Ever tried getting into bed under a weighted blanket? As the name indicates, these blankets are heavier than the regular, fluffy comforters. The extra weight puts pressure on your body, which feels like a warm hug, helping to calm your nerves and leading to better sleep.
For many people, weighted blankets have become a routine part of stress relief and healthy sleep habits, and for good reason. Recent research seems to show that these blankets benefit people with anxiety, insomnia and other conditions.
Swedish researchers from Uppsala University have found melatonin levels were a third higher when people slept under weighted blankets compared to when they used a normal blanket. Their small study was published in October in the Journal of Sleep Research.
What is a weighted blanket
These blankets have extra heft due to heavy material sewn into the fabric. That material is usually beads or pellets made of glass or plastic.
Weighted blankets are available in different weights, ranging between 5 to 30 lb. You should select one which is between 5% and 12% of your body weight. They are sold at drugstores, department stores, or online. You can even make your own.
They have become trendy but aren’t cheap. You can expect to pay from $130 to $400 for a quality weighted blanket. Sales of these blankets reached $600 million in 2021 after earning rave reviews from sleep specialists and celebrities like Kourtney Kardashian.
Uses and benefits
Weighted blankets are used as an alternative therapy for conditions like –
- Anxiety
- Insomnia, tossing and turning, or other sleep problems
- Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
- Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
The gentle pressure on your body provided by a weighted blanket helps to calm you by activating your parasympathetic nervous system, which lowers your heart rate.
A weighted blanket uses “pressure therapy”, a calm-inducing amount of pressure on your entire body, like the feeling of being hugged, swaddled, stroked, or held.
Occupational therapists sometimes use weighted blankets as part of therapy for children with sensory issues like anxiety or ADHD.
Weighted blankets also help you stop tossing and turning in bed, so you lie still and go to sleep.
Weighted blankets may help some people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or ADHD who are overstimulated by noise around them. At bedtime, the blanket’s pressure may help them feel safe and protected. They calm down and get some rest.
What does science say
The Uppsala University study found evidence that using a weighted blanket increases the amount of melatonin — a hormone that helps you sleep — naturally produced in the body. The pineal gland of the brain creates melatonin, and the body naturally increases its production when it turns dark outside, signalling the body it’s time to rest.
“This is a very interesting study, but it would be nice to see it replicated in a second cohort because it is not an obvious thing that melatonin should increase with a weighted blanket,” Håkan Olausson, a neuroscientist at Linköping University in Sweden, told The Washington Post.
Dr Tracy Marks, a psychologist from Atlanta, Georgia, who was not a part of the Uppsala study, explained to DailyMail.com that weighted blankets have been known as sleep enhancers – but not through increased melatonin production. They activate a person’s Vagus Nerve – the body’s longest nerve that runs from the stomach to the cranium. The deep touch pressure activates the body’s parasympathetic nervous system, helping to ‘slow down’ the body, cutting the production of cortisol and increasing the secretion of serotonin and dopamine in the brain, Dr Marks said, while comparing the effect of a weighted blanket to slowing a person’s breathing or splashing water on their face to calm them down.
Extra pressure exerted by the heavy blanket may help your body release oxytocin also, which may improve your immune system response, ease pain and stress, and help you sleep.
Who shouldn’t use weighted blankets?
Infants, toddlers, or very young children should not use a weighted blanket. The pellets or glass beads can fall out and become a choking hazard. The heavy blanket could cover a child’s face while they sleep and could turn out to be dangerous.
If you have sleep apnea, breathing problems, or any chronic health condition, check with your doctor before you use a weighted blanket. Ask your child’s pediatrician before letting him sleep under one. They aren’t safe for children with epilepsy, breathing or heart problems, skin allergies, blood circulation problems, or those who can’t remove the blanket on their own.
