![]() ![]() They have shown promise as anti-anxiety and stress-relief aids in the very young and the very old. "It's almost like I have feelings in the dream. It's this mystery that still largely colors weighted blankets as non-evidence-based folk remedies to sleep disorders. No one knows precisely what goes on in the brain and throughout the body under this kind of pressure whether the mechanism is mere placebo, or if something else altogether makes lying under a weighted blanket feel so reassuring and safe that it could bring deep, restorative sleep to those who need it but can't otherwise get it on their own. (It's generally accepted that a weighted blanket should be at least 10 percent the person's body weight.) There is also speculation that lying under heavy constant pressure such as a weighted blanket feels good because it somehow lights up the brain's reward center, probably triggering the release of neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine.īut that's about the extent of our understanding of the science beneath weighted blankets. According to Gaby Badre, a leading sleep researcher who's studied weighted blanket therapy for treating insomnia in adults, there is good reason to believe this is because the deep pressure touch of a weighted material spread over part or all of the body dials down the fight-or-flight arousals of the sympathetic nervous system. Petrulis compares it to a firm, comforting hug. The underlying idea is dead simple: create a cocooning embrace, like being swaddled. Whatever it is, can heavy blankets help other veterans with combat-related sleep problems get some rest too? What about restless deployed troops? Can heavy blankets offer them relief? What happens, exactly, while he's under such pressure? It sounds almost too good to be true. The pockets are each stuffed with polypropylene pellets and a sort of memory foam material. The blanket is roughly 3 feet wide by 6 feet long and looks a bit like 60 or so 4 x 4 inch bean bags handstitched together. Three or four nights a week, after tucking himself in bed, Petrulis slides a prototype 17-pound weighted blanket over his sheets. "It got really, really bad," Petrulis, now 31, tells me. But mostly he was too afraid to close his eyes. Sometimes he'd drink on the couch until he passed out. He was running on fumes, getting only two or three fitful hours of sleep each night. The VA ultimately declared him a 90 percent disabled veteran. But he was still functional in the sense that he could eat and go to the bathroom on his own. The VA rated his disabilities at a combined 140 percent, with PTSD, which his life now revolves around, accounting for 70 percent of that rating. ![]() The VA diagnosed Petrulis with traumatic brain injury, severe post-traumatic stress disorder, tinnitus, Achilles and kneecap tendonitis, and depression. He relived these scenes, over and over, in nightmares.Īfter an honorable discharge, returning home, and joining the reserves in 2013, an MRI showed scar tissue on his brain. ![]()
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