Whether you're experiencing menopausal temperature fluctuations or simply sweat heavily at night, we know how uncomfortable and disruptive this can be. Medical treatments can help alleviate symptoms but did you know that linen bedding can also improve your sleep? Here's how linen sheets and duvet covers could be one more tool in your night sweat-tackling toolkit. Better sleep is just a few steps away.
What are night sweats?
We all sweat during the night, especially in hot weather, but many people wake up to find the sheets and their nightclothes are soaking wet. This is obviously extremely unpleasant, and results in broken sleep. Over time this can lead to exhaustion and even mental health problems. Night sweats are often caused by hormonal changes and many women experience them during peri-menopause or menopause. Anxiety, certain medical conditions and some medication can also cause excessive sweating at night.
If you are experiencing irritating overheating but not full night sweats, this might be down to your bedding. Materials like polyester, polycotton and nylon can all cause increased body temperature and discomfort.
It is important to seek medical advice if you are suffering from hot flushes or night sweats. But there are things you can also do to make yourself more comfortable too, like switching to linen bedding.
How linen helps relieve night sweats
- Cooling – Linen is a natural fabric and allows your skin to breathe. This means that if your hormone fluctuations are sending your body's sweat response into overdrive, your bedding can help calm things down. Sleeping with linen sheets and duvet covers helps regulate your body temperature and, unlike synthetic fabrics, won't cause overheating.
- Absorbent – Thanks to its natural moisture-wicking properties, linen absorbs sweat away from your skin. This keeps you feeling more comfortable as you sleep.
- Fast-drying – Being quick to dry means that linen bedding will quickly release any moisture it has absorbed back into the air. This efficient evaporation can reduce the wet-sheet effects of night sweats as your bedlinen will dry off more speedily.
- Kind to skin – Because linen is naturally soft and gently your skin stays comfortable all night. No itchiness or irritation. This can help improve your quality of sleep.
- Anti-bacterial – Linen has inherent anti-bacterial properties, which stops sweat from smelling unpleasant or damaging your skin.
What else can you do to improve your sleep?
If you've tackled your bedlinen and are still having night sweats or interrupted sleep because of overheating try sleeping with a window open, changing your nightclothes to linen pyjamas or nightdresses, keeping some iced water by your bed to sip or to dampen a flannel to put on your forehead, or using a fan overnight to keep cool air circulating around the room. If you wake up with a night sweat and have trouble getting back to sleep, change into come fresh sleepwear and change your pillowcase. Get out of bed for a bit – make a herbal tea or read in another room until you start to feel sleepy.
There's nothing more luxurious and restful than sinking back into a bed made up with cool, natural pure linen bedlinen. Give yourself the best chance of a good night's sleep by switching up your bedding and taking these simple steps towards deep, restorative slumber.
For more tips on how to stay cool at night go here.