46: Night Sweats: Three Things Nobody Tells You

Night Sweats: Three Things Nobody Tells You

You wake up in the middle of the night soaked. PJs drenched, sheets drenched. You throw off the covers, change, put a towel down, and try to fall back asleep - only to wake a few hours later and do it all over again.

You might be thinking this is just your estrogen dropping and there's nothing to do but ride it out or go on HRT. That's pretty much all you'll hear in a doctor's office. But here's what your doctor probably won't tell you: night sweats aren't your body malfunctioning.  They're a signal, and that signal has a root cause you can actually address.

In this solo episode, Sheri shares her own story of waking up soaked in her early 40s with no idea what was happening and how, once she understood it, she made it through perimenopause with only a few weeks of night sweats on and off. We break down all three layers — physical, emotional, and spiritual — because understanding all three is what points you to real relief.

What actually causes night sweats in perimenopause?

Estrogen doesn't just take a nosedive in perimenopause.  It fluctuates up and down, which is why night sweats come in waves: a rough stretch, then nothing, then back again. As estrogen swings, it narrows the "neutral zone" of the hypothalamus, the part of your brain that regulates temperature. Suddenly a tiny temperature change your body used to manage gets read as an emergency, triggering a full-on sweat. Nighttime is worse because your body temperature naturally drops to initiate sleep, which can pull the trigger.

Why do night sweats so often hit at 2 or 3 AM specifically?

Cortisol. If you're running a high-pressure life, cortisol can spike in the middle of the night when it's supposed to be calming down — and that amplifies the whole response. Blood sugar is closely tied to this: instability from refined carbs, sugar, or alcohol before bed can cause cortisol surges overnight, even if you don't feel especially stressed.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• How cortisol and blood sugar instability set off middle-of-the-night sweating, and what makes it worse
• The physiological root-cause approach no one is talking about
• Why the worst thing you can do for night sweats is treat them as purely physical and ignore the emotional component
• A simple reflection practice to connect what you felt during the day to the night sweats that followed

What's the emotional connection to night sweats?

Here's the part most women have never considered: night sweats aren't just physical. Heat in the body often reflects suppressed inner fire and there are specific emotions, especially common in women raised to keep the peace, that have been building for decades with nowhere to go. As your fertility-era hormones shift, the buffers that kept those feelings in check start to fade, and that inner heat looks for an exit. Sheri shares the surprising place in the body where she could actually feel it begin and the everyday situations that set it off. If you've done all the physical things and your night sweats still won't budge, this is the layer you're likely missing.

What's the spiritual meaning of night sweats?

There's a third piece almost no one talks about - and it may be the most interesting part. Sheri uses the chakras as a framework to explain why night sweats show up as fire, which energy centers are involved, and what it means when that fire is blocked versus actively moving. There's also a simple reflection practice she walks through during the episode: a question to ask yourself the morning after a night sweat that can reveal exactly what your body was processing. Tune in for the full picture - and why working with the fire, rather than resisting it, is what finally lets it move.

This episode is for you if:

• You wake up drenched and dread the laundry, the exhaustion, and the brain fog that follow
• You've been told it's "just low estrogen" and that HRT is your only option
• You've done all the physical things and night sweats still won't budge
• You get hot flashes during the day, not just at night (much of this applies to you too)
• You're ready to look at what your body might be trying to tell you beyond the physical

If you want to nix night sweats for good so you can sleep through the night soundly, get free access to our secret podcast here: The Midlife Sleep Reset. 

If this episode resonated, share it with a woman in your life who gets night sweats - chances are many of your girlfriends do. And if you're getting value from the podcast, follow or subscribe so you know the moment we drop a new episode.

