Do weighted blankets really help you sleep better?

Weighted blankets are a cool new trend that comes with a dream-like promise — to help you sleep better at night.

If you do a quick search you will find hundreds of different products online.

Bryan Chapman of Cape Coral says he was extremely skeptical, but now his wife, their young son, and himself all sleep with the extra pounds on top of them.

“With this on top of me it keeps me from moving a lot and I sleep better so for me it has worked,” Chapman said.

Buying and using these heavy blankets comes with a big warning, especially for young children.

Many are filled with glass or plastic beads, and selecting the weight of a blanket for your child is crucial.

Ellen Donald is in the Florida Gulf Coast Rehabilitation Services Department, and she says up to this point there has only been some evidence that weighted blankets actually live up to their promise.

“The important part is the blanket can’t be too heavy…generally, they say about 10% of their body weight, maybe a little bit more, but it should be something that a child or a person wants to kick off they can,” Donald said.

The recommended bodyweight to blanket weight is as followed:

• 40-70 pounds: 5 pounds
• 70-90 pounds: 7 pounds
• 90-110 pounds: 10 pounds
• 110-140 pounds: 12 pounds
• 140-190 pounds: 15 pounds
• 190-240 pounds: 20 pounds
• 240-280 pounds: 25 pounds
• These blankets are not recommended for everybody. Donald says she is a mother of three, and that she would not use one of them on her infant child.

“I’m a parent of three kids. I would never give my infant a weighted blanket or use just to be able to lay under calmly,” Donald said. “And I think the natural reaction is people slowly just kick them off as they do any other.”