As far as I know the NaOH solution cannot react with the alkaloids we're trying to extract here and especially not so if you don't heat it up to much. Room temperature should be fine (wasn't saying you need to cool it either), all that happens in this stage is that NaOH, the stronger base, is displacing N,N-DMT from it's place in a salt. Therefore the DMT is in form of a freebase and the sodium salt of the DMT salt is formed.