go to bed, and sometime during the night I’ll wake up in a sweat and I’ll be fine. It’s a common trope in film and television, where someone is sick and the drama builds as no one knows id the person will live or die; and then the fever ‘breaks’, the person is covered in sweat, and s/he’s on the mend.
So physiologically, what exactly is going on? I understand that a fever is the body’s way of fighting the illness. I understand that sweating is the body’s way of cooling off. So it’s like the body is saying ‘I’ve got to warm up! No, wait. I have to cool down!’ I’ve always been asleep when this happens. Does the cool-down (sweating) occur after the body has determined that it has won the fight? Or is it concurrent? And if it’s concurrent, why?