the colder it is, the warmer my body

October 26, 2017 3:38 AM

I like my bedroom cold, but I often wake up sweating. This doesn’t happen with the same bedding, when it’s 10-15 degrees warmer. Why? What's my body trying to tell me?

I absolutely love falling asleep in a cool room, which ends up being around 55-65 degrees with the window cracked open this time of year. But I will often wake up throughout the night hot and sweaty and clammy.

With the same bedding (same sheets, comforter, blanket, etc) used in the summer, with a room temp of 70-75, I don’t wake up sweaty throughout the night. Why? What physiologically speaking, is my body thinking or trying to do?

I am a generally healthy 30-something woman, who exercises daily, and nothing really changes except the room temperature.

posted by raztaj to Health & Fitness (8 answers total)

This happens to me. What works for me is to either wear a beanie to bed or add a pillow above the pillow I'm using (kind of perpendicular to it) so that it rests against the top of my head. I think my head gets chilly over night and my body heats up to compensate but then is under covers so I sweat. Hope this makes sense.
posted by onebyone at 4:58 AM on October 26, 2017

I can cut some sweating by wearing socks. My feet get cold and then I over compensate.
posted by AlexiaSky at 6:44 AM on October 26, 2017

You might want to get your thyroid and/or hormone levels checked- it's what made my inner thermostat go wonky. I understand that this can happen to healthy young women, too.
posted by JulesER at 7:52 AM on October 26, 2017

If you're like me, after I've fallen asleep I tend to ball up under the covers when the room is cool. When it's warmer, I tend to throw off the covers after I fall asleep.

I'm also a cool-room sleeper (and am very thankful for the skylight over my bed because of it). Sweating under the covers at night isn't telling you there's a problem on its own. If this is something that's new to you, maybe mention it at your next physical. Otherwise, it seems a very sensible thing for a body to heat itself up when the temperature drops. If this is something you can address by counterintuitively using lighter blankets during cool weather (have you tried maybe using just a sheet, maybe along with a thin blanket?), there's no complicated physiological signaling going on.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 10:31 AM on October 26, 2017

Your question made me realize that although I have been waking up sweaty most nights of my entire life, I don't think I have at all since I started using a heated mattress pad this fall. No idea why but you might give it a try. It doesn't diminish the coziness of sleeping in a cold room at all.
posted by HotToddy at 11:44 AM on October 26, 2017

Even for people who don't have asthma, breathing in cold air can cause bronchial constriction, and sweating during sleep is common among asthmatics:

""sweating isn't what most people think of when they try to list the various asthma symptoms, but it is indeed one of the more common ones. In most cases it will occur at night as you sleep, "

So I wouldn't say your body is necessarily trying to tell you you have asthma, but if you have other symptoms it might be worth checking out.
posted by jamjam at 3:51 PM on October 26, 2017

I asked a similar question a few years ago, and like HotToddy says above, using a heated mattress pad fixed it. The consensus on my question seemed to be that your body works super hard to heat up when you first get in the cold bed, then the covers trap the heat and you end up sweating. Warm up the bed first and your body won't generate as much heat (or something like that). Anyway, it worked for me!
posted by raspberrE at 7:29 PM on October 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

Just another one to say that this happens to me too! Sometimes I can get around it by wearing very warm pajamas when I first get into bed and slipping them off just before I fall asleep (or the first time I half-wake-up, but this mattress pad idea sounds great and I am totally going to try it.
posted by mskyle at 7:12 AM on October 27, 2017