The verdict on the weighted blanket: I like it.
It’s basically a quilt that’s impregnated with sand. This gives it a heavy, draping quality. It’s like being hugged tightly by something cold and inanimate. I can see how some people would find it unnerving.
I’m guessing it’s the sand that gives it the coldness and to me this is the best feature. Normally I have a duvet that’s comfortably warm when I go to sleep but then I wake up in the middle of the night boiling hot. I still woke up at 3 am but I wasn’t overheated. The weighted blankets are designed to be smaller than a normal blanket because reasons and this meant it had partially slid off me on the sheet, and when I pulled it back in place I quickly went back to sleep.
So, yes, in summary: I like it and I’m going to persist with it.
After my proclamation on insomnia treatments last night, I decided to check out some historical cures for sleeplessness, on the hunch that there may indeed be some that were worse than sleeping tablets. Most were more curious or distasteful than dangerous, but some would really be a risk to your health, like laudanum or hemlock. Examples of the former include:
– smearing your feet with the fat of a dormouse
– rubbing dog earwax on your teeth
– a potion called dwale that contained the bile from a castrated boar
– magnetism – those Victorians loved it for everything, didn’t they? Apparently Charles Dickens thought if you pointed your bed northwards, you’d get a good night’s slumber.
(Thanks, Google!)