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Transcript

Jen 0:00

Welcome. This is the Midlife Rising podcast. I was in my early 40s when I woke up in the middle of the night for the first time, PJs soaked, sheets soaked, throwing off the covers, trying to cool down. I changed my PJs, put a towel down on the sheets, and then tried to get back to sleep, only to wake up a few hours later to go through it all again. This is what night sweats is all about. Since then, I've figured out exactly what's going on and how to fix it. So this is the down low that you need on night sweats that you're not going to hear in your doctor's office. You probably think, oh, this is just what happens in perimenopause, low estrogen, nothing I can do about it. Maybe go on HRT. But what if I told you that night sweats aren't about your body malfunctioning or just overheating because of low estrogen. They're actually a signal. And that signal from your body has a root cause that you can actually address. That's what we're going to unpack today. We'll talk about the physiological roots behind night sweats and the emotions that are underlying them, plus the spiritual connection. There's three separate pieces of this issue that you need to address. And we're going to talk about all three. And knowing all of those three pillars, those three pieces, is going to lead you to the right solution. So if you're someone who gets night sweats, stay tuned. And even if you don't, there is a 100% chance that you know someone who does. So share this with your girlfriends. You're a woman over 40 who spent your life being the one who holds it all together. But now your body's changing and your soul is done pretending everything is fine. Welcome to Midlife Rising. We're your hosts, Sherry and Jen, twin sisters and modern medicine women, here to help you rewire your stress response, balance your hormones, and reclaim your feminine power. Every episode is a rebellion against the rules you never agreed to and a return to yourself. Join us where Midlife isn't a crisis, it's a catalyst. Welcome back to the Midlife Rising podcast. And welcome, if you're a first first-time listener, you've got Sherry today. Normally Jen and I do these together, and Jen has been pretty tied up lately. So you're hearing a lot more from me on these solo episodes where we really get into, or where I really get into, breaking down a particular symptom. And what I have found with myself, with my clients, with my friends, when you really understand the nature of a symptom, you can see it as exactly that. It's a message from the body. And by really kind of getting into that message and digging into the three pieces: the physiology, the emotional aspect, and the spiritual, that's when you can really get to the heart of that symptom and release it, find relief. So today we are talking about a very popular symptom in perimenopause and for some women, well into menopause, and that is night sweats. Now there are also hot flashes. So if you're someone who doesn't get night sweats, but you do get hot flashes, some of this is going to apply. So in fact, a lot of it is going to apply. So stay tuned. There are some slight differences, but the solution is very similar. So whichever one, whether you get these hot flashes at night or during the day, stay tuned. And let's get into it. So I always like to start with the physiology because this is where we probably already have a bit of knowledge, but there might be something missing here. So we all know that estrogen starts to fluctuate. It actually fluctuates. It doesn't just take a nosedive. In perimenopause in your 40s, early 50s, it really goes up and down. And that's why you might go through a phase of having night sweats and then you're fine for a while. And then you get them again, and then you're fine for a while. So estrogen doesn't just take a nosedive. That is one thing that's important for you to understand. But what happens when estrogen begins to do that, it starts to impact the hypothalamus, which is where, which is what the piece of your brain that controls temperature in your body. And what happens is that small temperature changes in your environment and in your body, normally your body can manage those. But when estrogen begins to fluctuate, it's it's like it narrows the neutral zone of the hypothalamus. And any tiny temperature change gets detected as a like, we need to have a full-on response for this. And that's when you start to sweat. That's when you start to sweat. And nighttime tends to be worse. So a lot of women who don't get hot flashes might get night sweats. Because our natural temperature fluctuates as we sleep, it tends to drop in order to initiate sleep. And then it it kind of goes up and down through the night. So if you've been listening to this podcast for a bit, you'll know that we talk a lot about cortisol. Cortisol and blood sugar. So what can happen in the middle of the night is that cortisol can spike, especially if you are someone who is running a high pressure life. Your cortisol may spike in the middle of the night, and that is going to amplify the response. So chronic stress, which is actually most women these days, that actually makes this worse. Blood sugar is very closely monitored by cortisol. And blood sugar instability can also cause the these cortisol surges. So even if you feel like you're not under very much stress, the way that you're eating or the way that your blood sugar is operating in your body, if it's going up and down, that instability can cause cortisol to surge in the middle of the night. And you might have noticed that they get worse when you drink alcohol before, like in the evening, or if you eat a lot of sugar or refined carbs for dinner or just before bed. So that can really set off your blood sugar and cause cortisol to spike in the middle of the night when it is supposed to be calming down. That blood sugar and cortisol spike can trigger that temperature fluctuation that is going to, that's where your hypothalamus is going to tell your body, uh-oh, we are in a what it thinks is a major temperature change, and it triggers that full-on sweating heat. We need to get rid of this heat response. So some of the things that you can do to address the physiological aspect of this is monitoring or stabilizing your blood sugar. And this is something that we talk a lot about inside of both the sleep sanctuary and our signature program, the Midlife Red Tent, is everything that you need to get your nutrition, your movement, your sleep-wake cycle, everything on track to really minimize