Weighted blankets

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I don’t use weighted blankets but do swaddle in very heavy blankets. Many people do use them and swear by them. My wife worked with persons in special needs and the research showed that they were very effective for helping with sleep for many people
 
I know a couple woman who make weighted blankets. My daughter wants me to make one for her. I have heard that they help people sleep better. There is a similar thing, weighted vests, that children wear to help calm them down, but I have heard of people who think they are not all good. I do not know why.

The Autism Store in Denver sells a variety of weighted blankets, but I'd bet you could find one on Etsy as well. The Autism store cannot keep up with demands. They contract out with home seamstresses to have them made via particular qualities. Theirs are filled with millet, but many from other sources are filled with small plastic bead like material. This is the inside part, then they have a cover that can be washed more frequently as needed. Think of down comforters with an outer cover.

I actually thought if they could be filled with millet, why not wheat, rice, beans, lentils or other grains? Just a thought for another way to store your food preps!

BTW, weighted blankets have a weight ratio dependent on the person they are made for. I do not know the ratio.
 
During the winter I prefer a heavy blanket but the rest of the year I prefer light blanket or just a sheet. The temperature in the house is the same in midwinter as it is in midsummer.
My preference makes no logical sense at all.
 
I didn't know such a thing existed but I like heavy bedding. I keep my bedroom extra cold so I can use 2 comforters. In winter I top it off with a heavy cotton quilt. I had a problem with my new bed as its taller than my old one. There was a good bit of comforter hanging off the foot of the bed. I'd wake up freezing to find the end of the comforters at my knees. The weight of the comforters hanging off the foot would begin to slowly drag the rest of the comforter off the bed. I finally got smart and stacked two guitar cases against the foot of the bed to catch the weight.
 
My mother made a weighted blanket for my wife last fall. She only uses it in the colder months but she absolutely loves the thing. And it is freakin' heavy too. I would hate every second of it, but she says she sleeps so deeply with it that she will never give it up. Between the weighted blanket and our memory foam bed she is almost immobile at night. Now a couple of my daughters have weighted blankets on their Christmas list, so Nana is busy making versions for them.
 
Another thought about sleeping under heavy blankets: in a SHTF situation, if heating the home is a challenge, everyone could have extra blankets, quilts, comforters, or whatever you use. My ancestors had feather beds, down filled mattresses, and down filled comforters on all beds. Ducks and geese were common for Czechs, probably more so than chickens and the feathers had a purpose as well.
 
When my dad was stationed overseas, my mom, sister and I stayed with his parents. My grandmother had a very heavy cotton blanket that she put on my bed and I would fall asleep almost instantly. Especially if she just took it out of the cedar chest...

I haven't found a heavy blanket like that in 20 years of searching. The weighted blankets just aren't the same to me...
 
Pressure is a release of energy which can be therapeutic as mentioned above with austistic children but also with ADHD or even just high energy. There is a difference between heavy for warmth and heavy for weight as sparky just mentioned. If you have any back issues, I would speak with the chiropractor first. If you don't have any back issues and you tend to be high energy, you might first experiment with heavier bedding. I am rather high energy and usually run on the cold side so that works for me, but everyone is different. The weighted blankets are a tool. Is it the right one for you?
There are some other things you can do to release pressure as well: chair sits against a wall while reading in the evening, sitting push-ups (while sitting in a chair, put your hands palm down under your legs and lift your whole body- strengthens your spine.) There are other pressure releasing exercises if you have to sit in a meeting or such.
Just more food for thought
 
I looked into weighted blankets for Roo when she was diagnosed with ADHD over a year ago. I didn't like that they are difficult to clean unless you use a removable cover. I thought about making one but the pellets are expensive even with coupons and/or sales. I did find a few bags of them on clearance at Walmart a year ago but they were still pricey. Not to mention Roo kicks her blankets off even in winter.

I have a lap quilt my mom made that has a furniture pad as its batting. The blanket is thick, stiff and heavy. When I have issues sleeping I toss that blanket over my torso on top of our regular quilt. I knock off very fast. But I have trouble waking up when I use it so I set 2 extra alarms on my phone to wake up.
 
Grimm said:
I looked into weighted blankets for Roo when she was diagnosed with ADHD over a year ago. I didn't like that they are difficult to clean unless you use a removable cover. I thought about making one but the pellets are expensive even with coupons and/or sales. I did find a few bags of them on clearance at Walmart a year ago but they were still pricey. Not to mention Roo kicks her blankets off even in winter.

I have a lap quilt my mom made that has a furniture pad as its batting. The blanket is thick, stiff and heavy. When I have issues sleeping I toss that blanket over my torso on top of our regular quilt. I knock off very fast. But I have trouble waking up when I use it so I set 2 extra alarms on my phone to wake up.
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I wonder if you could use dried beans loose packed in vacuum sealed bags. Then could make a quilt where each square was a sort of pocket. Weight blanket and food prep all rolled into one! The Preppers Bean Blanket!
 
Sentry18 said:
I wonder if you could use dried beans loose packed in vacuum sealed bags. Then could make a quilt where each square was a sort of pocket. Weight blanket and food prep all rolled into one! The Preppers Bean Blanket!
Click to expand...

