Weighted Blankets

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I'm trying to gather as much information about weighted blankets as I can because I really want to have one of them.

I'm leaning towards making one myself because its so much cheaper, but have no idea what fabrics are reasonable for it.

I was leaning towards using poly-pellets because that seems to be recommended for weighting - is this true?

How are the different commercial ones? Are they worth the price? Are they worth the price if you can make it yourself? How quickly do you get them once you order them?

Also any information on how well they work for people would be relevant. I'm assuming that that sort of deep touch would drastically help with the sort of restless skin that I've been feeling lately, because being held tightly helps.

I would try making one yourself. From experience, I know that a duvet cover made from heavy denim is very heavy to sleep under. Fill it with a cooler or warmer polyfill quilt, depending on weather, cuz polyfill is heavier tha down. Try it out! If more heavynrss desired, you could layer up what you put inside the duvet cover, such as those thin flannel mattress pads with rubber filling.

I like densely crocheted blankets for this purpose.

I think I remember seeing on here a while ago that someone made a blanket with those smooth glass stones like they sell for aquariums, but I think a bunch of little bumps would irritate me. I'm thinking about maybe asking my mom to make me a blanket for a Christmas present or something. Here's the first place for poly pellets I found, you might be able to find a better price if you dig around a bit. http://www.batt-mart.com/site/490194/pr ... PP-25-BULK

I'm also thinking of making a weighted blanket; and I already looked at some (dis)advantages of different materials:

Plastic Pellets (normally polypropylene):
- Hard to get as a private person
+ A blanket filled with these is machine washable, as long as it isn't too heavy
+ No good place for bacteria and germs to live; hygienically this should be much better than a regular blanket

Sand:
- A better medium for germs than PP pellets
- I wouldn't put a sand filled blanket in a washing machine; but washing by hand shouldn't be a problem
+ Very cheap
+ Very good weight distribution; no "little bumps"

Beans, peas, ...:
- May get moldy after a short time and isn't washable; I don't recommend using food items for a weighted blanket, although some people do so.

Metal balls (stainless steel or aluminium):
- Hard to get and expensive
- Might rattle when moving the blanket
+ Especially stainless steel has a very high mass density (about 8kg per litre; alu has 2.7kg per litre); so the blanket will be thin
+ Metals have a high thermal conductivity; in conjunction with the high density this makes the blanket not very warm; which is good for summer

I would say:
PP pellets are the most preferable material; sand is a low cost and easy available option; and metal is very exotic and maybe not the best choice .

Apparently I actually have a high chance of my insurance covering one for me . My dad helped me go through the process, and my doctor is now submitting an equivalent of a prescription telling my insurance they should cover it and they told my dad that it'd a very high chance of them covering one.