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If you’re a new mom who’s not been getting enough sleep lately, don’t fret just yet. The good news is that a sleep aid called weighted blankets can help you get a better night’s rest so you can be the best parent you can be for your little one.
What Are Weighted Blankets?
Weighted blankets, also known as sensory, anxiety, calming, or gravity blankets, are heavier than regular ones. They are considered special as they mimic deep pressure stimulation, offering a feeling similar to a hug. Also, they are filled with different materials, like plastic poly pellets, glass beads, and sand.
Weighted Blanket Benefits
Thanks to deep pressure stimulation, these gravity weighted blankets help increase the production of serotonin and melatonin. They can reduce anxiety, boost happiness, and address the lack of sleep.
Featuring Weavve’s Weighted Blanket
So if you’re wondering: how does a weighted blanket help you sleep? Here are ways it can lull you into a deep slumber:
Relieve Anxiety
One major weighted blanket benefit that makes this sleep companion worth buying is it can ease your worries and feelings of fear. How exactly do weighted blankets help with anxiety? The pressure from the blanket decreases the nervous system activity.
Moreover, these blankets reduce the stress hormone cortisone and boost the feel-good hormones serotonin, dopamine, and oxytocin. They reduce anxiety symptoms, including fast heartbeat and shortness of breath.
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Because of this, those struggling with anxiety disorder and social anxiety disorder can relax better, feel more grounded, and get better sleep.
Help Manage Autism and ADHD Symptoms
People with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorders usually have trouble falling asleep. Fortunately, sleeping with a gravity weighted blanket can help.
This type of blanket provides deep pressure therapy, which reduces hyperactive movements and improves attention. It then allows people to settle in for a good night’s rest, making it especially helpful for light sleepers.
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Ease Chronic Pain
One of the benefits of weighted blankets is they help reduce perceptions of chronic pain, particularly fibromyalgia. Although it does not exactly reduce levels of pain intensity, it helps ease the symptoms. It also provides relief from anxiety and depression that often comes with this condition.
What Are the Common Sleep Issues New Mothers Face?
Newborns require lots of care. Besides having to constantly tend to their babies during the daytime, new moms have to remain hypervigilant at night to ensure that nothing goes wrong with their babies during sleep. It’s no wonder why many new mothers suffer from sleep deprivation and postpartum insomnia.
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Postpartum insomnia happens when new moms have difficulty falling or staying asleep. It shows itself through anxiety, fatigue, irritability, mood swings, and sadness. Additionally, it is usually caused by:
- Changes to the baby’s sleep routine
- Demanding newborn schedule
- General parenthood-related life changes
- Hormonal changes that affect the circadian rhythm
- Iron deficiency
- Physical postpartum changes, such as night sweats
- Postpartum anxiety
- Postpartum depression (PPD)
- Stress
How New Mothers Can Improve Their Sleep Using Weighted Blankets
Most moms tend to sacrifice sleep to look after their little ones. While they get to spend more time with their babies and have peace of mind knowing their kids are well taken care of, their sleep quality and quantity tend to suffer. This puts you at an increased risk of health problems.
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If you’re a new mom, make it a point to get enough sleep. Lack of sleep may affect not only you but also your little one. As you get more stressed due to being sleep deprived, cortisol increases in your body. This stress hormone can be passed into your breast milk and your baby!
Avoid this from happening by making sleep a priority. Enough rest can keep your immune system strong enough so that you and your baby won’t get sick. That said, the benefits weighted blanket offers will work wonders for you.
Here’s how weighed blankets work to provide better sleep for new mothers like you:
Ease Postpartum Anxiety
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Postpartum recovery is usually a challenging time. After enduring the exhausting and painful physical stress of childbirth, you may not have had time to care for yourself since you have to look after your baby.
The exhaustion and hormonal shifts after giving birth can cause postpartum anxiety and depression. There are several treatment options to alleviate the symptoms, and sleeping with a weight blanket is one of the easiest and most ideal ways to do this.
Help With Insomnia
Another common benefit for new moms is that weighted blankets can be a remedy for insomnia. It is often connected to anxiety, depression, and fatigue.
Featuring Weavve’s Weighted Blanket
Although it sounds ironic, the feelings of exhaustion can make it difficult for you to fall and stay asleep. This usually happens when the reality of having a baby seems overwhelming, and your thoughts continue running as you try to drift off to sleep.
High-quality bedding can help you get the rest you need. Weighted blankets sleep quality studies show a decrease in the severity of insomnia for participants who used these blankets every night for four weeks.
To enjoy a good night’s rest, invest in comforting weighted blankets. Using them will feel a lot like getting a huge hug throughout the night, which can help get your sleep back on track.