night sweats. So here's a few things that you're going to want to do. You're going to want to stabilize your blood sugar. And we tell you all about how to do that inside of the sleep sanctuary and the red tent. Liver support, it's liver that actually processes excess cortisol, excess estrogen. It helped really does a ton of work to balance your hormones. So supporting your liver is also going to be very helpful and supporting your adrenal glands. So your adrenal glands are what secrete cortisol. So they play a key role in managing your blood sugar. And supporting your adrenal glands is also going to be key to helping you re relieve night sweats. Okay, so that was a really quick overview of the physiology. And so now I want to go on to the emotional body because this is something that you probably haven't even thought of. Most people don't. I didn't. When I was in my 40s, I was I had become a nutritionist. Uh, I guess this is now 14, 12 years ago, when I was in my early 40s. And I was all about the physical. I was just beginning to really delve into the emotional and the spiritual aspects. But I was very much about if I can get the physical under control, then that's all I needed to do. And since then, I have really discovered in a very deep way how much emotions impact how we feel, our symptoms, especially in perimenopause and menopause, and also the spiritual. So let's get into the emotional. This is stuff you're never going to hear in your doctor's office. So this is this might be very new to you. And what I would recommend is you might be tempted to say, ah, whatever, I just need the physical. And maybe you do, and that's okay. However, there may be, if you feel, especially if you feel like you've done everything right, you've you've done all the physical stuff, and these are still happening, you can't seem to get your night sweats under control, then there's likely an emotional or a spiritual component. And if that's the case, just remain open for today and take what works and let go of what doesn't. So here is what can happen from an emotional standpoint. And this comes from so many different angles, by the way. This is psychology, this is Chinese medicine, this is work that Caroline Mace has put forward. So there's a number of different places where I've where I've gleaned this information from. I've been studying this for years. Okay. So heat in the body, night sweats, hot flashes, this is like inner fire. And it usually arises because you're suppressing some kind of fire, emotional fire. So I find this really interesting. Have you ever noticed that if you what happened to me after a while, I normally, when I first started getting night sweats, I would wake up in the middle of them. Like I was already sweating, I was already kicking off the blankets. But then after a while, my body started to wake me up as it was happening. So it was almost like I could catch it. And what that felt like was a heat that was rising. It was like it was starting in my belly and rising through my chest and then up to the head. And you're going to find out in a few minutes what chakra is related to night sweats. But from an emotional standpoint, a lot of the emotions that are related to night sweats start in the belly, like the upper belly, specifically rage, resentment, fear, anger, and even shame and grief to a certain extent and fear. I already said that one. So those are the kinds of emotions. If you think of anger and irritation and resentment, those are all fiery emotions. And those emotions are going to rise if they've been suppressed, especially for us women who have been taught to be nice girls. You're not supposed to show anger or irritation or God forbid, rage. So these we are used to suppressing these kinds of emotions, biting our tongue, staying quiet when inside we're feeling the rage. So if that's you, then that suppression, those emotions, when when you hit perimenopause and menopause, they're going to look for a place to come out. And this unexpressed emotion is going to come out in the form of night sweats or hot flashes. So what these can stem from, and the reason this comes up in perimenopause, as your hormones shift, as estrogen begins to decline, there's all kinds of other hormonal changes that also happen and they impact your neurotransmitters. So what happens is the hormones and neurotransmitters that are used to that are, that are in your body when you still have your fertility, because you are meant to nurture your children. And so when you hit perimenopause and menopause, your body, as its fertility declines, those hormones start to shift to no longer nurturing others to nurturing self. So when that happens, that anger, the rage, that stuff starts to come up. You no longer have the estrogen, the oxytocin, the buffers that you used to have that kept these emotions under check. So all of that needs a place to go. And if it's not being expressed, then it will come out in the form of night sweats or hot flashes. So you you might start to feel this is why a lot of women start to feel resentment from overgiving. There's this, like, I've been making dinner all my life. Why don't you make dinner? You know, you're 18 years old now, daughter or son, you make dinner. Or you do whatever. It there is a shift, and you might feel this resentment from just giving so much, and you no longer want to do that. Maybe people pleasing. So there is some overgiving as well. You might feel anger over injustice, injustices. There's also fears that come up around aging, around feeling irrelevant or invisible. There might be fears around your identity. So, particularly if you're a successful professional, maybe corporate woman, you've climbed that ladder, you have an identity that's attached to that. When you hit your 50s, that can start to shift in the workplace. Younger, younger people start to rise to the top. You start to feel like you have to work harder. There's all kinds of things that happen in the workplace as a result of aging and going through these transitions. So there's all kinds of reasons why you might be feeling a lot of emotion, particularly the fiery ones. And those are going to start to rise if they don't have a place to go, if they aren't expressed. So, what we teach, a big part of what we teach, is how to actually release emotion, how to allow yourself to express particularly these kinds of fiery emotions in a loving kind of way, so that you're not just blowing your lid. And also just the, you know, we're so tempted to bury or numb emotion that feels uncomfortable. And it's releasing those emotions that