Hot Flushes: Why They Come, How Long They Last, And What Helps You Ride Them Out
Hot flushes: the short answer
Hot flushes come when falling oestrogen confuses the brain’s thermostat, and it decides you are too hot. They can wake you at night, soak you in a meeting and go on for years. In a big American study, frequent hot flushes lasted a median of 7.4 years.
What yoga does best is make them far less troubling, and settle the broken sleep, low mood and anxiety that come with them. Here is the article in short form:
- A flush is the thermostat misreading the body.
- Frequent flushes lasted a median of 7.4 years.
- Stress at the start went with longer flushing.
- Flushes bothered women less with yoga, more than with other exercise.
- Sleep, mood and anxiety clearly improve.
- Cooling poses and a slow out-breath help you ride one out.
A quick word on Iyengar yoga. Iyengar yoga is the style developed by Mr BKS Iyengar. In the 20th century he did more than anyone to set down traditional Indian yoga, and his daughter Geeta Iyengar did more than anyone to work out how yoga should change for women at each stage of life. It is the style we teach at Flametree, in Darwin and live online.
A resting head and a free throat. Geeta Iyengar found these settle a flush; effort and a jammed neck make it worse.
Why do hot flushes happen?
Rajvi Mehta, a scientist and senior Iyengar teacher in Mumbai, explains it in three steps. As the ovaries slow down, oestrogen falls. The hypothalamus, the brain’s thermostat, gets confused and decides the body is too hot. The body sweats to cool down. That is the flush.
Dr Lisa Mosconi, a neuroscientist at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York, adds why the brain is involved at all. The female brain is full of oestrogen receptors (docking points for the hormone). When oestrogen swings and falls, the brain’s thermostat, sleep control and mood centres all feel it.
Why a flush comes. The thermostat misreads and the body cools itself. Geeta’s lists come from long teaching, not from trials.
How long do hot flushes last?
Longer than most women are told. The Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN) has followed thousands of American women through the change since 1996. Frequent hot flushes lasted a median of 7.4 years.
They lasted longer for women whose flushes began early. And here is the part that matters for yoga: women who felt more stress, anxiety and low mood when the flushes started had them for longer. A practice that calms you is worth having for the long haul.
Frequent flushes lasted a median of 7.4 years in SWAN, and longer when they started with more stress and low mood.
Does yoga stop hot flushes?
Yoga’s biggest win with hot flushes is how much they bother you. When researchers count flushes, the number has not changed much. What changes is how women feel about them, and everything that comes with them.
But counting is not the whole story. When women rate how much their flushes trouble them, yoga has helped, and in one review it beat other exercise on how much flushes bother women. A 2025 review of 24 trials, with 2,028 women, found yoga improved menopause symptoms overall, and mood, anxiety and sleep. For many women, the broken nights and the worry are what make the flushes so hard.
Get the free ebook Cool, Calm And Strong. New to Flametree, or away for 3 months or more? You get 2 free classes + 2 ebooks, only available via this offer. Already coming to class? You can still get the book.
How do you ride out a hot flush?
Watch it rather than fight it. In Does Yoga Work?, Mary Flaherty prints an account from Maria, a reader in Spain. In guided deep relaxation, Maria practised watching each hot flush rise and fall, like a wave. Her flushes went on for about eight more years, and in the end hormone therapy cleared them. Watching the wave is a skill yoga teaches, and it sits alongside whatever else you choose.
Geeta Iyengar added her own observation from years of teaching women. Muscular effort, a jammed neck, a squeezed belly and twisting make a flush worse. A resting head, a free throat, props and a slow out-breath settle it. She went through menopause herself, and found that going into Triangle Pose through a Wide-Legged Forward Bend cooled her flushes.
Forward bends bring the head down and quieten the system. They are the tradition’s answer to heat and a busy mind.
What helps hot flushes at night?
Hot flushes at night wreck sleep twice: the heat wakes you, then the mind will not switch off. Several reviews now rank yoga and other non-drug approaches among the best first steps for poor sleep around and after menopause.
Ina Dani had practised Iyengar yoga for years when menopause arrived. The flushes came first: sudden heat and heavy sweating even in an air-conditioned room, then cold spells needing blankets in 30-degree heat. Mr Iyengar and Geeta gave her a sequence of poses and sent her to breathing classes. She practised Viloma (Staircase breathing, a breath taken in short stages with pauses), which she says “brought peace to me as well as my family.” She noticed something else: “If I missed it for 4 or 5 days, the hot flashes and itching would return.”
