I’ll bet you think of quilts
as nice homey comfortable things,
that can keep you warm on a cold day.
But did you know that they can also alleviate stress?
There are new quilts on the markets these days
that are being used to get rid of stress,
help with autism,
and even as a therapy for depression!
And at the end of the video I’ll talk about
how you can use everyday ordinary quilts
to do these things with no need to buy anything at all.
Hi, and welcome to the Les Perras podcast episode 353, about quilts.
A little more than twenty years ago
an occupational therapist started to experiment
with weighted quilts and wrote a paper about it.
She was working with subjects in a special needs community.
The results were impressive
considering this was non-medicinal, and non-invasive.
Then more and more people became interested in them
and finally in 2018 they became available on the market
for anyone in the form of the ‘Gravity Blanket’.
They work by stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system.
This can regulate involuntary functions like heart rate,
blood pressure, and stimulate the digestive tract.
If you can influence this system,
you can affect things like heart rate and blood pressure
which in turn can indicate the presence of stress in our system.
When we feel stress our heart rate goes up and frequently so does our blood pressure.
Using the weighted quilt can activate
the parasympathetic nervous system.
It uses deep pressure therapy,
which is simply a gentle squeezing
pressure on parts of the body.
It has been reported to have a calming effect
in people with anxiety,
along with other problems including depression.
Now before you get too excited,
you have to remember that more testing is necessary
to conclusively say they have a positive effect,
and they can be dangerous, especially for children.
Before you run out and buy one you can try to simulate the feeling of gentle pressure over your body
with a regular quilt.
When I was a boy I got a similar feeling
just by wrapping myself up in a quilt.
I laid the quilt on the floor, and grabbed on edge and rolled myself up in it.
I can personally attest that this does give
a reassuring and calming effect that is quite pleasant.
It doesn’t cost anything and only takes a few minutes to try it out.
Go ahead and try it out for yourself
when you are feeling stress or anxiety next time.
You might end up feeling better!
Thanks for listening.