When I was a small girl (40+ years ago) I slept under woollen blankets and a heavy cotton bedspread. I remember the comforting weight of them on my body in winter and even on the hottest of summer nights I insisted on being covered with a sheet. I still like to be covered as I sleep, maybe it harks back to my childhood....or to the swaddling we all experienced as infants. Or even to the constriction of our mother's womb.
In the 70s or 80s (maybe earlier because we were late adopters of change) doonas became fashionable and I remember their lightness being one of their advertised qualities. Doonas or quilts have been the bedding of choice for most people in Australia for the best part of the last forty years but I never really gave up my woollen blankets so I am now finding it just a little bit funny to notice that the latest trend is weighted blankets. They cost upwards of $300 to buy when the same effect could be had just by piling a few blankets on the bed.
I wonder what quaint old fashioned habit of mine will be all zhooshed up and super expensive next week?
Blankets are our covers of choice still. I get visibly upset when we travel and there are doonas on the bed.
ReplyDeleteWe get too hot with quilts - with blankets you can cover and uncover......regulate how you feel......at will so it's cotton cellular during the summer topped with a woollen on (or two - remember we live in Melbourne) during the winter.
Yes, temperature control is better with blankets. I recently stayed in a place with doonas and was forced to run the aircon to make up for the over thick doona. So silly
DeleteWe bought our first duvet/downie/doona in Glasgow in 1969. They were unusual in those days. I've never slept under a blanket since. I've not seen blankets for sale in the UK for years but then I haven't been looking. Mind you I still have a few from my parents' house including the one that was on my bed as a small child and until I left home.
ReplyDeleteI like that you still have a childhood blanket!
DeleteAfter my grandfather died in 1993 i inherited one of the blankets from his house and it served here for 25 years until it became a dog blanket. After that it didn't last long!
It's sad how we have to relearn things every generation or two.
ReplyDeleteYes,it is. I guess every generation thinks they know better than the last.
DeleteWhen I first heard about weighted blankets all I could think of was winters when I was a kid with a couple of quilts on the bed. Weight and warmth!
ReplyDeleteYep! It's simple stuff really
DeleteI grew up with blankets and sheets, I do like the weight. BUT, washing a duvet cover is a simple exercise in comparison to washing blankets and sheets. I probably won't give up my duvet anytime soon.
ReplyDeleteSx
Hmmm, I hate putting a duvet back in the cover but it probably is easier than washing blankets.... Possibly.... Maybe .
DeleteWhen you come across that, do share!
ReplyDeleteI'm discovering that cooking is become quaint and old fashioned so stay tuned :)
DeleteHah, really, eh? (re old habits becoming "new") - we still use sheets and blankets here too. My temperature is all over the map during the night and blankets are easier to regulate. Also, don't you have to clean the inner part of a duvet/doona - surely it has to be washed also? Dust mites, and all :)
ReplyDeleteHave you heard that minimalism is going out of style? Cluttery/cosy is coming back. Sort of related :)
I wash duvets but I think some people throw them away?
DeleteAlso, now that I've held every item I owned, determined if it gave me joy, thanked it for service and carefully rehomed most, you tell me clutter is back?
Haha, I never did get on the kondo wagon
Hello Kylie. In the summer, my boss always insists on replacing every duvet on all the beds in her house with woollen blankets then reverting back come the autumn. It's a pain in the proverbial! Those weighted blankets remind me of very cold Scottish winters and sleeping in freezing cold bedrooms where the frost gathered on the inside of the windows during the night and the beds were piled high with everything you could throw at it, including heavy woollen coats, to keep the body in the bed warm. My youngest sister doesn't believe here elder sisters were brought up like that because by that time, she had the luxury of central heating being installed in a brand new house built by my father. I worry about those blankets being filled with all sorts of crap like microbeads and other plastics. Also, I thought it was bad for the circulation to have heavy blankets on your legs overnight?
ReplyDeleteBetween me & you, welcome!
DeleteI hate to say so but if I had someone to do chores for me I might do seasonal bedding changes too! I do sympathise, what a nuisance.
Living in Sydney, I haven't usually had to throw everything at a bed to keep warm but we did once have snow on a summer camping trip and we certainly wore every item we had with us on that trip!
I think weighted blankets are not overly heavy for circulation but your point asking just how they are weighted is a good one. S
In England we call them "continental quilts" or "duvets". I can well remember a time before anybody here had them. In wintertime your body was squashed down by the weight of bedding. I wonder where the word "doona" came from as I doona know.
ReplyDeleteThey used to be called continental quilts here, too. I think Doona might actually be a brand name that caught on. Duvet is the name of choice in new Zealand
DeleteI remember layers and layers on my bed, remember the eiderdown? There's an old fashioned word! When it was really really cold, we grabbed heavy coats from the hall and piled them up, often 5 or 6 layers, the weight could make it nearly impossible to climb out. :D
ReplyDeleteNow weighted blankets, for a while it was the electric ones - never did the job of weight tho.
I alternate between weight and light duvet on my bed.
XO
WWW
Australians tend not to have eiderdowns (someone older than I am will probably correct me now) but yes, it's nice old fashioned word.
DeleteMy daughters sleep under layers of their own clothes but I don't think it's because of the cold ;)
We still have a blanket over our duvets on really cold nights (we have single duvets, that avoids the duvet-hogging syndrome). But I don't see the point of weighted blankets, especially if they cost hundreds of pounds!
ReplyDeleteNo, No, No! Blankets must go under duvets!
DeleteWeighted blankets meet an innate need for some people. It is scientifically based and has the effect of calming the nervous system.
I have always loved sleeping under a bunch of heavy blankets. When I lived in steamy Florida as a teenager I tried just using a sheet or even a light comforter, but the feeling was so unnatural that I would up cranking the AC so I could break out the real covers. Like you said, maybe it harkens back to swaddling. That weight is just comforting.
ReplyDeleteYou obviously hear the messages your body sends! I like heavy covers but I have adjusted to having just a sheet in the hot, humid summers.
DeleteI've struck a compromise between doona and blanket, it's a wool quilt.
ReplyDeleteWorks really well for me in winter.
Who knew about weighted blankets? Not me.
So they cure anxiety, insomnia and can be claimed on the NDIS scheme. Sounds like clever marketing to me.
Alphie
I bought a wool quilt for my daughter last year, she's metaphorically and literally wrapped in it!
DeleteI had no idea weighted blankets were available on the NDIS!
Well, so they said on one of the websites, don't ask me which one now - its all passed into history for me...
DeleteAlphie
I'm one of those people that can't stand anything over me when I sleep, but I compromise and have a light weight duvet, but I always have my legs out as I just get too hot. I never understand all the people on a plane that sleep with blankets over them, I'd strip down to my boxers and t-shirt if I could! Just don't fancy being arrested. :D
ReplyDeleteNow see, the weather has finally cooled down enough to use a blanket or two and I couldn't be happier!
DeleteI have never before heard or read the words "doona" and "zhoosh"...I must be living on a different planet.
ReplyDeleteWell I wasn't going to say anything......
DeleteWeighted blankets are used for children with behavioural problems too - that wouldn't apply to you though :) but perhaps one would come in handy with your senior's group!
ReplyDeleteThat's not surprising! i remember an episode of House where the doctor who is on the spectrum asks somebody to hold her tightly to help regulate her system.
DeleteSome days I need to wrap the whole group in a weighted blanket!