A weight off my mind – sweet dreams
Do I really need to buy a weighted blanket?
Do they work? Is this part of a sensory diet? Why do they work? This was [more or less ] the most interesting google search question this week. Or two weighted blankets in our case? I might add that this item is just about the most hidesouly expensive thing anyone would ever care to buy. I don’t know what you consider to be affordable or within budget but if you require two, as we may do, that is a pretty hefty investment. If you add the postage costs, remember, they’re weighted which means by very definition they are heavy, then more dollars are floating away than I am able to count. However, I digress.
Do they work? This should be where we really start. The benefits of weighted blanket are well documented elsewhere, primarily in the ‘calming the fizzy sensory system.’ As with most therapy items, a weighted blanket is unlikely to cause miracles but used in combination with other treatments, together, they may help provide a more balanced yet full sensory diet.
Children, autistic or otherwise, often benefit greatly in the sleep department from any number of different calming techniques together with a sensitive, carefully tailored night time routine. Some of us may remember the benefits of swaddling babies, either swaddling our own babies, or being the swaddlee ourselves when we were babies. The swaddling technique used to be quite commonplace.
Although many manufacturers claim that their blankets are fully washable, if a child is a frequent bed wetter then be sure to read the fine print large!
However, to answer the question more directly, I only need to recall when I was a youngster in the ghastly days of sheets and blankets, long before leisurely duvets were invented, or rather imported from our European cousins into England. Those were the days when there was no other option but to make the bed daily to restore order to the messy higgledy piggledy pile. However, it did have the added benefit then when a parent came upstairs at the end of a long and weary day, they did indeed ‘tuck us in.’ My Mum, in particular, would snap those sheets so tightly across my bod it was like being laced into a corset, and almost as breathless. The net result, apart from a concave chest, was a blissful night of sleep, secure if not padlocked. So if you want to save yourself a whole tonne of money, toss the comforter and invest in the old fashioned. You may even be able to borrow the old stuff from a close and crumbly relative.
p.s. really skilled sleepers who have been cocooned in this elastic fashion, soon learn to remain static during sleep and if they’re really, really clever, they can squiggle out of the bed in the morning, to allow the sheets to ping back into place with barely a visible wrinkle, which neatly takes care of the bed making problem.
April 24th, 2009 at 4:26 am
I love our weighted blanket, I’ve got a couple of very heavy old quilts that work well but they are much harder to clean.
A exceptionally worthwhile investment.
April 24th, 2009 at 4:44 am
The weighted blanket didn’t really do much for Patrick and I remember being quite dissapointed. Turns out years later that he needs squeezing instead. Ah well, it’s all a learning curve, right?
April 24th, 2009 at 5:01 am
Sleep is all about the proprioceptive isnt it
for R its the need to constantly be touched
So do you use weighted blankets?
April 24th, 2009 at 5:48 am
When my guys were younger I couldn’t afford the cost of ‘therapy’ blankets…so we used the heaviest we could find on the market. They reeeeeeeally helped them sleep through…and also seemed to be in a less sensitive mood come morning (unlike Mom)
Now they prefer midweight blankets with more texture (micro quilts specifically). Even in the dead of summer they MUST have them.
When I was in the Navy we had such little time in the AM to get up and going…I learned to sleep ‘still’ and not muss up the bed (aawww..you lazy head). I stayed that way for many years until the ‘heat flashes’ came recently….gee…what a bed wrecker I am now
Bottom line for my guys…seems to be texture as much as the ‘weight’ of them. Go figure!
April 24th, 2009 at 5:49 am
Ours luckily only cost $20, rice filled with a removable cover for washing.
Since my beanpole as long since outgrown it, he currently sleeps with a sheet, fleece blanket, duvet and crocheted blanket on top. Luckily, it’s cold upstairs in the winter. Summer… you strip them off of him after he falls asleep.
Another is the blankets from Mexico my Grandparents brought back nearly 30 yrs ago. Still in perfect condition, washable and HEAVY.
He hasn’t needed the weight now with the Melatonin, but when our 9 weeks are up, I suspect he’ll need it again.
S.
April 24th, 2009 at 5:59 am
We do the tucking in with Gus and that works just fine. Also in the winter instead of a fluffy comforter, I use layers of woven blankets, which end up providing a little weight in addition to warmth. Also easier to just remove layers gradually as it starts to get warmer. I agree that buying weighted blankets isn’t really necessary.
April 24th, 2009 at 6:32 am
i can imagine it might be nice. i like many layers of blankets because i like the weight.
April 24th, 2009 at 8:12 am
Unfortunately for us, weighted blankets didn’t work..The only way we could get any sleep for a few years was to sandwich our boy between us.Thankfully he has outgrown the need for this-prefering now to sleep with about 5 million stuffed animals on him instead. I sneak in after he has fallen asleep and remove 50 or so from his head!
April 24th, 2009 at 8:15 am
I want that “Stop using the r-word” on my blog – what’s the secret?
April 24th, 2009 at 11:10 am
C cocoones himself.
April 24th, 2009 at 5:53 pm
Will you come and tuck me in tight tonight? I could use a little blissful sleep.
April 24th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
I learned something new today. I’d never heard of a weighted blanket. But in reading your post I get the idea. Interesting.
April 24th, 2009 at 7:34 pm
I found this post funny… I guess because I have been known to spread my legs to straighten the covers while I’m still in bed… then just turn back a little corner to get out…LOL
April 24th, 2009 at 9:07 pm
I am trying to picture a bed in the morning that one could just slip out of and have it made — but with the examples of frenetic studies in sleep on display about my place, the concept is implausible at best.
My oldest has been pestering me for one of those infomercial “blankets with sleeves” — if that tells you anything.
Hope you find one that is satisfactory!
April 25th, 2009 at 6:38 pm
I have my 5 cats to keep me weighted down…it works…I never want to get out of bed!
April 27th, 2009 at 10:47 pm
You always seem to read my mind…do we need to get an augmentative communication software program and an iPod touch for Charlie…….
June 27th, 2009 at 10:03 pm
We bought a weighted blanket from DreamCatcher Weighted Blankets. It was the very best thing we could have done and compared to money spent on medications it is very cheap. I don’t know if websites are allowed here but if you google their name you will find them. It is not filled with rice and can machine washed and dried nicely many times. The company was started by the parents of a special needs child who needed a weighted blanket to help him sleep.