really help the body to heal. So that's what you'll need to begin doing is to name the emotions you're feeling and then release them. So that's a really quick summary of what's going on emotionally. And the start of what you can do to release that is really to just feel your emotions. And again, we teach women how to do that inside the sleep sanctuary and really all of our programs. That's a piece of it because it's such an important one that is so often missed. Okay, now the third piece is the spiritual aspect. So we like to really go back to the chakras as a kind of framework for us to use in perimenopause and menopause in midlife to really figure out the spiritual connection to the kinds of symptoms that we're feeling. So there's two chakras that are involved in night sweats. So if you think about where those kinds of emotions arise: anger, resentment. Let's take those two as an example, because these come up a lot when we talk about boundaries. So when you try to set a boundary, you try to say no to some something, and someone pushes back, especially if you end up saying yes, you start to feel resentment. If someone oversteps a boundary, you might get angry. That's how we know that someone has overstepped a boundary if we get angry. And boundaries is all about personal power. When someone oversteps a boundary, we feel like they've taken our power away. When we try to set a boundary, that is us implementing our power. And power is all about the solar plexus. That's right. It's like the middle of your belly, just under your ribs. And this is the primary chakra that's involved in night sweats. The solar plexus is actually related to the fire element. And it governs things like your personal power, your identity, which is shifting as you hit midlife. So, of course, that's going to be involved as well. And night sweats are the fire in this chakra center as that center is either blocked or it's activating and restructuring because of the shift in your life. So, what can happen if you're really feeling night sweats? What might be happening is that you're resisting the release of those emotions. And so when those emotions have nowhere to go, as I said earlier, that resistance is causing actually more intensity. It's causing you to feel like you are powerless. When you release emotions, that's actually when you feel more powerful. And that's also when that fire can move, when that can be released. So that's the first, the primary chakra that's involved in night sweats. Of course, a secondary one, this is one that is involved in many of the perimenopause, menopause symptoms, is the sacral chakra. That's your womb chakra. It's the second chakra. It is, it sort of makes sense to me that this isn't, this is related to the water element. And the if you've been listening, then you'll already know this that if you've listened to other episodes where the second chakra is involved, the second chakra is all about creativity. That's where your fertility sits and that's where you create life. It's where you create ideas. It is also where you hold a lot of emotion. That's where shame and your self-worth sits. So when that chakra is blocked, then you might also feel night sweats. So if you're feeling shame around the transition, if you're feeling like you're no longer as good as the younger crowd, the younger women, you start to buy into the, you know, as we age, we declined. decline in value, then you might start to feel night sweats and or other menopausal symptoms. So what can happen here is all of those, if if you're blocking those emotions, if they're not able to get out, then they can actually they can actually cause the fire as it rises above into the solar plexus that sits just above it. So I am really curious as to whether any of this resonated if you actually what you can do with the with this third piece is just maybe think about or reflect on what are the emotions that I felt the day before the night sweats. So if you woke up during the night, reflect on this the next day. What was I feeling yesterday? What was I was I was there a point where I was feeling powerless, where I felt like someone overstepped a boundary or where I said yes when I didn't want to so I I overstepped my own boundary. Was there emotion that was coming up for you that you didn't allow yourself to express? So that's how you can kind of get to the what is actually going on in these second two pieces emotionally and spiritually for you. And when you the first step is just to notice and identify and then we have a whole process that takes you through how to release those, how to shift, how to rebuild or to clear your solar plexus chakra and the sacral chakra. So that's a whole process that sits inside of the sleep sanctuary. And so this might be a good time to actually invite you to we're we're just going to be opening up the sleep sanctuary again. And if you want to understand what's going on with your own sleep right now, you can get started by downloading our free secret podcast. It's called the sleep, the midlife sleep reset. And that's where you can really get started on going a little deeper on what's going on with your sleep. What are some of the things that you can do to help get you through the night without waking up, without night sweats, without that 2 a.m stay awake until four and finally fall back to sleep just before your alarm goes off. So if you are someone who struggles to sleep through the night, that is not something that you have to just live with. There are all kinds of things that you can do. And hopefully this podcast episode gave you a little bit of a start on how to deal with night sweats if that is a piece that has been disrupting your sleep. And then go to the show notes to the midlife sleep reset. You can find it at midlifewomenrising.com slash sleepreset. And again, that's going to help you discover the steps to get a full night of uninterrupted sleep. It's free. You can get it now. So go down to the show notes, click that link or just go directly to midlifewomenrising.com slash sleepreset. And I would love for you to do a couple of things. Number one, share this with someone you know who gets night sweats or share it with all your friends because chances are most of them do. And we would also love it if you subscribed followed whatever platform you're on follow or subscribe so that you know exactly when we drop another episode. And we'd be forever grateful if you did that. All right come back next week Jen's gonna be back. We've got so much planned for you over the summer. So come back next week and we'll see you then