Weighted blanket

Repay Your Sleep Debt By Using A Weighted Blanket

Repay Your Sleep Debt By Using A Weighted Blanket

Getting enough sleep is central to living your best life—from staying safe on the road to being productive on the job. But the sad truth is that most adults (and adolescents) aren’t getting enough sleep at night. This easily qualifies the majority of us as “sleep debited.”  

Most of us devalue rest and we feel we can “steal” from our sleep time when we are overwhelmed by other demands and priorities. ● Americans are getting less sleep than ever before.● Middle-aged Americans sleep on average one hour less than we did fifty years ago, and the number of people sleeping less than six hours per night is increasing.● Forty percent of Americans (60% of women) are sleep deprived and on average we get about six and a half hours of sleep per night—many of us are getting less than five.● It is clear that many of us are not getting enough sleep, and research is showing that our chronic sleep deprivation is causing irreversible damage to our health.

What is Sleep Debt? 

Sleep debt is the accumulated amount of sleep loss from insufficient sleep, regardless of cause. It most often occurs when insufficient hours of sleep are obtained to meet your individual sleep needs. This may occur due to sleep restriction, in which too few hours are spent sleeping. For example, if you need 8 hours of sleep to feel rested, but only obtain 6 hours, you will have a 2-hour sleep debt for that particular night. This may have important consequences, especially if the debt builds.

Chronically losing sleep has the potential to cause many health problems. It can put you at an increased risk for diabetes, a weakened immune system, and high blood pressure. You might also have higher levels of cortisol —a stress hormone. This can lead to anger, depression, and even suicidal thoughts. In addition, drowsiness increases your risk of falling asleep behind the wheel and getting into an accident.

Just like with a credit card or a mortgage, sleep debt eventually has to be repaid. And the more you add to it, the bigger your balance.  You might think that closing the blinds and turning off your alarm on Saturday morning would do the trick, but sleeping in too much on weekends can actually do more harm than good, throwing off your circadian rhythm and making it harder to fall asleep on Sunday night. And that could mean starting your Monday with an even bigger sleep deficit than before.

Repay your sleep debt by using a weighted blanket

To repay your sleep debt, you need to allow your body a chance to go through its usual sleep cycle. You have five phases of sleep, from light sleep to deep sleep and REM, which is when dreaming happens. Your body usually goes through multiple REM phases every night. REM is the sleep stage associated with the feeling of refreshment the moment you wake up after a good night’s sleep, and hence the loss of REM sleep may be worrisome. Fortunately, nowadays a hot sleep product — weighted blanket — can help people suffering from sleep deprivation to increase their REM sleep, that means improvement of sleep quality.

Weighted blankets are made with added weight so that they feel heavier than a typical blanket. It is a sleep product came from the Deep Pressure Touch therapy which works through the application of firm but gentle pressure on various parts of the body. If you have ever cuddled under a fluffy down blanket, or you feel calm and relaxed while zipped up in a heavy sleeping bag, you have probably already experienced the benefits of Deep Pressure Touch therapy. According to the Journal of Sleep Medicine and Disorders, studies have shown that weighted blankets help people fall asleep faster and get more REM sleep.

Purchasing the right weighted blanket for your body type is crucial. The deep pressure stimulation from a properly fitted weighted blanket will provide relief and relaxation in all areas of your body. Ideally, a weighted blanket should weigh in at around 10 percent of the user’s bodyweight in order to provide enough heft without being uncomfortable, but for adults there’s some more wiggle room (around 8 to 12 percent is generally fine). 

If you are thinking of  investing in a weighted blanket, personally we recommend YnM Cooling Weighted Blanket as the best choice. The blanket was made with 100% natural bamboo viscose that absorbs body heat and wicks away moisture, and the weights are from glass beads, range from 5 lbs. to 25 lbs. It’s designed for people who get really hot or sweat a lot in their sleep.  And it is vital to keep bed enviroment cool for getting more REM sleep.  And the vendor, YnM, as one of Amazon Best Sellers, known for high quality and best price, got 4.5 out of 5 stars with over 3000 reviews.