How weighted blankets help special kids

Weighted blankets have become very popular lately, especially if someone needs help with anxiety, stress, increased irritability, and dissipated attention. Lives are being lived on this planet for whom something as simple as a blanket can help and ensure additional emotional support in everyday environments. Quite naturally a question arises, does the sensory therapy-like effect of weighted blankets really help, and how much?

To stretch a helping hand to parents with additional everyday challenges, we have gathered the characteristics of weighted blankets and research results regarding the effects of these blankets on children with ADHD and autistic spectrum characteristics.

The Internet is full of all kinds of information, but you still have to know where to look to find scientific assurance about the effects of weighted blankets. Just a few years ago anyone interested was able to find just one research, conducted in 2010 by Allan Hvolby. The research gathered 21 children with ADHD and tried to understand the effects of weighted blankets on their lives.

The results concluded that kids needed a shorter time to fall asleep, it became almost the same length as the time that kids without ADHD symptoms need to do the same. A 10% improvement in the class environment regarding kids’ attention span and activity level was noted as well. However, nothing was described the potential long-term effects of the weighted blankets.

In 2020, a group of enthusiastic scientists in Stockholm decided to find out more about the long-term effects of weighted blankets on children with several health challenges — sleeplessness, bipolar disorder, depression, attention deficiency, and hyperactivity. The group of children sleeping with the weighted blanket for 4 weeks showed much better results in sleep quality analysis, higher levels of daily activities, and reduced symptoms of tiredness, depression, and anxiety than the other group which slept under ‘normal’ blankets for the same period.

In 2014, there was research about the effects of weighted blankets on children with autistic spectrum characteristics (Paul Gringas, American Academy of Pediatrics). The results of this specific experiment did not show any changes in the children’s sleep quality, but all 67 young subjects and their parents subjectively preferred the weighted blankets. It might be because the blanket with its weight creates a feeling of touches and hugs, and, as we know, caresses and hugs encourage the creation of the happiness hormone serotonin in humans. It, consecutively, helps one to feel calmer and to keep the mood balanced. Positive feelings are important, and additional positive associations with a blanket that the person likes always is a good method to help one feel better.

Of course, a blanket is not a solution that solves everything just as quickly as snapping fingers. It does not free anyone from all worries and does not let everyone be sure about the sun shining the next day. It is always needed to evaluate, to try, to accept the best option. Humans is a complex, fragile being both physically and mentally, and, despite fundamental similarities, every one of us is at least a little bit different.

Everyone is special. And those special souls who perceive everything in even deeper ways, how do they not get confused in a world full of different impressions? Most importantly, do not look at the blanket as a simple square made of fabric, a square that could protect the child and his parents from a few potential problems. Any blanket is the best blanket if it is first and foremost given and used with love.

We fill our “Lavender Sleep” blankets with love, too — if you choose to try ours, then you can be sure that along with the blanket we have sent you our warmest thoughts as well.

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