This month I’ve been gifted a weighted blanket from Bedsure (currently RRP at a very reasonable £39.99 on Amazon, considering the quality)…
If you have followed me for a while then you will know that I have struggled with both anxiety and insomnia since my boys were born which reached a peak for me when they were around 18 months, I went to the doctors in desperation and they put me on anti-depressants and sleeping pills, the anti-depressants for me only made things worse, the sleeping pills (which I should have only stayed on for 4 weeks) I ended up staying on for 7 months before I broke free. I personally would never take either again after my experience and therefore am always interested in natural alternatives and even better still chemical free alternatives which may help, so I was more than happy to try this out…
Unboxing Video:
I had never heard of weighted blankets until I found community in the insomnia support groups on Facebook after attending an anti-anxiety course through the NHS, one of the first things suggested on the course was to find other people suffering to talk to and for me this was a massive help. It also gave me a clear sign that I needed to get off the sleep medication, once I saw in these groups that there were people who had been on it for 20 years and they were discussing all the detrimental effects and how it could even lead to alzheimers in the most extreme cases. When I was furloughed I decided that was it, I was done with them, and I stopped cold turkey (I had already cut down to just 1/2 a pill a night at this point) and I will never look back. One of the worst things about them was waking up groggy every morning, I knew it wasn’t right, but I was scared more of not being able to sleep at all and this was something which I had to work on coming to terms with with help of online CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) like Sleepio. I am much more mindful of my triggers now and much more accepting of bad nights not being the very end of the world, as rubbish as they are I do get through and things go up and down with life challenges but I’m just so grateful and to be honest proud of myself for getting off this medication once and for-all.
Overall from my personal journey I believe that natural solutions don’t necessarily work all the time, but they do take the edge off of life challenges like insomnia, they also are complementary so you can use as many solutions as you like, its like creating a tool box of things to try, for me sleep mask, lavender oil, CBD oil, yoga, mindfulness, meditation, are all things I keep in my tool box and I will now be adding a weighed blanket to that list too.
But what I was interested in finding out a bit more about was why weighed blankets work…
In this article from the University of Pennsylvania Health System (Pen Medicine for short) it states that weighted blankets are more than just a fad, they can genuinely help with Sleep Disorders, Anxiety, ADHD and Autism:
When you’re stressed, your heart beats too quickly. When this happens, lowering your heart rate can lead to overall feelings of calmness. Pressure calms you by activating your parasympathetic nervous system, which lowers your heart rate when you’re stressed. A lower heart rate leads to the overall feeling of calmness that the blanket provides.
A weighted blanket uses “pressure therapy” — using a calm-inducing amount of pressure on your entire body, similar to the feeling of being hugged, swaddled, stroked, or held. The right size and weight of a weighted blanket depend on the person’s needs.
“More Than Just a Fad: 4 Ways Weighted Blankets Can Actually Help You” – Pen Medical
You can find Bedsure on:
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I am open to doing product review posts, and other collaborations, please find out more on my Work with me page and contact me at product.testing@jamjargill.com if you are interested in sending me a product free-of-charge to test and I will get back to you as soon as I can. My intension going forward is to focus in on testing items which have a green agenda in some way shape or form and/or are beneficial to natural wellbeing. I look forward to hearing from you.