Weighted blankets were recommended to me by friends. Some like sleeping under a weighted blanket others say it relaxes them when they watch the telly. I got myself one of those blankets and I already love it. It relaxes my muscle tension and I have a deeper sleep. With alternative medicine there is never a whole lot of research. But I did find some decent studies.
Weighted blankets improve sleep
One study follows about 1 800 people with psychiatric disorders. It assessed how an intervention with weighted blanket for a year would influence their need for sleeping medication. After one year 3,3% no longer needed sleeping medication. However, among those 3,3% were predominantly younger people, people with unipolar- or anxiety disorder, ADHD or PTSD. The weighted blankets didn’t help people with psychotic-, bipolar- or personality disorders so much (1).
Luckily, I never had to take sleeping medicine. And a different study evaluated the effect of weighted blankets on people without any particular diagnosis. They quantified their data by peoples self-reporting about their sleep quality. People felt they fell asleep 13% faster, slept better through the night with a 36% improvement and felt 17% more rested than without a blanket (2). Which is also exactly how I feel, well maybe not down to the percentage point.
Weighted blankets lower anxiety
As I motioned one of my friends doesn’t use the weighted blanket for sleeping. However, she finds that it lowers her anxiety. I found a study investigating the effect of weighted blankets on anxiety, too. It is much appreciated that in this study they measured pulse and took an anxiety score before and after a 20-minute intervention with a weighted blanket. This is a cheap and easy way to quantify anxiety. It makes their results much more objective compared to studies that only relay on self-reports. The participants were patients at a mental health hospital. I have got to critique that the control group with a normal blanket could spent the 20-minute wherever they wanted. Common areas might be more arousing than laying in your own bed which was required for the intervention group. Only seeing someone you don’t like can increase your pulse, so that might have forged the data, in my opinion. Still, the weighted blankets led to a significant decrease in pulse and anxiety score (3).
My thoughts …
In my search of the literature, I also learned that weighted blankets can reduce chronic pain (4). All these finding hint to a great potential that weighted blankets have, to improve quality of life. However, the neuronal pathways on which they affect us are still elusive. I can imagine that c-tactile afferents play a role in it. They transmit soft touch sensations and I have written about them in BRUSH off – feelings of OSTRACISM and A PAT on the BACK – WON’T comfort me. In the later I discuss how soft touch is not always comforting for people that have suffer neglect. Mostly the blanket relaxes me but also, I experience more atrial fibrillation when I use it. I talk about how I frequently get those in My HEART is RACING – life with PTSD. It might sound contradictory at first and I am curious to see if the episodes of atrial fibrillation lessen over time. Maybe that would be an indication of my nervous system healing if they did but I am sure future research will shed light on this.
(1) Weighted blanket and sleep medication use among adults with psychiatric diagnosis – a population-based register study (2021) S. Steingrímsson, E. Odéus, M. Cederlund, S. Franzén, C. Helgesson, K. Nyström, J. Sondell, A. Opheim
(2) 1203 Worth The Weight: Weighted Blanket Improves Sleep And Increases Relaxation (2020) S. Danoff-Burg, H. M. Rus, L. Cruz Martir, R. J. Raymann
(3) Using weighted blankets in an inpatient mental health hospital to decrease anxiety (2021) A. L. Becklund, L. Rapp-McCall, J. Nudo
(4) Widespread Pressure Delivered by a Weighted Blanket Reduces Chronic Pain: A Randomized Controlled Trial (2022) J. N. Baumgartner, D. Quintana, L. Leija, N. M. Schuster, K. A. Bruno, J. P. Castellanos, L. K. Case
