Night Sweats and Hot Flashes in Menopause - Causes, Cures and Remedies for this Symptom of Menopause

You're drifting off to sleep, when for no apparent reason an intense feeling of heat seems to well up inside you. It spreads to your upper body and face and you start to sweat. Your heart begins to race and you may even feel dizzy, weak, and anxious. Sometimes you wake up sweating and drenched, right down to the sheets.

What's going on? Then it hits you. You're 49 years old and your periods have been very erratic. This must be one of the signs of menopause. These are the night sweats and hot flashes you've heard so much about, and are pretty much the same thing, the only difference being that one occurs at night and disrupts your sleep.

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If it's any consolation, you're not alone. You and 85% of the women in the US have menopausal hot flashes as well as night sweats when they near menopause, which usually continue for a couple of years after the periods stop. Up to 50% of these women may find these symptoms continue for several years more, but they do become less severe as time passes.

Causes of Night Sweats

Both perimenopause hot flashes and night sweats can be attributed to the hormonal changes your body is going through. The causes aren't completely understood, but it is thought that these phenomena can also be influenced by your lifestyle and other outside influences.

The drop in the levels of estrogen in your body at menopause affect the gland in the brain that controls body temperature. In fact this gland, the hypothalamus, is referred to as the 'body's thermostat'. Without enough estrogen it gets confused and that internal thermostat starts to read too hot.

When your brain gets the message that the body temperature is too high it instructs the rest of your body to react. Your heart begins to pump faster, blood vessels beneath the skin expand and more blood circulates to get rid of the heat, and your sweat glands spring into action to help cool you off.

Hot Flash Remedies

The bottom line is that hot flashes can affect your life because they can occur any time and be very distracting and sometimes even embarrassing. Night sweats interrupt sleep and many women have to change into dry sleepwear and even strip the bed before they can sleep again. Hot flash pajamas can be useful here.

There are some simple remedies you can try to help curtail menopausal hot flashes including using exercise in menopause, which can help reduce the number of hot flashes and help you to lose weight. It's also useful to explore ways to relieve stress.

Perhaps you've worked out your own triggers. All of these can spark a hot flash or night sweat::

• drinking alcohol
• drinks with caffeine like coffee, tea and cola
• eating spicy foods
• hot weather
• hot baths

If you can pinpoint the circumstances under which your night sweats and hot flashes occur, you may be able to avoid that situation, perhaps not all the time, but often enough to give you a little relief from this irritating symptom of menopause.

Go from Night Sweats Hot Flashes to Beat Menopause Weight Gain.