Better Sleep Is Good for the Brain. Could This Blanket Help?

One of the best things you can do for your brain is get a good night’s rest, but that’s not so easy for many Americans.

One in 3 get too little sleep, which has consequences for mood, memory, and the ability to focus or solve problems. Sleep deprivation may also put you at risk for high blood pressure and diabetes.

So what can you do to get more shut-eye? Some science-backed solutions, including cognitive behavioral therapy, recommended by both the American College of Physicians and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, can be effective.

But a wide range of products also claim to help, from white noise machines and sleep masks to weighted blankets.

These look like regular blankets but are filled with plastic pellets to make them heavier — anywhere from about 3 to 30 pounds. Most manufacturers recommend using a blanket that is about 10 percent of a person’s body weight.

The concept is that the gentle pressure from a weighted blanket feels like a body massage or a reassuring hug, in the same way that swaddling is comforting to newborns. The theory is that the weight helps calm and settle the nervous system, bringing stress relief and better sleep.

Interest in the blankets is high, thanks to celebrities like Kourtney Kardashian, who said using one improved her sleep. But the science behind this trendy product’s benefits has so far been sparse.

Now, in a new randomized, controlled study (often called the gold standard of research) in which Swedish scientists followed 120 insomnia patients with psychiatric disorders such as major depression, anxiety or bipolar disorder, those who used a weighted blanket for four weeks reported significantly reduced insomnia, less daytime sleepiness and fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety.

After four weeks, nearly 60 percent of the weighted-blanket group had reduced their insomnia by half or more, compared with just 5.4 percent of the control group. About 42 percent reported a low enough score on an insomnia severity index to be considered in remission, meaning their sleep troubles had mostly disappeared.

During a 12-month open follow-up phase of the study, 92 percent of those using weighted blankets had reduced their insomnia and 78 percent reported that their insomnia was in remission.

The weighted blankets “also significantly improved symptoms of depression and anxiety compared to the control blanket group,” researchers wrote.

The study’s results “highly suggest that weighted blankets can be helpful and show the importance of paying attention to a person’s sleep environment,” W. Vaughn McCall, a psychiatrist and executive vice dean of the Medical College of Georgia, told AARP in an interview.

McCall was the author of a commentary published along with the study in the Sept. 15, 2020, issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.

McCall called the blanket’s effect in reducing insomnia “impressive” and noted its low side effects — only one study participant stopped using the blanket. 

Although the study focused on sleep, not mental health, “one of its most interesting findings was how depression symptoms seemed to improve as well,” McCall said.

“I thought that was surprising and encouraging, suggesting that the comfort of being held and feeling secure, which the blankets provide, probably has impact beyond their use for sleep.”

What you should know:

Sleep expert and psychiatrist McCall says that a person’s sleep environment is important and something that both experts and patients should pay attention to. Here are ways to improve the room where you get your z’s.

• Choose the right blanket. For more information about choosing a weighted blanket, use this link to the Sleep Foundation, which includes the organization’s top picks as well as other helpful information. Also check out AARP’s The Girlfriend’s guide to weighted blankets.
  
  
• Keep your bedroom quiet, dark, comfy and cool. Also, McCall tells his patients that the sleeping surface is important. That means make sure your sheets are soft and comfortable and the mattress is supportive “and not beyond its time.” What’s more, to enhance good slumber, the room should be mostly dark, quiet and, as one study found, kept at a fairly cool temperature.
  
  
• Remove electronic devices. Your bedroom should be for sleep, not for reading or talking on a phone, watching television or using a computer, according to guidelines from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Turn off devices at least 30 minutes before bedtime and leave them outside your bedroom.
  
  
• Still have trouble sleeping? Talk to an expert. Ask your doctor about finding some help. For chronic insomnia, research shows that cognitive behavioral therapy is one of the most effective long-term treatments and can help with thoughts and behaviors that may be preventing you from getting enough rest.