The bags would make the blanket noisy and stiff. I'll just use my furni-pad lap quilt for now.
 
I have a friend who sews weighted blankets for the Autism Store in Denver (maybe in Aurora, CO now). They use millet instead of pellets. Another friend of mine wanted to make one for her son and was asking about alternatives to the pellets. I told her how this store uses millet. Now she has made several of them for others.

I asked my friend about how washable they would be being made with millet. I do not fully remember her answer, but the Autism Store has ties sewn into each of the blankets for a cover to protect them. I do think that in spite of millet being a grain, they do wash them.
safe-weighted-blanket_2.jpg
 
One of my adult kids got one for Christmas and it helped sleep patterns improve, falls asleep faster, sleeps longer periods.
I have a heavy woven granny throw that helps me fall asleep and sleep deep. I've been using sheet, comforter, fleecy throw and cotton thermal, and sometimes the granny throw.
 
Sentry18 said:
I wonder if you could use dried beans loose packed in vacuum sealed bags. Then could make a quilt where each square was a sort of pocket. Weight blanket and food prep all rolled into one! The Preppers Bean Blanket!
Click to expand...
I have thought that rice would be a better texture than beans for this, but maybe still not even the right texture. I have thought about having these for each bed in my home, for blankets, but also for an additional way to keep food. Millet is not something that seems to be eaten by many Americans. It is used for bird seed, but it is eaten by humans in other parts of the world. Store what you eat and eat what you store would be one reason not to consider millet, but when times get tough, people will look for sustenance wherever they can get it.

When my friend made them for the Autism Store (she has moved out of state and shipping became a barrier), she told me the store has someone who teaches all the people who sew them for efficiency sake. They have established a certain way to get them done in a faster way, and many other guidelines. When I asked friend to help me, she told me she had signed a non-compete agreement and wouldn't be able to show me. Evidently the store cannot keep them in stock. Each cell has X amount of weight. For a while, friend had a rented space in an artist's studio building and I would go hang out with her with my sewing machine to encourage her to be there and to be productive. It worked for both of us. I got a bunch of stuff done, but I also watched her sew these blankets. She used a scale to weigh the millet for each cell. It was very messy! She was given 20 or 25 pound bags of millet to use by the store. When she was finished with one blanket, there would be millet everywhere!
 
MoBookworm1957 said:
I have used rice in each cell or pocket.
Hadn't thought about beans honestly.
Might have ponder on that for a while.
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Either rice or beans would be much less messy than millet, but I am not sure about how they would work. Do you have one with rice that you use? Or was it made for a gift? I would be curious about how well it worked.
 
Weedygarden said:
Either rice or beans would be much less messy than millet, but I am not sure about how they would work. Do you have one with rice that you use? Or was it made for a gift? I would be curious about how well it worked.
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It was a gift several years ago.
But she's still using it as far as I know at college now.
You can also put sprigs of lavender and thyme in them too, to use the pockets as hot pads for sore muscles. I very seldom make anything for myself.
 
Weedygarden said:
I have thought that rice would be a better texture than beans for this, but maybe still not even the right texture. I have thought about having these for each bed in my home, for blankets, but also for an additional way to keep food. Millet is not something that seems to be eaten by many Americans. It is used for bird seed, but it is eaten by humans in other parts of the world. Store what you eat and eat what you store would be one reason not to consider millet, but when times get tough, people will look for sustenance wherever they can get it.

When my friend made them for the Autism Store (she has moved out of state and shipping became a barrier), she told me the store has someone who teaches all the people who sew them for efficiency sake. They have established a certain way to get them done in a faster way, and many other guidelines. When I asked friend to help me, she told me she had signed a non-compete agreement and wouldn't be able to show me. Evidently the store cannot keep them in stock. Each cell has X amount of weight. For a while, friend had a rented space in an artist's studio building and I would go hang out with her with my sewing machine to encourage her to be there and to be productive. It worked for both of us. I got a bunch of stuff done, but I also watched her sew these blankets. She used a scale to weigh the millet for each cell. It was very messy! She was given 20 or 25 pound bags of millet to use by the store. When she was finished with one blanket, there would be millet everywhere!
Click to expand...

I researched different ways to sew these and the easiest is to sew channels the long way. Add your measured filler to each channel then sew across to close. Add measured filler to each channel again then sew across closed. Repeat until finished. It is pretty fast. I'll check my Pinterest board for the tutorial I saved.
 
Grimm said:
I researched different ways to sew these and the easiest is to sew channels the long way. Add your measured filler to each channel then sew across to close. Add measured filler to each channel again then sew across closed. Repeat until finished. It is pretty fast. I'll check my Pinterest board for the tutorial I saved.
Click to expand...
Thank you, Grimm. My daughter has wanted me to make her one for a while. I need to get on it. She has ADD and could certainly sleep better with one.
 
I also wanted to share for those looking for help with ADD/ADHD that I diffuse an oil blend in both our homeschool room and Roo's bedroom at night when it is one of her rough days. The blend is called Jeddy's Blend. Sparks Oils sells it but the original recipe by the creator can still be found on the web if you look for it. I have a bottle of the blend in a concentrated batch that I use for our diffusers and the rollerball bottles I use (one in the classroom and in my purse).
 
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