You might or may not have heard of “Weighted Blankets ” – if however, you have endless difficulties with sleepless or interrupted nights with children with Autism or similar disorders, it may well be the best thing you have heard of.
As a young child (too a long time ago) I spent nearly all of my nights wondering your house with no looked at sleep. As I grew my sleep difficulties came along for the ride. The impact of those sleepless nights was not at all something I understood for a extended time. Now in my own forties I am well and truly understanding what going without sleep may do not to only your time but also the impact it can have all around our daily lives.
As I said, I’m now within my 40’s and these issues remain an issue for me personally, however now-a-days you can find bigger problems that led me to my appreciation of using Weighted Blankets for sleep. In late 2010 my two very young sons were diagnosed with Autism. Both these boys are on the spectrum but are different in lots of ways. Usually the one way they did not differ was that neither of them “Just slept “.Having other members in the family and my own age, made it difficult to manage the seemingly endless nights of constant battles to obtain sleep. It seemed most nights that individuals would finally settle one child and another would part of to take his place, and thus total sleep for all of us contains maybe several uninterrupted hours and even then it would be either on to the floor beside their beds or within our bed with both boys extended and pushing against us in the center of the bed.
Once diagnosed we attempted sleep with the chemist made version of Melatonin. It took a couple of drops and for the first time both my boys were asleep within 30 minutes. Melatonin was great…. and so it went, nevertheless it began to have a few more drops to place them to sleep then it lasted only a little less time (wakening at 3am) and then we began to realise just how much of the chemist supply we were going through with two children using it. The price for Melatonin varies but we never found it at under about $55 per bottle (very small bottle) We were using more and more with less and varied results. This is about the time that I’d the opportunity to here is another Weighted Blanket. I’d heard of them before, From the that I dismissed the idea because my boys never would leave a page or blanket on, so I assumed that they would not leave the blanket on either. Then also there is the cost. A lot of I thought to take the risk which they didn’t use it. — I could not need been more wrong and I’m happy that I was, my older son (now 5) took to the blanket quite well and began to sleep better within a week. Jayden who was then still 2 (almost 3) did not like the idea of his legs being covered and also likes his arms free, for him we placed the blanket throughout the core of his body and left his legs and arms free. – Throughout that week our last bottle of Melatonin ran out and we’ve not had to get one since.
I might make it complicated and talk about “Deep pressure therapy” and ” Spatial Awareness” but to help keep it simple I will explain it this way. The Melatonin which was made by my local chemist can just as easily be produced by our own bodies. A simple example is that when we receive a hug, our anatomies’natural response is to release a chemical called Serotonin. This is exactly what makes us feel good. Serotonin is our natural relaxant, but it is also much more. When the sun goes down and it’s time for sleep, the Serotonin inside our body changes. Melatonin is what’s produced at night time and is essential for sleep. Getting the throughout cuddle of a weighted blanket helps this Melatonin production and therefore helps with natural calming sleep.