Healthy Food Delivery : The Benefits of Sleeping With a Weighted Blanket

Tuesday, February 17, 2026

The Benefits of Sleeping With a Weighted Blanket

If you’re having trouble sleeping at night, you may be looking into things like white noise machines and other tricks to get a better night’s sleep. But you can also try switching up your bedding. Many people, myself included, swear that weighted blankets are the key to a good night’s sleep. There’s plenty of anecdotal evidence out there that they help, but is there any scientific evidence to back them up?

Do Weighted Blankets Help with Anxiety?

Admittedly, the studies on these blankets and their effects on sleep are sparse. Most of them freely admit that more research needs to be done, with larger sample sizes, before there can be broad, sweeping claims. But that doesn’t mean there’s no research. In a 2020 study in the American Journal of Occupational Therapy (AJOT), researchers looked at the effects of weighted blankets on patients with anxiety and insomnia.

The literature review looked at eight different studies and concluded that “weighted blankets may be an appropriate therapeutic tool in reducing anxiety; however, there is not enough evidence to suggest they are helpful with insomnia.”

Do Weighted Blankets Help with Insomnia?

Four years later, a study in BCM Psychiatry looked specifically into whether or not weighted blankets help with insomnia. Over the course of the study, the researchers found that these blankets had positive effects on sleep quality and “a range of sleep-related negative emotions and daytime symptoms.” The researchers also concede that more studies, both longer-term and larger, are needed. However, their own study seemed to show that weighted blankets are “an easy-to-use non-pharmacotherapy option for adults with insomnia.”

What Do These Findings Mean for You?

Like with most interventions, everyone is built a little differently. What works for me might not necessarily work for you. None of the studies we found showed that weighted blankets degrade sleep quality. So, if you are someone who has anxiety or insomnia and finds physical pressure to be soothing, it’s worth trying them.

General guidelines say you should start with a blanket no heavier than 10% of your body weight. From there, you can scale up or down to find your comfort zone. Worst-case scenario, you find out you don’t like the blanket, and you can donate it to a friend who does.