Too hot to sleep, too cold to sleep

April 6, 2017 6:39 AM

YANMD, but I have been having trouble sleeping for the past 2-3 months due to what seems to be my body's inability to regulate internal temperature. I wake up multiple times a night, either too hot or too cold, though my room temperature does not change. Would love some ideas, or, if a doctor visit is in my future, a suggestion of what kind of doctor to see.

Since the beginning of the year(ish), I've had increasing trouble regulating my body temperature overnight. This has never happened to me before. I will wake up multiple times per night, way too cold or uncomfortably warm/sweaty.

I'm a scientific-minded person, so I've played around with all my variables. I adjusted for temperature and have steady readings all night with a thermometer and humidity meter. I have tweaked those in both directions (warmer/colder, more/less humid) and get the same results of discomfort. The issue is that upon falling asleep, I am comfortable, but I wake up multiple times a night in various opposing states of discomfort. I'm too hot! I'm too cold! Gaaah. Here are the other variables I'm working with:

• Sleeping alone versus next to special person, no difference.
• Sleeping in various amounts of clothing, no difference other than an initial adjustment to covers for initial falling-asleep comfort.
• Sleeping with various weights of covers/not covers/materials of covers, no difference aside from the initial adjustment to falling-asleep comfort.
• Socks/no socks, can't fall asleep without socks. (Dude, no idea.)
• Noise, have tried various amounts of white, brown, and pink noise, no difference.
• Light, cannot sleep with any amount of light so room is always pitch-black.
• Doesn't seem to make a difference how tired I am, I can be dead tired and still wake up like this multiple times a night.
• I'm not in perimenopause (confirmed), though I am female, mid 30's. No major known health problems, generally healthy.

Any ideas? If I wanted to go see a doctor about this, what kind of doctor? Would a "sleep doctor" even be able to help me, since the problem isn't so much with my sleeping than it is with my body temperature? The sleep I do get is excellent sleep complete with dreams, I just don't get enough. Hope me, because this isn't sustainable. If you have a specific doctor recommendation in Chicago feel free to chime in.

posted by juniperesque to Health & Fitness (13 answers total)

I assume your hormone status has been checked thoroughly, since you say you're not perimenopausal? If not, I would see an endocrinologist.
posted by The Toad at 6:44 AM on April 6, 2017 [2 favorites]

Best answer: It could be weird thyroid issues. At least seek out a blood test from your PCP.

Also, try sleeping with one foot outside the covers.
posted by INFJ at 6:46 AM on April 6, 2017 [3 favorites]

Since menopause I've needed more covers when I go to sleep, especially if I'm feeling really tired . I then get rid of half of them about midway through the night. I don't even totally wake up, I just do it. It probably helps that I've never been able to sleep with tightly tucked-in covers, so they're easy to push off.
posted by mareli at 6:55 AM on April 6, 2017

I started having the temperature shifts in my 30's too, well before the other menopause symptoms showed up. Even if your hormone levels aren't showing up that way, it may make sense to look into how to treat that symptom anyway.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:24 AM on April 6, 2017 [2 favorites]

Dittoing the check thyroid, and possibly also vitamin levels: some people get weird temperature tolerance issues with all of the above.

I had about six months where I'd go from sweating to shivering a couple of times a night, and now my internal temperature controls are still glitchy (and I notice them when I'm awake) but they no longer wake me up most of the time. Medical treatment's helped, but the thing that helped the most was actually something not in your list - a wool mattress pad.

Wool works a lot better than synthetics or other materials to modulate heat for a lot of people. (On my 'when I have the money for it' is a comforter to go with it.) Also good if any part of the reason you're waking up is achiness.

Beyond that, I run a fan full time (non-circulating air makes me feel horribly stuffy) and modulate the rest of my temperature with having a knee out of the blankets or not. More explicitly, mid-thigh to mid-calf or so, with my foot under the blankets on the other end.

(Not a whole leg, because the cat will apply a single claw to the unattended appendage, and that wakes me up. Chances are good you do not have this particular problem, but even without the cat, if my feet are out of the blankets, I start feeling cold enough to wake up.)
posted by modernhypatia at 7:25 AM on April 6, 2017

Are you taking any sort of medication. Even health supplements like vitamin and mineral tablets can cause problems depending on ingredients. Magnesium for example can cause all sorts of fun temperature fluctuations in people sensitive to it.
posted by wwax at 7:59 AM on April 6, 2017

When I had untreated sleep apnea, I'd regularly wake up hot and sweaty, kick the covers off, then feel cold again as I fell back to sleep - I'd pull up the covers, wake up hot and sweaty, rinse, repeat, all night. Once I got my apnea treated, I don't go through that cycle, provided my bedcovers are light enough and breathable - I use cotton sheets and a light quilt instead of my old down comforter and it makes a big difference.

Especially if you wake up with a dry mouth and/or headache, don't feel rested even after eight hours of sleep, are low-energy and/or unfocused during the day, or bed partners regularly compare you to bears, chainsaws or freight trains - ask your doctor for a sleep test, preferably an in-lab one as home sleep tests aren't always thorough enough.
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 8:38 AM on April 6, 2017

I started having this issue a few years ago. What worked for me was getting rid of all polyester and microfibers on my bed and in my sleepwear. I sleep in cotton, on cotton sheets, with a cotton blanket. Bamboo and silk (!!) both work, too.

It really worked like a charm. My first good night's sleep afterwards felt like a glass of cold water after a road race.
posted by dancing_angel at 9:03 AM on April 6, 2017 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Thyroid issues can really screw with your thermostat. Go to your regular doctor to start. They should do a thyroid blood test and probably a diagnostic blood panel. You might also keep a thermometer handy - being cold can indicate a fever, when you temp goes down, you can feel hot. Get a thermometer for your room and record the temp when you wake up and whether you were hot or cold. My heating system needs repair, so when I wake up too hot, it actually is too hot. Keeping track may be useful to your doctor.
posted by theora55 at 10:11 AM on April 6, 2017 [1 favorite]

Do you smoke or ingest pot regularly? This can also fuck with the ability to regulate temperature.
posted by schadenfrau at 12:53 PM on April 6, 2017

I resolved this problem by eating a small snack right before bed. I have no idea why it works for me, but it's easy to try!
posted by congen at 1:44 PM on April 6, 2017

I tend to sleep under just a duvet cover with the duvet half over it; I pull up the duvet / toss it away according to need.
posted by farlukar at 1:55 PM on April 6, 2017

Your situation seems more inconsistent. But if you can get to where you're only waking up too hot, one thing I've gotten down as a fellow can't-fall-asleep-with-socks person is keeping the room/bed slightly colder than is comfortable for my icy feet at bedtime, but then putting a heating pad under then. My heating pad has a setting where it turns off after an hour or two of use, so I get to sleep at a temperature that's comfortable at that time of night, and then by the time my circulation rebalances (I seem to get colder hands and feet right before bed, but this changes after I fall asleep), the heating pad goes off and the sleep environment gets slightly cooler.
posted by deludingmyself at 4:59 PM on April 6, 2017