How Weighted Blankets Can Help Anxiety

We live in anxious times.

Anxiety is simply worrying about the future. Everyone feels it at some point.

Did you know that weighted blankets can help reduce your anxiety and stress levels? And that there are clinical studies that support this.

What is a weighted blanket?

A weighted blanket is – simply – a heavy blanket. It is usually made heavy because it is filled with beads or something similar like poly pellets that are sewn into evenly spaced pockets. These pockets help distribute the weight evenly over your body.

How do weighted blankets help reduce stress and anxiety?

Weighted blankets work by using Deep Pressure Touch on your body.

Deep Pressure Touch is a consistent, gentle but firm pressure on the body. It feels a bit like a hug. This Deep Pressure works in two phases to make both your mind and body feel physically calmer.

Both these reactions to Deep Pressure Touch occur in the central nervous system.

In the first phase, Deep Pressure Touch shuts down your “fight or flight” instinct in the sympathetic nervous system. (If you are suffering with anxiety, this can be almost permanently “switched on”.)

Secondly, Deep Pressure Touch switches the parasympathetic nervous system on. This causes your heart rate and breathing to slow. Your muscles relax and your blood pressure declines. In other words, it causes your body to de-stress biologically.

This de-stressing process is then boosted. The parasympathetic nervous system also releases endorphins (or “feel-good” hormones) and the “happy neuro-transmitter serotonin. (Serotonin helps control sleep, mood, appetite, social behaviour, digestion and memory.

So, to summarise, weighted blankets can help relieve anxiety by switching off your “fight or flight” instinct, calming your body physiologically and soothing your mind by the release of “feel good” chemical compounds.

Deep Pressure Touch reduces cortisol – the stress hormone

For people with anxiety though, the Deep Pressure Touch does something else that is helpful. At least one clinical study suggests that “grounding” your body while sleeping helps to reduce your body’s cortisol production while you sleep.

Why is this important?

Because cortisol is commonly called the “stress hormone”. It causes the body’s stress-induced reactions like a rapid heart beat and increased blood pressure. It is there to help you respond quickly to life-threatening situations by shutting down non-essential functions – like your sex drive.

High cortisol levels prevent you from going to sleep. It’s that simple.

So, in addition to shutting off your fight-or-flight instinct and triggering your calming parasympathetic nervous system, a weighted blanket seems to help reduce your cortisol levels. All of this can help you go to sleep.

Sustained high levels of cortisol are linked to things like increased risk of depression, anxiety, sleep disorders and diabetes.

Every weighted blanket should have two characteristics to maximise its Deep Pressure Touch benefits. These will help you destress, relax and feel calmer.

1. The weight should be spread evenly through it, without any “bunching” or “pooling” of the weight.
2. It should be the correct weight for the individual user.

The weight needs to be evenly distributed through the weighted blanket

Every weighted blanket should have the weight spread evenly through the blanket to deliver the best sleep-enhancing Deep Pressure Touch effect.

At Calming Moments we sew equal weights of the beads into evenly spaced pockets throughout the blanket. Each pocket is triple-stitched, so that you can be sure that they will not break and have the beads slide into other pockets.

However, this is not enough to keep the Australian-made glass beads evenly distributed through it.

So, we fill each blanket with two layers of cotton wadding. This spreads the beads evenly through each pocket. So, the blanket will feel heavy, but you won’t be able to feel the individual beads.

And they don’t bunch or pool.

Our customers have found that many mass-produced weighted blankets don’t have evenly spaced weights. This means that the weight can claustrophobically focus on your chest, pinning you to your bed. With nothing on your legs. Or the other way round.

This will not help feel less anxious.

Or the weights will slide around to the bottom of the pocket.

Again, this will not help you relax and destress.

The weight must be evenly spread through the blanket to maximise its Deep Pressure Touch so that you can feel calmer.

But even this alone is not enough to make sure that you get the correct Deep Pressure Touch on your body to get you the best sleep and anxiety-reducing result.

Every weighted blanket should be custom-made for the individual user

OTs recommend that single and king single bed weighted blankets should be 10% of the user’s body weight. (We recommend adding 1kg for the larger blankets as the weight is spread over a larger area.)

We all have different body weights.

Yet, most mass-produced weighted blankets come in a limited number of weights.

Which is fine if you happen to be 20kg, 50kg, 70kg or 90kg on the dot. But if you weigh anything else, then you need a different weight blanket.

At Calming Moments, we custom make each blanket to order. We offer 20 different weight options for our weighted bed blankets. These start at 2.5kg and increase in 0.5kg increments up to 12kg.

This means that you can get the exact weight blanket that will deliver the correct Deep Pressure Touch that will help your unique body sleep better for longer.

Why a Calming Moments’ weighted blanket?

Are you ready to take the next step? Here are some reasons for you to choose a Calming Moments weighted blanket.

• We make each blanket to order. That means you get precisely the custom-made weighted blanket that you want.
• Each pocket in every weighted blanket is carefully sized so that the weights don’t gather and cause undue pressure. This spreads the weight evenly over your whole body so that you get the best possible Deep Pressure Touch effect.
• Our weighted blankets are available in20 different weights, from 2.5kg up to 12.0kg in half kilogram increments. This means that you can get precisely the right weight for you. (Occupational Therapists recommend that a weighted blanket is 10% of the user’s body weight to optimise the Deep Pressure Touch effect.)

• You can choose from our broad range of colour options in both sensory minky or cotton. You can also design your own blanket with your choice of printed cotton.

• You can personalise your blanket by embroidering your name on it too.

• We make every weighted blanket to our high quality standards.Each blanket is double-lined and triple-stitched on the edges with hems.You can be sure that it is made to last because we give you a 2-year guarantee. This means we will repair or remake it for FREE in the unlikely event the stitching breaks.

• Our weighted blankets are designed to lie on top of a bed with no overhang. This helps people with sensory sensitivity.

• We weight the blankets with glass micro-beads. This means that there is no rustling noises so that you can sleep better. You also don’t feel any hard edges (as you can with poly pellets).
• We give you FREE shipping Australia-wide.

• Our weighted blankets are all machine-washable on cold, gentle cycle (if your machine can take the weight).

• Our weighted blankets for beds come in your choice of single, king single, double, queen and king sized. We also make lap and travel blankets that you can take with you.

• The Calming Moments team has been making weighted blankets for the past seven years. So, you get all the benefit of our experience and continuous improvement in each and every weighted blanket.
• We are an NDIS-registered provider. The NDIS may fund your weighted blanket for you if you are a participant.

• And we are certified Australian-made.

Invest in feeling less anxious now

Consider, how much a good night’s sleep – because you feel less anxious – is worth to you.

$1 a night? $5 a night?

If you use a Calming Moments weighted blanket for two years, you will pay less than 50c per night for better quality, longer sleep.

Our prices reflect our high quality, certified Australian-made production.

But they also mean that you can rest peacefully, secure in the knowledge that the blanket will work for you individually AND that it contains no potentially harmful inputs. (We have heard reports of weighted blankets filled with powdered glass, noisy poly pellets or beads with toxic fillers.)

We have both Afterpay and Zippay available.

But don’t take our word for it. Scroll down for a few reviews from our happy customers or you can see more on Facebook here.