About weighted duvets

The effects of weighted duvets

The embracing effect of weighted duvets places pressure on the user's skin. Many describe this feeling as a pleasant embrace over their whole body. The pressure activates skin receptors deep in the skin, which leads to the release of the body's own feel-good hormones, which in turn cause relaxation, and allow the user to calm down more quickly. 

Scientific studies have shown that the body's "closeness hormone" increases when the body experiences something called DPTS (deep pressure touch simulation), which is achieved naturally when using heavy duvets. This hormone is associated with relaxation and easing of stress and anxiety. This is most probably one of the reasons that such a huge number of people who use weighted duvets experience increased relaxation, decreased stress, and better sleep.

Choose the right weight for your CURA duvet

The right weight varies from individual to individual, but most find that a duvet that weighs approximately 10 - 15% of their own body weight is most suitable for them.With serious sleep problems and/or significant worries and anxiety, it can be a good idea to choose a duvet equivalent to approximately 15 - 20 % of your body weight.  Read more about how to choose the right weight for your weight duvet.

Weighted duvets for children

Because the duvet's weight is distributed over a smaller body area, you cannot choose the right duvet in the same way that you do for adults. We recommend, therefore, that you should primarily take account of the child's age when you choose the duvet weight (See table above). 

We do not recommend using weighted duvets for children under 2 years of age. This is because it is important for the child to be able to remove the duvet themselves. Read more about weight duvets for children.

The history of heavy duvets

You could be forgiven for thinking that the use of heavy duvets is a new phenomenon. But in fact, people have used heavy duvets throughout most of our history. Historically, people used heavy animal skins and straw mats when the night's chill made extra warmth necessary. And before the lightweight down duvets of the 1950s and the mass-produced, cost-effective fake fibre duvets of the 1970s, significantly heavier broadcloth duvets were most commonly used in households across Scandinavia. At that time, research into sleep was almost non-existent, as was knowledge about how the weight of duvets affects sleep.

Weighted duvets in healthcare

For over 12 years, weighted duvets have been successfully used in healthcare for the treatment of sleep problems. They have primarily been prescribed to patients with neuropsychiatric disabilities, severe pain, or anxiety. Today, we know that the effects of weighted blankets can benefit everybody, regardless of their medical background and the extent of their sleep issues. Even people who feel that they sleep well find that a weighted blanket improves their sleep. When the Swedish healthcare system introduced the use of weighted duvets to treat sleep problems, the worldwide use of weighted duvets was very limited.  The fact is that even a few years ago, almost all users of weighted duvets had borrowed them from the healthcare system. The cost of your own weighted duvet then was over 8000 SEK.

When weighted duvets reached the general public

The situation changed towards the end of 2016, when weighted duvets began to be sold for reasonable prices to ordinary consumers via Amazon in the USA. It wasn't long before the success of weighted duvets took the country by storm. Weighted blankets were Amazon's most-sold product for several months. Today, several million Americans use weighted duvets, and the sales show no sign of slowing down. On the contrary, they continue to accelerate. For a year now, the same development has been picking up speed in Europe, with CURA in Sweden as a leading brand. More than 300,000 people have bought CURA's weighted duvets since they became available in 2018, and this number is expected to increase dramatically during the coming year.

An approaching paradigm shift

Insufficient sleep is one of the biggest public health problems of our time, and a weighted duvet is a natural treatment free from side-effects - one which improves the sleep of about 90% of users, regardless of whether they had prior sleep problems. People are becoming much more aware of the positive effects of weighted duvets, and are making the decision to swap their lightweight duvets for heavy duvets more and more. CURA of Sweden are, of course, keeping a close eye on this growing trend, and everything indicates that we are on the cusp of a paradigm shift in terms of people's duvet usage.