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Here’s Why Your Friends Are Sleeping With Weighted Blankets

by Ellen Vora, MD on May 10, 2018 / Share

Full article on the Bulletproof blog.

By: ALISON MOODIE

Here’s Why Your Friends Are Sleeping With Weighted Blankets

Excerpt:

Weighted blankets and sleep

According to Ellen Vora, M.D., a holistic psychiatrist, weighted blankets may turn down anxiety by recalibrating our nervous system. Our ancestors made a point to keep infants in constant physical contact with another person, usually the mother, she says. Nowadays, babies typically spend a lot of time in cribs, strollers, and swings, depriving them of close touch. (Note that weighted blankets should never be used on children under age 3.)

“Perhaps the relative absence of that early touch in modern life leaves the nervous system in a state of feeling slightly more stressed, slightly less relaxed, which can manifest as depression and anxiety later in life,” says Vora. “Perhaps a weighted blanket is effectively like a big, belated hug, attempting to reprogram the nervous system that we are in fact okay and secure.”

Read more…

TAGS ANXIETY SLEEP

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About the Author Ellen Vora, MD

Ellen Vora, M.D., is a holistic psychiatrist practicing with Frank Lipman, M.D., at the Eleven Eleven Wellness Center in NYC. "I take a functional medicine approach to mental health, which is a root-cause approach to understanding and treating illness."

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Dr. Ellen Vora

About Me.

Dr. Vora takes a functional medicine approach to mental health–considering the whole person and addressing the problem at the root, rather than reflexively prescribing medication to suppress symptoms.

She specializes in depression, anxiety, insomnia, adult ADHD, bipolar and digestive issues.

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