Weighted Blanket Coziness Promotes Sleep by Releasing Melatonin

Oct. 6, 2022 — The consolation of feeling cozy and secure with the assistance of a weighted blanket could assist promote sleep by inducing a launch of melatonin, a hormone related to sleep, a research of younger, wholesome individuals suggests.

“We all know if we want to relax a bit or we need support from others, it’s really good if they give us a hug,” says Christian Benedict, PhD, affiliate professor of pharmacology at Uppsala University in Uppsala, Sweden.

“And I think this is somehow similar with a weighted blanket because the blanket activates our sensory system, and this system conveys information to the brain where it impacts certain structures that play a role in the regulation of melatonin,” he says. 

“So the body feels ready — now I’m protected so I can relax — and that signals back to the brain that we are ready to initiate sleep, which is why it boosts the melatonin signal,” Benedict says. 

The research was printed on-line on Monday within the  Journal of Sleep Research.

Melatonin Increases Higher With Heavier Blanket

The research concerned 26 younger women and men who haven’t got  insomnia. Participants underwent two experimental periods — the primary go to to the laboratory to function an “adaptation” evening and the second for the experiment. The adaption evening was to assist individuals modify to the experimental setting, the authors say. Saliva was collected each 20 minutes between 10 and 11 p.m. whereas individuals’ sleepiness was additionally assessed each 20 minutes utilizing the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale each earlier than the lights went off and between 7 and eight a.m. the subsequent morning. 

Duration of sleep was additionally recorded utilizing a particular  wearable machine that measures many physiological indicators of sleep. 

The researchers mentioned they centered on “complete sleep length as an final result” for this research, noting that will increase in melatonin within the saliva samples they collected had been better between 10 and 11 p.m. when individuals used the weighted blanket. 

There was additionally an preliminary however short-lived improve in oxytocin ranges when individuals used the weighted blanket in comparison with the sunshine blanket, nevertheless it was not statistically vital, the researchers mentioned. (Oxytocin is the so-called “love” hormone that controls elements of human conduct together with childbirth and lactation.)

But variations in measures of sleepiness between the 2 blanket circumstances weren’t totally different.  There additionally weren’t  any vital variations in complete sleep time when individuals used the weighted blanket in comparison with the sunshine blanket. 

But as Benedict factors out, folks have a variable response to melatonin. For instance, youngsters with consideration deficit hyperactivity dysfunction (ADHD) might need  some profit from it, in addition to older individuals who now not produce sufficient  melatonin on their very own. 

Overall, most  research counsel that melatonin itself doesn’t promote sleep. Melatonin prepares the physique and mind for the organic occasion of evening, which incorporates sleep, nevertheless it works by a comparatively highly effective placebo impact: People imagine melatonin will assist them sleep and believing it makes it so, Benedict says. 

And  simply because the physique makes its personal melatonin, it’s not crucial secure to make use of melatonin dietary supplements, Benedict says. For instance, if individuals are consuming and have loads of melatonin of their system, the melatonin tells the pancreas to cease making insulin in response to meals because it usually would. As a end result, they run the chance of getting excessive blood sugar ranges, which, over time, may be dangerous. There can also be a danger of youngsters entering into their guardian’s melatonin shops, and melatonin can show extraordinarily dangerous to youngsters. 

Weighted blankets are extensively out there and are offered for therapeutic causes. People ought to take a look at the blankets earlier than deciding on one; if a blanket is just too heavy, the impact could also be suffocating as an alternative of feeling cozy and secure. 

Benedict additionally cautions that heavy blankets offered for therapeutic causes will not be low cost — in Scandinavia they value as much as $250 — so docs may nonetheless need to suggest them for his or her sufferers with insomnia offered they will afford the blanket. Alternatively, folks might contemplate shopping for a couple of mild blanket and pile the load on as wanted, he suggests. 

“Our study is the first to suggest that weighted blankets may result in a greater release in melatonin [but] future studies should investigate whether the stimulatory effect on melatonin secretion remains when using a weighted blanket over more extended periods of time,” the research authors write. 

It isn’t clear whether or not the rise in melatonin noticed within the research is therapeutically helpful, they mentioned.