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Thursday, 05 January 2006 |
Dear Dr. Levister: Eureka! To all the sleep-deprived women who suffer hot flashes at night, there’s some relief in sight. Amid the love and ripped gift wrap of Christmas, I found myself sitting contently kissing a pair of Hot Mama hot flash pajamas.
 Never mind that my whole family was bowled over with laughter. What matters most is I no longer race like a fire breathing monster to change my perspiration soaked PJ’s in the middle of the night.
My husband of 20 plus years found these goodies on the internet. He says there are several different brands. What took them so long? G.R.
Dear G.R.: As fashion trends go, hot flash pajamas are not glamorous. But they stand a chance of holding on for more than a brief season. At least five brands have sprung up in the past five years and, perhaps as a result of the expanding ranks of women turning 50, sales are exploding.
“When I first had hot flashes, I would change my pajamas several times a night,” said Wendy McClung, a co-founder of HotCool Wear, in Toronto, which began making Hot Mama pajamas in 2000. “One night I grabbed one of my running shirts, and I thought, ‘My goodness, this is what it is like to sleep.’”
Hot Mama sleepwear is made of CoolMax, a polyester fabric used in workout clothes, finely milled to make it light and soft, like cotton flannel. Wicking J. Sleepwear, from a company in Evergreen, Colo., uses a similar fabric called Intera. And Wildbleu, a Seattle brand, uses one called Dri-release. The polyester fibers are designed to lift sweat from the body and allow it to evaporate quickly, said Helen Rockey, the founder of Wildbleu. The wicking fabric is also odor resistant.
Scientists still don’t know exactly why hot flashes occur, except that they seem to result from the body’s diminishing sensitivity to estrogen in the year before and after menopause. A 2004 study conducted at Wayne States University in Detroit observed the sleep quality of 550 menopausal women. More than half of the study participants experienced an average of three to five hot flashes a night.
Hot flash pajamas come in a variety of styles and colors – gowns, nightshirts, kimonos, pants and T-shirts – and all of them tend to be blousy rather than skimpy. “They’re not the sexy ‘Victoria’s Secret’ night wear. The fabric can’t work unless it’s touching the skin,” McClung explains.
Hot flash pajamas are sold in small stores and online at Web sites like serenecomfort.com. |
