Simple Trick To Promote Better Sleep (Includes A Weighted Blanket)
If you’re facing problems with sleeping, you should learn how to promote better sleep and treat sleeping disorders with the help of a weighted blanket.
Wondering what a weighted blanket is? Well, it’s self-explanatory. It’s a big size blanket filled with different materials (such as plastic pellets) to add more weight to it.
Now, how can a weighted blanket help you sleep better at night? Let’s dive into the long list of beneficial properties these blankets have.
How A Weighted Blanket Can Promote Better Sleep
If you are not sure about investing in a weighted blanket, these benefits can change your mind. These are five ways in which a weighted blanked can promote better sleep:
1. Improves Sleep Quality
Having a bad night’s sleep or struggling with insomnia can affect your energy and your mood the next day when you wake up. You may feel tired and restless, which is not a great way to start the day.
Even if you get your 8 hours of sleep, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you had a good night’s sleep. Besides the importance of sleeping the recommended hours per night, your sleep quality is important too.
To wake up feeling rested, you need restorative and restful sleep. This is where the weighted blankets will come to the rescue.
Using a heavier blanket will put gentle but firm pressure on your body. This added pressure will boost serotonin, a chemical that regulates sleep. So sleeping under this blanket will help you fall asleep faster, have a longer sleep, and wake up rested.
2. Helps You Fall Asleep Faster
Some of us can have a hard time falling asleep as soon as we turn off the TV or finish reading for the night.
Whatever is your routine before going to sleep, you may need a few moments or more to finally fall asleep.
A weighted blanket can help you fall asleep faster because you will feel swaddled in it like a newborn.
The pressure added by the blanket creates a calming effect and increases relaxation, so you will fall asleep right away.
3. Improves Your Mood
Maybe it doesn’t make sense that a blanket would improve your mood, but this kind of blanket can actually do it. We all have days when we are feeling down, irritated or just sad.
When your brain doesn’t produce enough serotonin, it can even have a negative impact on your emotional health.
You can boost the production of serotonin with deep touch pressure stimulation, which is what the added weight of these blankets will do.
So using a weighted blanket can actually be like a therapy for you. It will help you boost the serotonin and melatonin levels in your body. This means you will improve your mood, feel happier, fall asleep more easily, and promote better sleep.
4. Makes You Stay Asleep All Night
Having restless nights and even suffering from stress and anxiety can keep you up at night.
If you find it difficult to have a rested sleep, using a weighted blanket will improve your sleep significantly.
Sleeping under these blankets feels like someone is giving you a huge warm hug. So enjoy a calm and restful sleep all night long under these blankets.
5. Keeps You Calm And Peaceful
When you experience a bad day where everything goes wrong, you need something (if not someone) to help you calm down, unwind, and destress after that a long day.
Using a weighted blanket can have a calming effect on you and on your body. You deserve a little you time, snuggling under a weighted blanket and enjoying some calm and peace.
Who wouldn’t want to have a good night’s sleep and wake up rested? The right way to start your day is with a good night’s sleep, so you will have all the energy you need during the day.
People suffering from anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, ADHD, or post-traumatic stress disorder use weighted blankets as a form of therapy.
The added weight of the blankets can help people who struggle with insomnia. You will experience a feeling of calmness and safety under the blanket.
Weighted Blanket Buying Guide
Weighted blankets are recognized for their therapeutic properties, not just for warmth and comfort. But before choosing one to help improve your sleep, here’s what you need to know.
1. Weight
The blanket you choose should depend on your body weight: 10% of your body weight as a rule of thumb.
If you weigh 90 kg, for example, which equates to 200 lbs, then you should buy a 20 lbs blanket.
The most common weighted blankets are those of 15 to 30 pounds.
2. Price
Some of the weighted blankets can cost between 150 and 300 USD. At this price, a weighted blanket can become an investment. These are high-quality blankets that will end up lasting for years (if not a lifetime).
Usually, people who invest in these blankets use them for therapeutic reasons. People suffering from anxiety, stress or insomnia will definitely need to get top quality blankets for better results.
3. Materials
Find a weighted blanket made of high-quality material. Soft mink is a popular example.
The interior of your weighted blanket should be designed with glass beads and/or plastic pellets. These materials are the best to induce deep touch pressure therapy.
Having a weighted blanket tailored to your body weight and its soft pressure are reasons why weighted blankets are far superior to standard blankets and duvets.
4. Temperature
You can even choose a weighted blanket according to your body’s temperature. If you get sweaty or hot at night, you may need to choose a cooling fabric.
This fabric is specifically engineered to keep away moisture and body heat, which will keep you from getting too hot at night.
But if you are always cold, which is how the majority of people feel like, you can choose a flannel blanket. You will get some extra warmth alongside the added weight.
As you can see, there are a few things you should keep in mind when choosing the right blanket for your sleep.
If you want to promote sleep quality and wake up rested, then a weighted blanket is what you’re looking for. But before you buy it, do a quick research online to see which one fits you best.
