Weighted blankets are trending in 2019. In 2017, the Kickstarter gravity sold around 4.7 million weighted blankets. They marketed them as blankets that cure most health problems such as anxiety, stress, insomnia, and depression. These blankets have been around in the market for decades, but due to recent medical surveys, they are being classified as medicated products. This, however, is not the case. These products fall under EDA’s guidelines, which restricts them from selling as a medicated product. If anyone is selling you these weighted blankets as medicated products, I would advise not buying them.
What Are Weighted Blankets?
Weighted blankets are just like comforters, the only difference is that weighted blankets are filled with glass beads or plastic pellets. Most of these blankets are made in heavy sizes. They are known to cure depression, insomnia, stress, and ADHD. Some Hospitals use them in PTSD wards as they cure PTSD patients as well. These blankets come in various sizes, ranging from queen to kings, to size for all. Always remember to pick the right size for these blankets.
Weight blanket Health Benefits
If you do use a weighted blanket for healing yourself of insomnia, stress or anxiety. Well I will be listing some health benefits of weighted blankets and those are:
1. Eases Insomnia
It eases insomnia, weighted blanket causes the chemical serotonin and dopamine to be released by the brain. These chemicals make the user feel relaxed and in turn, triggers the parasympathetic nervous system which makes the user feel relaxed and the user falls asleep instantly. It’s the opposite of the sympathetic nervous system, which means to either fight or flight response.
2.Helps with SPD
SPD stands for sensory processing disorder. If the information in our brain gets clogged, it can lead to anxiety and meltdowns. SPD (sensory processing disorder) can especially be a problem for younger children since children cannot describe their anxiety. So a possible solution is weighted blankets. These blankets help reduce anxiety in children and adults.
3. Improves Focus for ADHD
ADHD stands for attention-deficit hyperactivity syndrome or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder is a lack of focus. It usually occurs in young kids or mature adults. It makes the person always feel impulsiveness and restlessness. Weighted blankets trigger our deep touch syndrome, which means the feeling of getting a hug, massage or any warm comfortable feeling from another person. This feeling cures ADHD for the user. There are many recent studies on this and 78% of ADHD patients feel way more relaxed with their weighted blankets.
4. Cures Restless legs syndrome
Restless leg syndrome means a creepy-crawly feeling that is always felt in your legs. These symptoms usually occur in the night, so many people who have restless leg syndrome cannot sleep properly. But due to the weighted blankets weight, which is spread evenly on the legs, many patients feel relaxed and can downright sleep properly.
5. It also cures PTSD
PTSD or better known as post-traumatic stress disorder happens usually to soldiers or people who have gone under high mental pressure. These patients sometimes get reminded of their cruel pasts, they might see vivid memories of the past that may affect them mentally. Many hospital wards use weighted blankets for PTSD wards, as these blankets trigger the deep touch effect on the patients, it eases their mood and doesn’t remind them of their cruel world. If any person is suffering from PTSD in your family, please immediately take them to the hospital, weighted blankets are not the most viable solution when it comes to PTSD patients. PTSD patients also need to take medication, which is advised by the doctor.
6.Helps cure fibromyalgia pain
Fibromyalgia pain usually happens to a woman. There are no medicines that cure fibromyalgia pain. Fibromyalgia pain usually happens in the 11-18 joints that are inside the legs.
So, to get rid of this pain, many women use weighted blankets. The peer pressure of the weight cures the pain in 11-18 joints that are in the leg. Many fibromyalgia pain patients cannot sleep without weighted blankets.
7. Improves Sleep Quality and Mood
It improves sleep quality and mood. Since weighted blankets release chemicals in our brains such as serotonin and dopamine. It makes us feel relaxed and makes us sleep for a longer period. When we wake up, we don’t feel restless and are usually more attentive throughout the day. Because of this, the weighted blanket improves our sleep quality and mood.
8. Might help cure Autism
There is no viable evidence to prove this, but it is known that autism can be cured through deep massages in a research letter from the University of Havard. Since weighted blankets release the deep touch syndrome which means a feeling of the deep massage I think weighted blankets may even help cure autism in your child. The constant release of serotonin and dopamine is a major factor in this. These chemicals play a role in mood regulation, impulse control and more.
9. Might fight against panic attacks
Most people feel panic attacks when they are under high stress. There nervous system shutdowns and they go under high anxiety and stress. Since weighted blankets make the user feel less anxious and cure stress. It might help if anyone is under any sort of panic attack. Just tell them to lay down, and let the blanket do its job.
Conclusion
Any person who suffers from anxiety, stress or any sort of depression should try weighted blanket health therapy. It has many advantages, it even cures ADHD and PTSD in most patients. As we also learned in this article, that it might even cure autism in most patients. Always remember to ask your doctor if a weighted blanket is necessary. Also, don’t leave your medicines if the weighted blanket therapy works, even your medicine is important. May this therapy succeed for you, and cures all your problems related to stress, anxiety, depression, ADHD, PTSD or even autism in your child.