Hellobee

Around Thanksgiving, I purchased two weighted blankets. One for Lion, in an (rather expensive) attempt to try something new to help his poor sleep, and one for myself because I had heard that it can help with insomnia.

I’ve talked about some of Lion’s sleep issues in the past, including being a low-sleep needs child, night terrors and overall difficulties with sleep since infancy. In addition to these challenges, he often has a hard time falling asleep so when I heard that a weighted blanket can help calm a person down, I wanted to try it. My only hesitation was the cost for something that I had no idea whether it would work or not.

I ended up deciding to buy a rather high quality one, with glass beads in pockets to ensure even distribution and to reduce the noise created while shifting (which apparently plastic ones can cause). I found that the company Sensory Goods had relatively good prices and even found a coupon code and purchased from there, though I also considered Etsy and a variety of other companies. I had read that a weighted blanket for a child should be 10% of the child’s body weight, and that you can add one pound to that number because kids grow so quickly. With the rather high cost for a blanket, I didn’t want to have to turn around and buy another one in three months, so I followed the 10% + 1 pound formula.

Although I had planned to give the blanket to Lion for Christmas, I accidentally opened the box in front of him and when he saw the pattern I picked (Avengers), he desperately wanted to use it. I gave in pretty quickly because I was eager to see whether it worked. Mr. Dolphin told Lion that this blanket would feel like it was giving him a hug and ever since then, we’ve called it his hug blanket.

After hearing that it can take some time for people to adjust to the weight of the new blanket, I decided to give it a couple of weeks before making any judgments. The verdict? I do think it helps, sometimes significantly, but it’s not a sure thing, either. For Lion, it has been most helpful in two different respects.

First, when he’s hyper or having a hard time winding down, the blanket definitely calms him. In fact, sometimes when I have to duck my head in to his room and tell him to quiet down and go to sleep, he’ll say, “I need my hug blanket on. It helps me to calm down.” I can usually tell when he’s ready to fall asleep, too, because if he doesn’t already have his blanket on, he’ll call out that he wants us to put his hug blanket on him.

The other way it has helped is when Lion wakes up in the middle of the night and has a hard time falling back asleep. Previously, it was a real struggle getting him to stop fussing and calm back down. After we got the hug blanket, I would simply put the blanket on him and he would instantly calm down and fall back asleep.

It does not seem to do anything for night terrors, though. And it’s also not a surefire way to calm him down before he falls asleep; if he’s really amped up, he’ll just kick the blanket off seconds after we put it on him. The other problem we have is that it is heavier than a regular blanket, which is great in that it doesn’t fall off him as easily when he tosses and turns in his sleep, but it’s also more difficult for him to pull on himself. Still, I do think it was worth the purchase and I will buy another one when he outgrows his current blanket.

Wrapped up in his “hug blanket”

And as for my own experience? I love my weighted blanket. I purchased one that was 15% of my body weight which honestly seems perfect. I’d read different suggestions ranging from 10-15% and determined that my own preference would be on the higher end of that. I did find that it helped me relax in bed and reduced my insomnia, which I’ve dealt with for more than a dozen years. Unfortunately, a weighted blanket is not only heavy, but (predictably) very warm, so I’ve packed it away for the summer. I’m looking forward to breaking it back out in the fall, though!