Chemistry - Why is heating increasing the solubility of sodium hydroxide?
The question to the Newton - Ask a Scientist program by Danna C Griffiths (to be found via the Internet Archive) has an answer for it.
What I understood from the explanation on that site:
Solubility is defined as the concentration of the solute in a saturated solution. So when considering the increase in solubility with temperature, you have to check the enthalpy of solution of $\ce{NaOH}$ in a saturated solution of $\ce{NaOH}$.
When you dissolve $\ce{NaOH}$ in pure water, the process is highly exothermic, but as the concentration of $\ce{NaOH}$ increases, the process becomes less exothermic and eventually near the saturation point it becomes endothermic (it becomes less favourable for more $\ce{NaOH}$ to dissolve).
So according to Le Chatelier’s Principle, although the dissolution process is overall exothermic, since solubility is determined only at the saturation point, the solubility increases with increase in temperature.