[Saatva showroom with weighted blanket displayed on a mattress]
[Saatva weighted blanket on a mattress]
Dr. Neal Walia (interview): “There’s not a large amount of studies on weighted blankets. There’s a few out there, few on pediatric populations, particularly children with autism, a few on adult population. So those are pretty small studies and a few on adult populations that have, let’s say, anxiety disorders or ADHD, bipolar, things like that. And those populations have been studied. All of these are relatively small studies with a common thread that it’s not a very harmful intervention. And for the most part it was either beneficial or neutral.”
[Bed]
[Flowers and pillow]
[Weighted blanket on a bed]
Dr. Neal Walia (interview): “There’s two thought processes on these. One is that when you can’t fall asleep or stay asleep, it can be driven by your sympathetic system, basically like a heightened sense of arousal. So patients a lot of times they’ll say, you know, I’m tired, tired, tired. I lay in bed, I’m like wide awake and thinking about my day, my thoughts don’t stop going. And their sympathetic system or fight or flight is essentially heightened. And the idea is that whenever you’re using what’s called deep pressure touch or pressure stimulation, the parasympathetic system, which is your rest and digest system, is activated. So the idea of evenly distributed weight on you kind of tells your body, hey, you’re in a calm environment.”
[Weighted blanket]
Dr. Neal Walia (interview): “The other idea is that it, in a similar sense of a hug, kind of tells your body to start producing oxytocin, which is a chemical that’s also this endogenous anti-anxiety chemical – is what we think – that can help also stimulate the parasympathetic system. So the idea is just like that pressure provides your body this comfort that you can, in two ways, promote sleep and rest. Both of those are theoretical. It’s not like we’re being able to study like chemical levels and things like that. But with the low side effect profile and risk profile – not a bad idea.”
[Weighted blanket displayed on a bed]
Dr. Neal Walia (interview): “If there’s any indication that there might be an underlying sleep apnea or other sleep pathology, you should get that evaluated. But particularly if there’s an insomnia component, then absolutely maintain sleep hygiene as well. Introduce a weighted blanket, if it works that’s great. And if it doesn’t work, that’s okay.”
[Beds in showroom]
[Sleep mask]
Dr. Neal Walia (interview): “As long as they’re evenly distributed weight and it’s not too heavy, that’s the big part of it. Anecdotally, I’ve had patients that have used all types and they either – whether they had benefit or didn’t have benefit, didn’t seem to correlate to the type of material that was used.”
[Packaged weighted blankets on display]
[Saatva products displayed on shelves]
This script was provided by The Associated Press.