Why Pregnancy Can Leave You Feeling Hot and Sleepless

By DJ, co-founder and co-inventor of Sleeping Dove · Updated September 2026 · General information, not medical advice — talk to your OB-GYN about symptoms.

If you’re expecting and finding yourself tossing off the covers one minute and reaching for them the next, you’re not alone. Pregnancy brings remarkable changes to your body’s temperature regulation and sleep patterns. Many moms-to-be feel like their internal thermostat is on overdrive – leading to warmth, night sweats, and restless nights. In this post, we’ll explore the science behind these sensations in a warm, supportive tone. We’ll cover two key areas:

Why does pregnancy make you feel hot at night?

Pregnancy can feel like an “internal furnace.” Many expecting mothers experience sudden warmth or sweating due to hormonal surges and increased metabolism.

During pregnancy, your body is working tirelessly to support your growing baby – and one side effect is a constant heat surge. It’s common for pregnant women to feel warmer than usual or even experience hot flashes. In fact, up to one-third of pregnant women get hot flash episodes thanks to hormonal changes in early pregnancy (Cleveland Clinic, 2025). These temperature swings aren’t in your imagination – they have real physiological causes:

• Hormonal Heat Waves: Pregnancy hormones dramatically affect your internal thermostat. Progesterone, the key hormone that maintains pregnancy, is also a thermal influencer. Research shows that high progesterone levels promote heat conservation and raise core body temperature (Frontiers in Endocrinology, 2023). At the same time, estrogen levels are surging. While estrogen can dilate blood vessels to help dissipate heat, the overall hormonal rollercoaster often leaves you feeling flushed and sweaty. Obstetricians note that sudden surges of estrogen and progesterone can trigger hot-flash sensations during pregnancy (Cleveland Clinic, 2025). It’s very similar to the hot flashes of menopause – except in pregnancy it’s caused by ramping up hormones rather than dropping levels.
  
  

• Metabolic Fires & Increased Blood Flow: Think of pregnancy as a cardio workout that lasts nine months. By the second trimester, your basal metabolic rate (the energy you burn at rest) rises significantly to fuel your baby’s growth. This means your body is running hotter, generating extra internal heat as it metabolizes nutrients for two. To put it in perspective, scientists have found that pregnant women’s resting metabolism climbs substantially and peaks in the third trimester, producing more body heat in the process (Healthline). In addition, your heart is pumping up to 50% more blood by late pregnancy to circulate oxygen to your baby. This greater blood volume tends to warm you up from the inside out. To keep from overheating, your body shunts warm blood toward the skin and triggers more sweating for cooling. (If you’ve noticed you turn red or get clammy more easily, that’s why!) These circulatory changes are healthy and normal, but they can leave you feeling toasty or flushed, especially in a warm room.
  
  

• Thermostat Reset in Each Trimester: Interestingly, your internal thermostat isn’t static throughout pregnancy. Early on, many women run a bit hotter. (Progesterone raises your baseline body temp slightly – some moms notice their temperature sits around 99°F (37.2°C) instead of the usual 98.6°F.) One longitudinal study found that maternal core temperature is highest in the first trimester (~37.1°C at 8 weeks) and then gradually declines as pregnancy progresses, reaching a cooler low point a few months after delivery (Acta Physiologica, 2011). In fact, by the third trimester your body has adapted its heat regulation so well that you may actually prefer a cooler room than you did in early pregnancy. The same study noted that at 36 weeks, pregnant women’s comfort “thermoneutral” temperature was 4°C lower than in early pregnancy (Hartgill et al., 2011). In other words, as your baby grows, your body learns to shed heat more efficiently – but you’ll also find you need a cooler environment to feel comfortable. Don’t be surprised if you’re cranking the fan higher as you enter late pregnancy!
  
  

It’s worth noting that every pregnancy is unique. While overheating is very common, a few expecting mothers experience the opposite and feel chilly at times (often due to factors like circulation changes or anemia). The big picture, however, is that pregnancy causes major shifts in how your body regulates temperature. Your endocrine system, metabolism, and circulatory system are all adjusting to sustain your baby’s development. The result? You might feel like a walking furnace some days, and your nights might be punctuated by kicks... and kicks of the covers! These changes are natural, but they certainly can make it challenging to get comfortable at bedtime. In the next section, we’ll discuss why maintaining an optimal sleep temperature is so important – especially when you’re pregnant.

