Music for Hot Flashes: Cooling Sounds to Help You Settle at Night

It's 1.40am. It starts in your chest, a slow tide of heat climbing up your neck and into your face. The blanket is on the floor before you're properly awake. Everyone else in the house sleeps on, and you lie there with your heart thudding, wondering how long it will last this time.

You can't switch the heat off. But you might be able to change what the next five minutes feel like.

In short: Music for hot flashes won't stop a hot flash, and nothing honest will promise that. What calm, slow music can do is give your mind somewhere cool to rest while the heat passes, and help your breathing slow to around 6 breaths a minute. Many women find that helps them feel calmer and more in control while a hot flash runs its course.

What happens during a hot flash at night?

Hot flushes (or hot flashes) and night sweats affect around 3 in 4 women going through menopause. In the long-running US SWAN study, they lasted a median of about 7 years. So if you're tired of them, you're far from alone.

At night, the heat rarely comes by itself. It often brings a racing heart and a jolt of alarm. And that alarm can keep you awake long after the heat has gone: lying rigid, damp, checking the clock, dreading the next one.

That second part, the alarm and the dread, is where sound can help.

Can music help with hot flashes?

Let's be honest about the evidence. For paced breathing, early small studies were promising, but a larger 2013 trial found no clear drop in how often hot flashes happen. It may still help women feel calmer and more in control while one passes. Music sits in a similar place. It isn't a treatment for hot flashes. It's a companion through them.

Where music may help more directly is getting back to sleep afterwards. A 2022 Cochrane review found that listening to music may improve sleep quality for adults with insomnia.

Not this: lying stiff and counting the minutes, or grabbing your phone to scroll until it's over. This instead: one cool sound, one slow out-breath, and permission to just let the wave pass.

What makes a sound feel cooling?

This part is experience, not science. But many women describe the same things:

• Water sounds, or melodies that move like water
• A slow, steady pace with no sudden changes
• Lots of space between notes, nothing crowded or heavy
• Soft volume, just loud enough to follow

What you're looking for is ठंडक, that feeling of coolness after the first rain. Raga Chandrakauns is a good place to start. The MySakhi track Be Still. The Water Knows. is about 3 minutes of sitar over a quiet bed of sound.

Be Still. The Water Knows. Three minutes of cool, slow sound for when the heat rises.

Music

Be Still. The Water Knows.

4 min

See in library→

All MySakhi music is tuned to 432Hz. The evidence for 432Hz is limited: one small 2019 study found a slightly lower heart rate with 432Hz music than with 440Hz. What matters most is whether a sound calms you. More on that in what 432Hz music really does.

Try this now: a 5-minute cool-down with sound

1. Before bed, set up: a glass of water nearby, a light cotton layer instead of one heavy blanket, and your track ready to play at low volume.
2. When the heat starts, throw off one layer and press play. Don't check the time.
3. Breathe in through your nose for a count of 4, then out through your mouth for a count of 6. That's about 6 breaths a minute.
4. As you breathe out, picture cool water running from the top of your head down to your feet. Let the music be the river.
5. When the heat passes, turn your pillow to the cool side, sip some water, and let the music play on while you settle.

You can't do this wrong. If you lose count, just make the out-breath long. If the heat lasts longer than the track, press play again. Five minutes is enough.

Building a hot flash night playlist

Some nights you want a voice to hold onto. Others, just sound. Here's a simple order that works for both.

Start with Cool River Running Through You, a 3-minute guided practice made for hot flashes. A calm voice keeps you company while the heat passes.

Meditation

Cool River Running Through You

3 min

Then let music take over. A River Runs Through You is built on Raga Bageshri, traditionally a night raga, with a bansuri melody that feels like moving water. That's tradition rather than proven science, but it's lovely at 2am.

Music

A River Runs Through You.

5 min

For longer nights, the MySakhi YouTube channel has 20-minute and 1-hour versions of the music, so you don't need to touch your phone again once it's playing. If you like nature sounds, search MySakhi on Spotify for the album Deep Sleep Nature Music 432Hz.

For more on the breathing side, see breathing exercises for hot flashes, and if you wake up soaked, the night sweats breathing reset. For daytime heat, there's a guide to hot flashes at work.

When should you talk to a doctor about hot flashes?

It's okay to ask for help. You don't need to push through years of broken nights alone.

If hot flashes wake you most nights, or affect your mood, work or relationships, talk to your doctor. Hormone therapy (HRT or MHT) is the most effective treatment for hot flashes for many women, and it's a conversation worth having with a doctor who knows your health. The UK's NICE menopause guidance, updated in 2024, also includes CBT as one option for hot flushes, night sweats, sleep problems and low mood linked to menopause.

Get urgent care if a hot flash comes with chest pain, fainting, breathlessness, or palpitations that don't settle.

Where can you find cooling sounds from MySakhi?

MySakhi is a free app for women in perimenopause and menopause, with short guided breathing practices, sleep stories, calming 432Hz music and Sakhi, an AI companion who suggests what might help tonight. The app has a bedtime mode, and a Circle called Cool Down, a small group of women who know exactly what 1.40am feels like. You can download it free on the App Store, or listen on any phone at mysakhi.life.

MySakhi music is also on the MySakhi artist page on Spotify, and on Apple Music and Amazon Music if you search MySakhi.

Tonight, before you sleep, set your track ready by the bed. Then if the heat comes, press play on Cool River Running Through You and let it carry you through.

5 minutes. No mat. No mantra. Just you.