The reason for the increase in sales of weighted blankets is not just a trend, but its positive effect on sleep.
According to foreign media reports, according to a study conducted at Uppsala University in Sweden, weighted blankets increase the production of hormones that cause deep and restful sleep.
Swedish researchers found in a study that people who slept with a weighted blanket had 30 percent higher levels of melatonin than those who slept with a normal blanket. The hormone melatonin is naturally released by the brain every night to make a person feel tired and to set our internal clock.
Weighted blankets are said to relax the nervous system, reducing some symptoms of anxiety such as rapid heart rate or rapid breathing. When you are stressed, your heart beats faster, which inhibits the production of melatonin.
Researchers at Uppsala University in Sweden examined 26 people for two nights. One night the participants slept with a weighted blanket, while the other night they used a regular sheet.
The study, published in the Journal of Sleep Research, compared the weight of the blankets used to the weight of the participants. The blankets weighed 12.2 percent of the participants’ weight, compared to 2.2 percent of the regular sheets.
The study participants fell asleep around 10 pm and their saliva was sampled every 20 minutes until 11 pm. The results showed that at the end of the hour, melatonin production was 32 percent higher in those who slept under a weighted blanket.
