Like this: Amazon.ca : weighted blankets
Are some of the advantages real? Disadvantages? Ways to make the best use of them? Are there affordable & easy DIY alternatives?
I own two. My feeling is that it’s a Goldilocks and the Three Bears type of product.
The first one I got weights 20lbs and I don’t use it because it’s not warm enough alone and having anything either over or under it gives me the terrifying sensation that the other blanket is going to shift around and smother me because I am so movement restricted.
The second one I got weights 10lbs and I love it. I can use it with other blankets without feeling like I couldn’t fight free of them. I spent a couple of weeks watching prices on two of the few I could find that are both 10lbs and 60" x 80" instead of much smaller. Totally worth the time spent.
My advice is to get one that is less heavy than recommend for your size and if you’ve borderline choose the less heavy option - I really should have gone with 15lbs instead of 20.
I would feel oppressed (and way too hot) under one of those things.
I bought one. Hated it.
Oppressive is the right word. I’m a hot sleeper. Don’t know why I thought I wanted one. The lil’wrekker took it college with her, she loves it.
(Not sure what weight it was)
I bought a 5kg one for the Smaller Girl (that would be 11 lb to you guys) since last we had a thread about this, because she was having trouble not only getting to sleep but staying asleep, and I noticed her propensity to “nest” in multiple layers.
It’s made a very marked improvement on her sleep patterns, and I’m calling it a win.
I keep eyeing one off for myself, but they are expensive - I think next time she goes on school camp I’m going to whisk hers away and try it out.
I have 2, a 15# for the couch and 20 lb for the bed. They’ve been amazingly useful in dealing with anxiety issues and allowing me to sleep for more than a couple of hours a night. Not a cure-all, far from it, but I found they really work for me.
I have a 15 pound one, and love it. I also used to use multiple layers to get the weight.
Well, I first heard of them in the context of helping calm children with autism. The evidence there seems inconclusive but at least it’s highly unlikely to do any harm.
Vestibular swings are also used to provide sensory input for such kids. When my daughter was newborn and still in the NICU, an occupational therapist showed me how to hold her at arms’ length and swing her in large slow arcs, to help her settle.
All in all, it would seem to be similar to the sensory input Temple Grandin notes in her invention of the “squeeze machine” (based on machines used to help settle cattle).
Anecdotally: I’ve never felt comfortable sleeping in the nude. Even when clothed, I have always needed a blanket of some sort even during then summer, to sleep soundly. It’s only been the last few years that I’ve been able to doze off without covers, and I still don’t like it. When I’m at the dentist and they put that lead apron on, it is actually very relaxing. So one of these days I might try a weighted blanket.
So uncomfortable I gave it to my brother.
I have two of them. I got one a few months ago as a gift. It’s 12# (not the correct one for me to begin with) and a ‘single’ but it’s about the size of a throw blanket. When I used it, I liked it, but if it was on my feet it only came up to about my chest.
I got a new one that’s 20# and 60x80. Now, I’m about 5’9’’. It should be plenty long, but it still doesn’t seem like it. I also got a cover for it (so I could wash the cover and not worry about the blanket). Trying to wrestle a weighted blanked is hard enough (kinda the point though). Trying to wrestle it inside of a bamboo cover is a nightmare. It slides around, shifts, doesn’t move the way you want it too etc.
Having said all that I really like it, it just takes an extra few minutes to get it situated when I go to bed.
They do take a few days to get used to. That 12# blanket felt like it was suffocating me for the first day or two, then I didn’t even notice it which was one of the reasons I stepped up to 20#. If I’m still using it when it’s time to replace it, I’ll happily go up a few more pounds.
I don’t toss and turn at night, but I have a feeling it would help people that do. Any kind of movement under the blanket is a lot of work which tends to make you less inclined to move around too much.
My son uses them. He is autistic and they were recommended early. They help him quite a bit, in terms of helping him fall asleep and in terms of helping him self-regulate (calm down when he’s upset). When he doesn’t have a blanket, he will do things like pull his top mattress over himself, while sleeping on the box springs.
I have always liked sleeping with many blankets on top of me. I find the weight comforting. I am trying to find the right weight blanket to use. My first attempt was too heavy and went to the boy.
Are there particular ways to using it that work best? Can it be used out of it to good effect? What if it’s just the legs or the belly and down?
It seems to be a lot like ThunderShirt and dogs and cats. Since it seems to works on cats, dogs, autistic children and non-autistic adult humans, I wonder what the mechanism of action is.
Actually, there are precautions. Weighted blankets are not appropriate for babies/toddlers or for anyone who is unable to easily remove the blanket themselves (because it’s too heavy or due to a disability). They also should not be used in the presence of any respiratory concerns. It’s commonly recommended that they be removed from children after they have fallen asleep.
There’s a nerve tract/bundle through the spinal column called the dorsal column medial lemniscal. It carries information from the body to the brain regarding the senses of vibration, deep touch pressure, and proprioception (i.e., the sensation of position/force/movement from the muscles and, to a lesser extent, joints). Stimuli to this tract have a calming, organizing, and regulating affect on the central nervous system. Weighted blankets are used to elicit this reponse via deep touch pressure.
Thanks.
Are there areas of the body where pressure is most effectively applied?
We had a thread on weighted blankets in December: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=886736
My wife who has trouble sleeping is delighted with her weighted blanket; I (who has no trouble sleeping and do not use one) am not because she likes it so much that she impregnably cocoons herself into it.
I’d never heard of weighted blankets before this thread. Are they available in most stores that sell bedding, or must they be ordered online? I like heavy covers, especially this time of year.
They sell them in Target, and Bed Bath & Beyond…probably a lot of other places also.
I’m 155lbs and bought a 20lbs blanket. Maybe I should have gone for 15lbs. Is there a way to make it effectively light or heavier?
I saw some at Lowes or Home Depot a few weeks ago.
They say you should start at 10% of your body weight and go from there. I’m about 160ish and got a 12# blanket. It wasn’t nearly enough. I upgraded to a 20# but also a larger one.
Something else to keep in mind is that a 10# twin or a 10# King both weigh 10#. The 10% number is based on, IIRC, the twin. If you get something larger, it has to be heavier since a lot of the weight will be resting on the bed instead of you (though it all still counts).
With all that said, no, you can’t change the weight of it, you just have to get a new one that’s lighter or heavier.
As I mentioned in the other thread, I have a 12-pound one. It’s a twin on a king bed, because the spouse didn’t want one. I tried it the long way and hated it, since I hate having anything weighing my feet down. When I put it the other way, so it only covered my torso and the tops of my legs, I love it. I only use it in the winter, though–it’s too hot in the summer.