Geeta taught two breaths for menopause, both lying down: Ujjayi (Victorious Breath, AKA Ocean Breath) and Viloma. “These pranayamas help cool down oneself, restore energy, reduce bloating, swelling and avoid night sweats,” she said. That is known from long practice, not yet tested in trials.
Most of modern life presses the accelerator. A good class presses the brake, which is what settles a hot night.
What helps hot flushes in Darwin’s build-up?
For hot flushes in Darwin, the build-up is the hard season. Heat and humidity add to the load, and most women feel more irritable and less rested. In class we change the practice with the day: hotter days get more supported forward bends, more resting the head and more slow breathing.
Come to class at Flametree’s Woolner or Coolalinga studio, or join live online from anywhere in Australia. Our Women’s Wellness, restorative and pranayama classes add something extra for these years.
See also Yoga For Menopause And Perimenopause and Yoga For Perimenopause.
Cool, Calm And Strong, our free ebook for perimenopause, menopause and beyond.
Your free copy of Cool, Calm And Strong is waiting. New to Flametree, or away for 3 months or more? You get 2 free classes + 2 ebooks, only available via this offer. Already coming to class? You can still get the book.
Frequently asked questions
Why do hot flushes start?
As the ovaries slow down, oestrogen falls. The hypothalamus, the brain’s thermostat, gets confused and decides the body is too hot, so the body sweats and flushes to cool down. That is why flushes begin in the years around the last period.
Why are hot flushes worse at night?
Night flushes break sleep twice: the heat wakes you, and then a busy mind keeps you awake. Several reviews rank yoga and other non-drug approaches among the best first steps for poor sleep around and after menopause.
Can stress make hot flushes last longer?
It went together in the SWAN study. Women who felt more stress, anxiety and low mood when their flushes began had them for longer. It is a good reason to have a calming practice.
Is there a breathing exercise for hot flushes?
Geeta Iyengar taught Ujjayi and Viloma (staircase breathing), both lying down, for menopause. Ina Dani found Viloma brought her peace, and her flushes returned when she stopped. That is known from practice; trials have not yet tested it directly.
Which yoga poses make hot flushes worse?
Geeta Iyengar found strong muscular effort, a jammed neck, a squeezed belly and twisting made flushes worse. A resting head, a free throat, props and a slow out-breath settled them. Her lists come from long teaching, not from trials.
Does yoga help more than other exercise for hot flushes?
On one measure, yes. In one review, yoga beat other exercise on how much flushes bothered women, even though it did not cut how many came. Yoga also clearly improved the sleep, mood and anxiety that come with flushes.
Can I do yoga alongside hormone therapy?
Yes. Yoga sits well alongside whatever else you choose, and it helps the sleep, mood and coping that flushes wear down. Feel free to check with your professional advisers if you wish, but also give yoga a try.
Where can I get help with hot flushes in Darwin?
Flametree Yoga Studio teaches Iyengar yoga at Woolner and Coolalinga in Darwin and live online. Classes change with the day, with more supported, cooling poses in the build-up, and our Women’s Wellness, restorative and pranayama classes suit these years.
Where to next
- New to yoga, or coming back? Start with our half price 10 class pass with 2 classes free, in Darwin or live online.
- For a workplace, team or group: book private yoga classes for groups, online, at a Flametree studio or at your venue.
- Want to see class times first? Look at the beginner timetable.
Flametree Yoga Studio, Darwin and live online. This article is general information, not medical advice. Feel free to check with your professional advisers if you wish, but also give yoga a try.
Sources: Avis NE and colleagues, Duration of menopausal vasomotor symptoms over the menopause transition (SWAN), JAMA Internal Medicine, 2015; Wang H and colleagues, yoga for menopausal symptoms (24 trials, 2,028 women), International Journal of Nursing Studies, 2025; Cramer H, Peng W and Lauche R, Yoga for menopausal symptoms, Maturitas, 2018; Newton KM and colleagues, MsFLASH yoga trial (249 women), Menopause, 2014; Lisa Mosconi, The Menopause Brain, 2024; Mary Flaherty, Does Yoga Work?, 2020; Geeta Iyengar’s teaching and Ina Dani’s account in Yoga Rahasya, 2003; Rajvi Mehta, Yoga Rahasya. Further reading: Avis and colleagues, JAMA Internal Medicine, 2015. Full references are in the Cool, Calm And Strong ebook.
