Author Britney Guo/ Category Better Sleep / Published: May-18-2022
Do you struggle with night sweats or hate being woken up in the middle of the night feeling sweaty and hot? If so, keep reading to learn how cooling "eucalyptus" sheets can help prevent night sweats and keep nights feeling cool and silky.
What are night sweats?
How many times this year have you woken up in the middle of the night to sleepily kick your covers off, and flip your pillow onto its cool side? Probably more times than you’d like. Next, how many times have you woken up to damp, sweaty sheets and pajamas? If night sweats are something you constantly have to battle, keep reading because we’ll help you get to the bottom of it.
Night sweats are more than just overheating at night, instead, they are noted by excessive sweating that occurs during sleep–often requiring a change of sheets or clothes to return comfortably back to sleep. Moreover, night sweats can also be described as hot flashes that occur at night and cause heavy perspiration. However, night sweats are nothing to be ashamed of, and are actually more common than you’d think. Just because social media doesn’t like to talk about it, doesn’t change the fact that 41% of people report experiencing night sweats.
Night sweats can be a nightmare, especially when our beauty rest is the time when most of us can finally catch a break from a long day. There are many causes for night sweats, some of which just can’t be resolved by blasting the A/C at night, and require finer tuning.
In particular, TENCEL™ sheets are more breathable and more moisture wicking than the run-of-the-mill cotton sheet set. This makes TENCEL sheets especially worth switching over to if you are a hot sleeper or experience hot flashes.
The common causes of night sweats are…
Menopause:
When women begin menopause, the body undergoes many hormonal changes for which a common side effect is hot flashes. These hot flashes occur periodically throughout the day, and often cause night sweats when they flare up at night. Women in menopause will experience these hot flashes and night sweats for years, and for some women even decades, leading to prolonged periods of poor sleep.
Medications:
Some medications can actually affect the parts of your brain that control your body temperature or sweat glands, leading to night sweats. Notable medications include antidepressants, hypertension medications, and surprisingly aspirin and acetaminophen. In addition, caffeine generally increases sweating, and drinking alcohol can increase the risk of night sweats.
Heat-trapping bedding:
Your sleep environment is super important to avoid night sweats, and sometimes your bed might just be too cozy. There is a fine line between cozy and overheating so it’s crucial that your dreamy comforter isn’t trapping you in a furnace at night. The key to cool nights is breathability. Meaning, you want to make sure your bedding, and pajamas are breathable and made of non-synthetic fabrics.
How to battle night sweats
If you’re experiencing menopause, you’ll want to make sure you avoid any triggers. This may be trial and error as you and your body navigate to try and understand one another again. Common triggers, however, include alcohol, spicy foods, and smoking. If you wake up to hot flashes and night sweats, you may want to consider placing a cool washcloth on your forehead, or drinking a cold glass of water.
Try to limit caffeine after evening, and be prepared to have a hot night if you come home after a night out drinking (as your body may overheat trying to metabolize the alcohol out of your system). It’s recommended to limit how much you eat close to bedtime, and stay away from hot sauce and spicy foods. We also recommend getting allergy tested if you haven’t already, in case you’re experiencing night sweats as a result of your body tussling with an unknown food allergy.
In addition, opt for light, loose, and breathable clothing for bed. Also make sure you have breathable, cooling sheets that will wick your sweat away to prevent a night sweat breakout.
In general, the best piece of advice is to monitor your lifestyle, no matter how busy you may be. It’s difficult, but doing so will save you lots of time later when you’d otherwise be soundly sleeping.
What’s the best bedding to help with night sweats?
Navigating menopause and lifestyle changes are up to you, but Eucalypso can definitely support you in finding the right bedding that won’t leave you feeling like a hotdog the next morning. The most obvious answer would be cooling sheets, however, there are many on the market–ranging from "bamboo" (Rayon) to linen to "eucalyptus" (TENCEL) sheets. All three of these natural fibers have cooling properties, but here’s why you will want to bring home Tencel lyocell or eucalyptus lyocell sheets instead of the others.
Bamboo rayon sheets are actually a wolf in sheep’s clothing as the production of bamboo sheets requires many chemical toxins in order to process the fibers. This process is incredibly toxic to the environment, and you definitely don’t want to be sleeping on sheets that have been heavily processed by harsh chemicals. Linen sheets, on the other hand, are more likely to be sustainably sourced and processed. However, linen sheets are not cool to the touch, and instead are considered cooling sheets for their lightness and breathability.
TENCEL sheets derived from eucalyptus wood on the other hand hold all the great qualities of bamboo and linen sheets, and more. TENCEL sheets are cool to the touch, good for the environment, safe for you, and silky soft.
Eucalypso’s sheets are made of 100% TENCEL™ lyocell, making them 70x more moisture-wicking than cotton sheets, temperature-regulating, durable, antibacterial, and eco-friendly. These sheets are 3x more breathable than cotton, the perfect solution for hot sleepers prone to night sweats. So at night when your body heat rises, it will no longer get trapped underneath your bedding. Instead, the heat will be released through the breathable, cooling TENCEL sheet, and you won’t feel like you’re baking in the middle of the night.
Your turn to conquer night sweats
Is what
Mornings are tough already having to wake up to a blaring alarm, so consider upgrading your current sheets to cooling TENCEL sheets as a form of self-care to prevent the feeling of clammy sheets and pillows in the morning. Again, there are many cooling sheets on the market to explore, and if we haven’t already convinced you of the power of Eucalypso, make sure you research your bamboo and linen sheets closely.
Ultimately, if you love the feeling of flipping your pillow onto its cool side at night, you’ll love Eucalypso TENCEL sheets because it always feel like the cool side with us.
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Author Eucalypso Staff / Category Eucalyptus Bedding