Weighted Blankets-- anyone tried?

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I used a weighted blanket for the first time last night. I slept really well and I found the extra weight very relaxing and comforting. Usually I feel very restless in bed and move my legs about a lot or toss and turn. Last night I did that a lot less than normal and I slept for nearly eight hours.

I'm thinking about getting a weighted vest too so I can benefit from this effect when I'm out and about which is when I feel most anxious and overloaded.

Another thing you guys can try doing is making a weighted torso pillow. I made one out of 10 larges pollow cases to thicken up the layers and put a sand bag inside. It weights about 80lbs and I roll to on top of me at night. I used to be a tummy sleeper until I got older and tummy sleeping started getting harder on my back and neck to do so. With the weighted pillow. I can now sleep on my back and that helps keep my back and neck straight at night.

How do you wash them?

I made a weighted blanket for my son before I knew what one was. I made it from heavyweight recycled denim with a soft fleece lining. I stitched pockets from the jeans on each alternate square, and he would fill the pockets with his treasures, adding to the weight.

I bring mine to the laundromat. They have strong enough laundry machines.

I'm about the same.

I have a rather heavy comforter and I hate it.

I frequently dream of floating in the air anywhere from a few inches off of the floor to the top of a building. Even higher on rare occasions. I noticed the other day when it was particularly cold and I used the comforter anyway that in my dream of floating, I dreamed I was weighing a heavy coat and really struggled to get more than a couple of feet off of the ground. In the dream, once I stopped trying to go higher, I would immediately start to sink back to the ground.

If it is warm enough, I don't sleep with any blankets at all. At best, maybe just a sheet on top of me.

I sleep with a single sheet, no matter the temperature----I'm the kind that can sleep with the sheet over my head, so I don't need anything else----but, I sure do like the sound of the weight, part.

When I was a kid, I would regularly sleep with the window open even if the temperature was less than 10 F. At that temperature, it would take me about five blankets to keep comfortable.

A crafty friend of mine has offered to make me one! How do I determine which weight is right for me?

They do sound nice. It's weird that people with ASD all seem to like things like this, things that seem really random to me. I always make the bed really firmly and tightly so I'm basically squeezed in by the sheets, and I have a thick brown blanket that I've had since a child that I trap between two sheets. The only problem is my girlfriend feels claustrophobic if she has pressure on her while sleeping and she makes the sheets all loose on her side, so I don't think she'd like a weighted blanket.

Possibly this is one of those "marmite issues"

Yeah, it's been around 8 degrees, here, every night, lately, and I still only had a sheet over me----I didn't have the window open, though----and, I absolutely HATE when the heater comes-on, so it's turned-down, real low.

We only had a gas stove in the living room to heat the house. And that was turned off at night because of the danger of it turning off and then coming back on without being relit.

When I lived in Idaho. I would sleep out in my tree-house, because my mother was a heavy smoker and that drove me out of the house. It would get down to -10F in the winter time, and all I did was stack the layers on. I remember waking up in the morning and my hair was frozen solid and a stream of frost coming from my mouth and nose was painted on my pillow because of my breath.

That sounds great.

A few years ago I went on one of those 150 mile MS society bicycle rides. I didn't expect cold weather at all so I grabbed an old blanket and took it with me to sleep in. Early in the evening shortly after I wrapped up in the blanket to go to sleep, a cold front blew through. I was really wishing I had brought something much warmer.

Oh, yeah----all of my people "down-home" used to have those----I DID use a blanket----and, probably a QUILT, THEN!! (BTW, I NEVER meant to be saying that I was, like, better than everybody else, cuz one sheet was all I needed.)

My weighted blanket is about 13% of my body weight. I sewed it myself using poly pellets for weight; I didn't use any fiberfill. The total cost was about $65. I made it as long as I am tall and 36 inches wide. I wanted it small so all of the weight would be on me. It stays on me when I roll over. I wanted it to be heavier but my dog sleeps under it too. (He can crawl under and out of it himself.)
I wash in it a regular front-loading washing machine and dry it in the dryer. I wouldn't recommend using a top-loading washing machine.