Waking up too hot but not sweaty

January 24, 2008 6:15 PM

What do I call this symptom- waking up too hot?

I've had the problem over the past few months of waking up burning hot. I'm not looking for medical suggestions, just wanting to know what I would refer to this symptom as, or if there's a better way to put it. When I Google or search on sites like WebMD for "wake up too hot," or "wake up too warm," or "wake up burning," etc, nothing comes up.

It's not a night-sweat because I'm not excessively sweaty when I wake up, esp. considering how hot I am when I wake up. I usually wake up 1-2 hours earlier than normal and have to turn down the heat even more, or turn up the fan, take off covers, etc. I sleep in little, got a thinner blanket, use a fan, etc. Boyfriend sleeps in same bed and is fine even in pants and a shirt.

posted by fructose to health & fitness (14 answers total)

How old are you? Hot flashes?
posted by sanka at 6:20 PM on January 24, 2008

Oh, should have mentioned, I'm in my early 20s, female. Not preggers.

Not looking for people to try to diagnose (unless they wanna, why not?), just wondering if there is a better way to phrase "waking up too hot" so I can do better research on medical sites.
posted by fructose at 6:23 PM on January 24, 2008

Perhaps start with "basal temperature" and add "on waking", "irregular" or "high" from there?
posted by vers at 6:27 PM on January 24, 2008

There was a story in the NYT that referenced this. In the (sleep) industry this is called "sleeping hot."

"Bils explained that, as you fall asleep, your body temperature drops. A mattress should disperse the heat you're expelling. Otherwise the bed ''sleeps hot,'' cooking you in your own trapped body heat. Sleeping hot is a growing complaint about many beds and may be a consequence of the industry's manic emphasis on comfort: the shift toward using less-breathable, synthetic materials that conform more snugly to the body, and then stacking them to greater thicknesses. Memory foam especially has a reputation for sleeping hot, though Tempur-Pedic, which sells only foam beds, disputes it as ''largely urban myth.''
posted by buka at 6:47 PM on January 24, 2008

the same thing started happening to me in my mid-20s (i am now early-30s). i'm freezing when i go to bed and roasting in the morning. what i do is put a heated mattress pad on my bed. i turn it on when i get home from work, so the bed is warm at bedtime, and then turn it off when i get in. the heat lasts long enough for me to get to sleep comfortably, but wears off by morning. that way i don't have to pile blankets on top of me at night.
posted by thinkingwoman at 6:49 PM on January 24, 2008

I get this too: I'm 23, but for me it only ever happens in the middle of the night - once I get back to sleep I wake up in the morning at a comfortable temperature (mostly because I remove clothes/covers and get a drink of cold water). My boyfriend is also fine in pants/t-shirt and I haven't been pregnant since it started a year ago. For what it's worth, we call it "2am sun" :)
posted by saturnine at 9:29 PM on January 24, 2008

Nighttime hot flashes? (I know the phrase "hot flashes" is associated with menopause, but recently a friend of mine and I discovered we both experienced this symptom at certain times of the month (for me, it continues to occur throughout the day) and she found some info in a fertility book that indicated that a rise in basal body temperature often accompanies ovulation.)
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 10:00 PM on January 24, 2008

Hyperthermia?
posted by SlyBevel at 10:11 PM on January 24, 2008

I'm 20 and I have the same problem, although I often have trouble getting to sleep because I am so hot. During the day, I am usually cold. I don't understand it at all.
posted by thebrokenmuse at 10:16 PM on January 24, 2008

Like thinkingwoman and saturnine, This happens to me, too. My feet are ice when I go to bed and I wake up around 3am, hot as hell. One of the best solutions I have found is to take a hot bath right before bed. Barring that, I run some hot water over my feet to warm them up before I go to bed and I am fine.
posted by Foam Pants at 10:23 PM on January 24, 2008

I get this too — saturnine's kind, where I'm bizarrely hot during the night, but not especially when I wake up. OTOH, I'm male, early 30s, and it was more pronounced in my 20s. I have a vague notion that my body temperature goes up when I'm dreaming, but I don't know if that's actually how it works.

fructose, maybe more general terms like "temperature regulation +sleep" would turn somethng up?
posted by hattifattener at 12:05 AM on January 25, 2008

It's normal.
posted by wsg at 1:31 AM on January 25, 2008

Female and 40. I do the same thing as thinkingwoman (though I find turning the mattress pad on an hour before bed is plenty to make it nice and cozy).
I find that if I can stick a foot out of the covers while I sleep it helps my body cool down a lot.
posted by bink at 6:54 AM on January 25, 2008

With me, I was reacting to the cold and producing heat. I solved it by wearing thicker sleep wear that covers all my limbs. Keep in mind the body uses a net loss in heat as a signal to fall asleep. It isn't as easy as it sounds. Cover up too much and you'll retain too much heat. Not enough and you'll loose too much and be awake from being so cold. I wrote about it a bit on my sleep routine page, with a link to a scientific study for the curious. The trick comes when the seasons change, I have to wear more or less depending on if it's winter or not. Might explain why this kicked in a few months ago for you.

I've loosely confirmed the dilation conclusion in there with Imitrex, which works via vasoconstriction. If I take it before bed, to kill a migraine, I won't be able to sleep for 5 or 6 hours. Comes in handy when I need to stay awake though. The men in my family, myself included, are all jokingly referred to by our SOs as 'portable heaters', so I think I'm just more sensitive to this dilation issue than others, but who knows.
posted by jwells at 7:13 AM on January 25, 2008