Good sleeping weather is here

I’m one of those people who love a bed layered with blankets and quilts, and the next few months will bring plenty of opportunities to enjoy our beds with a bit of a chill in the air.

When I was a young child and my mother was still alive, she would often make homemade quilts as gifts and for practical purposes. There was one particular quilt that was so heavy that we jokingly referred to it as the 20-pounder, but oh that heavy quilt was such a welcome feature once we were tucked into our beds and settling down for the night.

There’s something very calming and relaxing about sleeping under the weight of thick blankets or quilts; so much so that a few years ago one of the holiday items that was very popular were weighted blankets. Weighted blankets normally contain objects layered between the fabric that have weight. According to sleepfoundation.org, some users of weighted quilts believe the added weight helps reduce anxiety and helps to eliminate insomnia.

I’ve tried a weighted blanket; there is one in our linen closet that was a gift and has never been used other than when it was given to us; my wife and I both tried the blanket and neither of us was satisfied with the experience.

Give me a heavy homemade blanket and a bedroom with a slight chill and I’m just about as comfortable as is possible. My bedroom is adjacent to a screened porch where we put houseplants when we bring them in for the winter. We enclosed the porch with heavy gauge plastic to keep as much cold air from the plants as possible. There are two windows in the bedroom that open onto the screened porch; those windows stay open all the time to both help the plants stay warmer and to provide just enough chill in the room to make snuggling under a heavy quilt a real sleeping pleasure.

Store-bought weighted blankets just don’t do it for me, but a bed layered in multiple blankets and quilts creates a sleeping experience like no other. I wish I had that 20-pounder that is now just a childhood memory but that has long since been discarded or given to someone else in the family.

I’m looking forward to cooler nights and lots of weight on my bed as we hunker down for a few months of relatively cool weather.