Relieve Restless Leg Syndrome
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Restless leg syndrome is a common temporary side effect of pregnancy. It involves the overwhelming urge to move the legs, particularly at night. While this condition usually goes away after childbirth, it can make falling and staying asleep challenging.
To help yourself drift off to sleep faster and avoid constantly waking up, add a weighted blanket to your space. Doing this increases your serotonin, which is linked to boosting melatonin. Thanks to this blanket, you get to fall asleep faster and regulate your sleep-wake cycles better.
Relieve Stress
Being a new mom can be physically and emotionally exhausting. From the moment you discover that you’re pregnant, you experience changes in your body, hormones, responsibilities, and family structure.
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Ease the symptoms with gravity weighted blankets. The deep pressure stimulation on the legs can be effective for postpartum recovery. It also promotes better sleep by relieving stress and reducing the unpleasant sensation in the legs.
Improve Sleep Quality And Quantity
As a new mom, you may need some time to adjust to your new routine. The first few months during the postpartum period can be extra chaotic since newborns don’t have circadian rhythms yet. This could mean they are often asleep for only 2-3 hours at a time, which could make sleeping difficult for you.
These changes can be exciting since they mark a fresh start in your life. However, they can be extremely stressful.
Featuring Weavve’s Weighted Blanket
Since high-stress levels are bad for you and your child, try managing your stress with a weighted blanket. You may benefit from its deep pressure stimulation, which calms down the parasympathetic nervous system and helps ease anxiety.
Reduce Postpartum Swelling
Postpartum swelling, also known as edema, is common after giving birth.
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During pregnancy, your body produces 50 percent more body fluids and blood than usual. Your body continues to hold on to water due to increased progesterone after birth. This is why you may notice the swelling in your hands, arms, legs, ankles, and feet.
Reducing pregnancy swelling is possible by using a weighted blanket. It exerts even pressure on your body that may ease inflammation and swelling, especially on the hands, legs, and feet.
How Heavy Should A Weighted Blanket Be?
The ideal weight for a weighted blanket is ten percent of your body weight.
Featuring Weavve’s Weighted Blankets Sizing Chart
When using your blanket, make sure not to use it when you are with your newborn. It generally induces better sleep, but this type of blanket can be too heavy for young children. It could pose a risk of strangulation, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), and other sleep-related injuries.
Should You Buy A Weighted Blanket?
Getting restful sleep is important now more than ever as a new mom. With a good night’s rest, you get to enjoy a wonderful time with your baby. That said, sleep during the postpartum period should be considered a necessity and not a luxury.
Buying a weighted blanket can help you overcome sleep deprivation and get the rest that you desperately need. As it has its fair share of both pros and cons, be sure to do your research first and see if this special blanket is the right fit for you.
DISCOVER WEAVVE'S COLLECTION
Weighted Blanket
Featuring Weavve’s Queen Weighted Blanket
If you’re looking for a high-quality gravity blanket in Singapore, you’ve come to the right place! Our weighted blanket is designed with smaller compartments and filled with evenly distributed lead-free glass micro beads!
It is intended to make you feel safe, relaxed, and comfortable. Hailed for being hypoallergenic, non-toxic, breathable, and machine and dryer safe, this blanket is worth a try. It comes in different sizes and one of which is a weighted blanket queen variant perfect for queen-sized beds!
Shop weighted blanket Singapore
TENCEL™ Lyocell Duvet Cover
Featuring Weavve’s Weighted Blanket + Signature TENCEL™ Duvet Cover Set
Our signature TENCEL™ Lyocell sheets have a silky touch and a sheeny texture, making them incredibly smooth and gentle to the skin. Combine this with a weighted blanket and you are off to a great night! Soft as a cloud, light, and breezy - just the ideal environment for a blissful rest.
Shop weighted blanket and TENCEL™ duvet cover Singapore
TENCEL™ Cot Sheets
Featuring Weavve’s Signature TENCEL™ Cot Sheet in Sky Blue
Our naturally hypoallergenic TENCEL™ Lyocell baby cot sheet keeps your little one safe and ensures that they get a good night's sleep. Comfortable, soft and cooling - watch them drift off into a sweet dream!
Shop TENCEL™ cot sheets Singapore
RESPONSIBLY MADE
Here at Weavve, we pride ourselves on being committed to responsible sourcing, production, sale, and use of our products. We take a great effort in ensuring that our decisions account for all the people who help build our products, the environment, and our consumers. From Standard 100 by Oeko Tex® certified sheets to SEDEX certified factories, Weavve makes sure that everyone is cared for at every step of the way.
100 DAYS TO SLEEP ON IT
Buying bed linens should be easy and delightful. Here at Weavve, we are fully committed to making exceptional products and our 100-day free return policy makes it easy for you to take the leap of faith, especially for first-time users. Learn more about our 100-Day Free Trial.
