I Tried Using a Weighted Blanket to Help with Sleep Disorders: Here's What Happened

As a young man, like most of you, I have access to the internet and can not live without getting on Instagram every single day. I heard about the seemingly miraculous effects of weighted blankets on the Instagram stories and found myself intrigued.

After some research by my own, I get to know a little about the weighted blankets. It weighs from 4 – 30 pounds, making it heavier than the typical down quilt or comforter. Weighted blankets use Deep Touch Pressure Stimulation to mimic a hug with the goal of helping you relax. It is called DTP Theory. Based on the theory, DTP causes the body to release serotonin (the happiness hormone) and decrease cortisol (the stress hormone) while calming the nervous system overall. Accordingly, the weighted blankets can also help you fall asleep and stay asleep.

I have chronic pain due to endometriosis and other conditions and therefore find myself having trouble sleeping and feeling stressed out well...a lot.  So after hearing about all of these benefits, I decided to purchase a weighted blanket in hopes that I would lower my anxiety and finally have a restful night of sleep.

I  ordered my weighted blanket (YnM Weighted Blankets for Adults)  on Amazon and got it by mail several days later. I carried it at least 10 minutes to my car and my arm was sore the next day. It is really a heavy blanket! As the package denotes, the ideal weighted blanket for you will be 7-12% of your overall body weight. I got the 15 lb. one because I weigh between 100-150 lbs.

I wasn't sure what to expect upon opening it — but I spread it out on my couch to take a closer look. The blanket is the size of a twin-sized throw, and not the size of a full comforter.

To start, I positioned myself under the blanket while watching TV on my couch. I didn't notice any sort of immediate change in how I was feeling physically or mentally, but I did feel comfortable and secure.

I decided that the true test would be how I felt after actually sleeping under the blanket, so that night I spread it out on my bed and prepared to position myself beneath it ready for my beauty sleep. And I had one of the best sleeps I can recall in my whole life.

After a solid two weeks of sleeping under the weighted blankets, I’m excited to tell you about some amazing things that happened to me.

1. I fell asleep right away, no overthinking and worrying.I’ve never fallen asleep quicker in my life. I used to take anywhere from fifteen minutes to an hour to fall asleep, and now I am typically out within 10 minutes. If I’m finishing up emails or other work on my laptop in bed and I have the blanket over my legs it starts to make me feel more and more sleepy, so falling asleep is easier (but this can be dangerous if you need to stay awake)!
2. I became a pro napper.Try as I might, I’ve never been great at taking naps. It’s hard for me to fall asleep in anything but pitch black lighting, so falling asleep to nap is hard for me and staying asleep is even harder. However, napping with a weighted blanket is amazing for me. I can fall asleep quickly and feel well rested when I wake up— it’s like a natural sleeping pill that wears off whenever you want it to.
3. I needed an alarm (or two). Another way my sleeping patterns have changed is that I started to need an alarm to wake up when I hadn’t before. I used to wake up after seven or eight hours of sleeping, but with the blanket I could sleep forever (I found this out the hard way, by oversleeping!). One downfall to the weighted blanket, however, is that it makes it super easy to fall back asleep in the mornings and even harder to get out of bed. I definitely recommend setting multiple alarms if you aren’t usually one to hop right up in the morning.

Also, I would like to remind you please don’t worry about the feeling suffocated by the weight of the blanket. It never felt too heavy. Insead, it feels like a nice, gentle love tap and not like a heavy burlap sack on your body. But the size of a weighted blanket is obviously smaller than a regular blanket. Two people could not sleep under one blanket for the night so if you aren't single.

In my opinion, this YnM weighted blanket will make itself worth the $80 it cost. Because I will absolutely be using this blanket with it regularly going forward, and I can only hope that I'll continue to experience an enhanced sleeping experience.

Also, my dog loves the blanket, and her opinion is the only one that really matters.