In recent years, as people's requirements for sleep quality have become higher and higher, many people have replaced the heavy quilts at home with light and warm silk quilts and down quilts.
But sleep is getting worse and worse, why is this?
Research has confirmed that heavy quilts lead to good sleep
Symptoms A study published in the journal of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine showed that:
Sleeping with a heavy blanket (6-8 kg) can significantly improve sleep in just one month, and can also reduce depression and anxiety.
The study included 120 patients with insomnia for more than 2 months and suffering from a mental illness (including major depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder or ADHD), and divided them into two groups.
One group covered with a heavy blanket (6-8 kg) and the other covered with a light blanket (1.5 kg) for a four-week evaluation study.
The results showed that:
- After 4 weeks, the effective rate of insomnia improvement in the group using heavy blankets was 59.4% (the insomnia severity index decreased by more than 50%), and the complete remission rate was 42.2% (no clinically significant insomnia).
- while the effective rate of insomnia improvement in the participants using light blankets was only 5.4%, and the complete remission rate was only 3.6%.
- Those who improved insomnia not only slept well at night, but also had more energy during the day, and their anxiety was greatly reduced.
Why does a heavy blanket have such a good effect?
- Increase oxytocin secretion: The power of "pressing the body" by a heavy blanket may have an effect similar to acupressure and massage. Deep pressure stimulation can increase the body's oxytocin secretion, thereby producing an anti-anxiety and sedative effect.
- Increase melatonin secretion: In addition, studies have shown that the pressure of a heavy blanket will be transmitted to the brain through the skin sensory nerves, stimulating the pineal gland to release more melatonin.
Specifically, people who cover themselves with heavy blankets have an increase of about 32% in melatonin secretion 1 hour before going to bed, while those who cover themselves with light blankets only increase by about 25%.
Since thick quilts can help people sleep, should people choose thick quilts in life? Is the thicker the better?
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There is a sense of oppression and dreaminess when sleeping.
If the quilt is too thick, the sense of oppression on the human body will be stronger, making people feel very tired and uncomfortable to sleep.Especially when people lie on their backs, thick quilts will compress the chest, affect the normal breathing, reduce the breathing volume of the lungs, and cause the human body to inhale too little oxygen and produce symptoms of dreaming. -
Metabolism is more vigorous, and sleep is not stable.
Many studies have shown that the indoor temperature suitable for sleeping is between 20-23℃. At this time, the microenvironment temperature in the quilt should be around 30℃, which makes people feel warm but not sweating.But if the quilt is too thick, the temperature in the quilt will also rise, making the body's metabolism vigorous, greatly increasing energy consumption, and increasing sweat excretion.At this time, people will appear irritable and easy to wake up. After waking up, they will feel tired, sleepy, weak, and dizzy. -
It is easier to accumulate dust, which is not conducive to the respiratory tract.
In life, thick quilts are inconvenient to move and clean, so people tend to ignore its hygiene, so that dust and particles are easy to adhere to the quilt.When using it for sleep, dust enters the respiratory tract, which is more likely to cause respiratory discomfort and diseases, such as allergies, rhinitis, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, etc.
