Weighted Blankets: What Are The Pros and Cons?

Have you ever found yourself lying awake at night searching for a way around your anxieties and stress so you can just get some sleep? You're not alone. The CDC reports that one out of every three adults isn’t getting enough rest. There are many reasons for our collective fatigue, including stress, anxiety, and other mental health factors.

Weighted blankets have become a therapeutic option to help people with both sleep and mental wellbeing. Wondering if you should get one? Let's explore the pros and cons of weighted blankets, to help you weigh up (pun intended) your options and make an informed decision to find the right weighted blanket for you!

Pros Of Using A Weighted Blanket

Let's uncover how weighted blankets work, and some of the pros of using a weighted blanket to get more restful sleep.

Weighted Blankets Improve Sleep Quality

Many people report that weighted blankets can reduce night-time tossing and turning as the gentle full-body pressure makes it easier to lie still. Weighted blankets offer the feeling of being hugged or swaddled, similar to what help babies fall asleep. How this hugging sensation - deep pressure therapy - results in better sleep has to do with how a weighted blanket helps your body balance serotonin, melatonin, and cortisol levels.

The deep touch pressure that sleeping under weight delivers increases serotonin levels to help you sleep better overall. Serotonin levels are a vital factor in getting good quality sleep, and a good way to combat low serotonin is enhancing our innate ability to make this hormone. One of those ways is using the gentle pressure from a weighted blanket.

There's also a close relationship between weighted blankets and melatonin (another important sleep-related hormone). Using a weighted blanket can naturally increase levels of melatonin while at the same time decreasing cortisol levels (the stress hormone). This helps decrease anxiety, which in turn leaves you feeling calmer, makes it easier to get real rest, and wake up feeling restored.

When you are looking to get a weighted blanket for the first time in your journey for uninterrupted sleep, make sure to get the correct weight. We recommend 10% of your body weight when you are using a weighted blanket for the first time, but you can of course experiment with the right weight that feels comfortable for you afterwards so as to get the best benefits of deep pressure touch.

Weighted Blankets Can Help Treat Insomnia

Insomnia, a sleep disorder characterized by trouble falling or staying asleep, is prevalent in modern society. Weighted blankets can help treat insomnia, and many people who battle this condition experience a significant improvement in their sleep health when regularly using a weighted blanket - the gentle pressure from a weighted blanket helps your nervous system signal your body to produce more melatonin, which helps you fall asleep and alleviate insomnia symptoms.

Weighted Blankets Minimize Anxiety

Weighted blankets are not only useful for people who have difficulty sleeping, but can also help those who suffer from anxiety disorders. In a study of 32 adult volunteers, 63% reported that they experienced lower anxiety after lying under a weighted blanket. One of the reasons for these results is attributed to the therapeutic technique of full-body pressure weighted blankets provide. Unlike regular blankets, the deep pressure touch from these heavy blankets triggers the nervous system responses that can slow down breathing and lower heart rate, helping your body relax, and your mind feel calmer.

As a result, weighted blankets are very helpful for people who have ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), as well as people with autism spectrum disorder - this is because weighted blankets help calm them down when they are anxious from overstimulation.

Weighted Blankets Can Improve Your Overall Wellbeing

It's no secret that sleep quality impacts your overall health. Over time, not getting a good night's sleep contributes to serious health consequences, including physical symptoms such as chronic pain and restless leg syndrome, sleep disorders, and mental health disorders like depression and anxiety.

Using a weighted blanket as part of your nightly routine offers a drug-free way to get better sleep, as well as alleviate pain symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and other symptoms from both physical and mental health conditions - ultimately taking care of your overall physical and mental health.

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Cons Of Using A Weighted Blanket

Even though there are so many weighted blanket pros, there are a few cons that can come with sleeping under weight that you should be cautious of – here's how we've addressed these potential downsides with our Bearaby Nappers!

Weighted Blankets Can Get Too Hot

Many people tend to be hot sleepers, which means they quickly feel too warm or uncomfortably hot when sleeping under a weighted blanket. While conventional heavy blankets aren’t breathable, our innovative design of chunky loops maximizes airflow while swaddling them, and can keep even hot sleepers comfortably cool to improve sleep quality.

If you’re a hot sleeper, try to look for a cooling weighted blanket with a natural fiber cover that can prevent you from overheating. Depending on your temperature preferences, you might also prefer to layer your weighted blanket with a sheet, muslin throw blanket, or quilt.

If you’re looking for a good blanket to layer with a knitted weighted blanket, muslin throw blankets can be especially useful thanks to their soft texture and breathable, cooling properties. Our Muslin Cocoon even comes in colors to match our Cotton Nappers, so you can create your own dreamy Bearaby bedroom set!

Weighted Blankets Aren’t Sustainably Made

The traditional way of filling a polyester blanket with plastic pellets or glass beads to give it weight doesn’t provide a particularly Earth-friendly manufacturing method. What sets our Nappers apart is that we’ve redesigned the crafting process and use only layers of natural fabric to give our sustainable products their weight. No artificial fillers in sight!

If you’re concerned about the impact your purchase may have on the environment, opt for a weighted blanket free of artificial fillers and made of sustainable materials.

Weighted Blankets Can Be A Risk For Smaller Kids

Since toddlers aren’t yet strong enough to remove a heavy blanket from their little bodies, weighted blankets aren’t recommended for children under four. For example, if the weighted blanket somehow covers their faces and cannot take it off, children could have difficulty breathing, which is a suffocation risk. It could also cause small children to overheat.

While weighted blankets for toddlers aren't recommended - we do not recommend children under age 4 to sleep under weight - older children can enjoy the many benefits of our Nappling our own weighted blankets safe for children! The Napper's little sibling, the Nappling is designed with children in mind - its smaller loops cocoon little bodies tighter but are still breathable. The Nappling comes in 5 lbs and 7 lbs weight options, and we recommend 10% of your child's body weight as well.

What’s The Gist?

Knowing the pros and cons of weighted blankets can help you make an informed decision. Overall, we recommend using a weighted blanket as a beneficial, natural self-care solution and a good investment in your health and well-being, with our Napper being an innovation that transformed the cons of weighted blankets into pros.