You go to bed tired. Genuinely tired. And somewhere around 2am, you're wide awake: damp, too hot, then suddenly cold, heart beating a little faster than it should be. You kick off the duvet. You pull it back. You lie there waiting to feel normal again.
If this sounds familiar, you're not imagining it. And you're not alone.
More than 80% of women experience some combination of night sweats and hot flushes during perimenopause and menopause, making them one of the most widely reported symptoms of this stage of life, and yet one of the least openly talked about.
What's actually going on
Night sweats aren't just about being warm. They're a neurological event. The hypothalamus (the part of your brain that regulates body temperature) becomes hypersensitive to small changes in your core temperature. It reads normal warmth as a crisis, and fires off a full cooling response: blood vessels dilate, skin flushes, sweat glands activate. All at once. All in the middle of the night.
For women in their late thirties, forties and fifties, this is almost always connected to shifting oestrogen levels. As oestrogen fluctuates, the hypothalamus loses some of its calibration. The trigger threshold drops. What your body used to handle quietly, it now handles dramatically.
Why it wrecks your sleep
The sweat itself isn't the real problem. It's what happens to your sleep architecture. Each episode pulls you out of deep, restorative sleep, the kind your body uses to repair, consolidate memory, and regulate mood. Night after night, this compounds. The exhaustion you feel in the morning isn't about hours. It's about quality.
For up to 25% of women, night sweats significantly lower quality of life due to physical discomfort, sleep disruption, mood changes, and associated stress, according to the International Menopause Society. And research suggests symptoms last an average of seven years from onset, with the British Menopause Society noting some women experience them for up to 20 years.
What actually helps
There's no single fix, but environment matters more than most people realise. Your bedding is in contact with your body for seven or eight hours. If it traps heat, holds moisture, or creates a microclimate your body has to fight against, it's making every episode worse than it needs to be.
Fabric choice is one of the most practical changes you can make. TENCEL™ lyocell (the fabric at the heart of everything Nulah makes) is clinically recognised for its thermal regulation and moisture-wicking properties. It moves heat away from the body rather than holding it in, absorbs moisture quickly and releases it, so you're not lying in it. The result isn't a cure, but it removes one of the most common friction points between you and a decent night's sleep.
Cool room temperature, light layering, and reducing alcohol in the evenings also make a measurable difference. For hormonal causes, HRT remains one of the most effective interventions available, worth a conversation with your GP if you haven't already had it.
The short version
Your body is doing something real and involuntary. It deserves a sleep environment that works with it, not against it. That's what Nulah is built around: not promises, just bedding that does its job properly, so you have a better chance of doing yours.