After a long day, you fall into bed for some much-needed rest. All too soon, you wake drenched in sweat and you go from hot to cold in seconds. And this can happen over and over during the night, robbing you of the sleep you need.
Each year in the United States, about 1.3 million women enter menopause and about 80% of them experience vasomotor symptoms in the form of hot flashes and night sweats.
If you want to turn down the heat at night and get some sleep as you transition through menopause, here are some great best practices from Andrea Olanescu, MD, at Medical Care for Women PC.
Before we discuss ways to combat night sweats, let’s get a better idea about what’s going on in your body. When you transition through perimenopause and menopause, your reproductive hormone levels drop off, kicking off a cascade of changes in your body, with hot flashes and night sweats among the most common.
While researchers aren’t exactly sure why this occurs, many suspect that the sudden drop in hormones can affect your hypothalamus — the area of your brain that’s in charge of body temperature. With less estrogen, your hypothalamus goes a little haywire as it adjusts to new hormone levels, and night sweats are often the result.
Now let’s get into some helpful strategies for addressing night sweats, which include:
Because hormone loss is at the heart of your night sweats, it makes sense that hormone replacement therapy can help. In fact, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists reports that systemic hormone replacement therapy is the best solution for night sweats and hot flashes.
If you’d rather not tinker with your hormones, we can prescribe medications that target vasomotor symptoms like night sweats and hot flashes.
A great way to reduce hot flashes and promote better sleep is through exercise. However you like to exercise, we suggest that you double down on your efforts, which can help regulate the way your body functions. Exercise not only boosts your metabolic health, but it makes you more tired and ready for sleep.
Night sweats can be more frequent when you’re stressed, so we highly recommend that you find ways to de-stress, such as through mindfulness practices like deep breathing and meditation.
For example, you can spend a few minutes when you wake up and before you go to sleep doing some box breathing — inhale through your nose for 4 seconds, hold for 4 seconds, exhale through your mouth for 4 seconds, and then hold for another 4 seconds.
For meditation, there are plenty of apps that can guide you through stress to calm your nervous system, which can help with night sweats.
As you work toward solutions for your night sweats, make an effort to improve your sleep hygiene by:
These practices can set you up for more restful sleep as they help you respond to night sweats quickly and effectively.
To learn more about managing the many symptoms of menopause, please don’t hesitate to contact the team at Medical Care for Women PC at our office in Astoria or Jamaica, New York.