Why does sleep temperature matter more when you’re pregnant?

A cool, comfortable sleep environment is crucial for restorative rest – particularly for moms-to-be dealing with pregnancy’s nightly discomforts.

We’ve established that pregnancy can turn up the heat in your body. Now let’s talk about why a comfortable sleep temperature matters so much. Getting good sleep during pregnancy is vital for your health (and your baby’s!), yet all that extra warmth and pregnancy insomnia can interfere with quality rest. Optimizing your bedroom climate can make a world of difference.

Your Body’s Sleep–Temperature Connection: Human bodies are wired to cool down at night as part of the natural sleep cycle. In fact, when we fall asleep, our core body temperature drops slightly as a signal to initiate sleep (Cleveland Clinic). If your environment is too hot or too cold, it forces your body to work harder to regulate temperature, disrupting this process. This is especially true in pregnancy, when your baseline temperature is already elevated and your body may struggle to shed heat. Sleep specialists recommend keeping the bedroom cool, dark, and quiet – like a cave – to encourage better sleep. An ideal range is often cited around 60–67°F (15–19°C) for most people (Cleveland Clinic). A comfortably cool room helps signal your brain it’s time to sleep, and it prevents you from overheating under the covers.

Sleep Quality Suffers When You’re Too Warm: Both research and common experience show that being too hot at night leads to more tossing and turning. One scientific review on sleep found that excess heat exposure at night increases wakefulness and decreases time spent in REM sleep (the deep dream stage) (Okamoto-Mizuno et al., 2012). In practical terms, if your bedroom is stuffy or you’re sweating through your sheets, you’re likely to wake up frequently and miss out on the restorative stages of sleep. Pregnant women are already prone to fragmented sleep – thanks to midnight bathroom trips, baby kicks, and general discomfort – so the last thing you need is an improper room temperature adding to sleep disruptions. On the flip side, a cooler environment can help you stay asleep longer and more deeply. By preventing overheating, you allow your body to maintain thermoregulation with less effort, keeping you in those healing slow-wave sleep stages longer. (Being too cold isn’t great either, but studies show heat is usually the bigger culprit behind insomnia in real-life settings (Okamoto-Mizuno 2012).)

So how can you find that just-right temperature balance at night? Start with your thermostat and bedding. Light, breathable pajamas or a cotton nightgown help keep you dry. Consider using a fan or adjusting your blankets so you can easily layer on or off as needed. One often overlooked factor is your comforter and bedding material – it should help regulate heat rather than trapping it. By creating a calm, cool sleep sanctuary, you’re setting yourself up for more comfortable nights despite the hormonal storms.

If you want to stay covered but cooler, what are the options?

Most of the practical advice comes down to the same trade-off: a lighter layer cools you but leaves you uncovered; a real comforter keeps you covered but holds the heat. There are three kinds of cooling bedding: cooling-fabric comforters, which feel cool to the touch and work the same on your whole body; powered systems, which cool the whole bed with electricity and settings; and comforters with liftable panels.

The Sleeping Dove Comforter is a cooling comforter with patented liftable panels — fabric sections built into each side that you lift to release trapped body heat in about two seconds, at your core or your feet, while you stay covered. U.S. Patent No. 12,557,926. A single layer of cotton stays over you, so you cool one spot while the rest of you stays covered. Lay the panel back down when you cool off. The shell is cotton sateen tested to OEKO-TEX Standard 100; the fill is either GRS-certified recycled microfiber or RDS-certified white duck down, in baffle-box construction. It is bedding, not a treatment for anything. See the Down Alternative Comforter · Compare the three kinds

Is it a good gift for someone who’s expecting?

Pregnancy is a time of giving, and moms-to-be pour a lot of themselves into the life growing inside them. A comforter is an unusual baby-shower gift for that reason: it is for her. Unlike baby gear that’s outgrown in months, it stays on the bed for years. If you are choosing one as a gift, we wrote a separate guide: The Gift of a Sleeping Dove Comforter During Pregnancy.

Final thoughts

Pregnancy changes how you sleep and how you feel in your own skin, and the reasons are physiological, not imagined. Understanding them is the first step; the second is a bedroom, nightclothes and bedding that let you shed heat without losing the covers. For anything beyond comfort, your OB-GYN is the right person to ask.