Weighted Blanket

It is inaccurate to say that autistic people hate to be touched. What is true is that we are sensitive to touch. Unwelcome touch is felt more strongly. Welcome touch is also felt more strongly. Clothes tags and touch by strangers are UNwelcome. For this reason, I have never agreed to go for a massage. The thought of a stranger massaging me is stressful. We have a strong negative reaction because we are more sensitive. 

Hugs and cuddles from people we love are also MORE enjoyable because we are MORE sensitive to the welcome touch. Hence, many autistic children are actually very cuddly with people who have earned their trust and affection, even though they refuse to be touched by anyone else. This is also the reason some autistic children benefit from companion dogs. Dogs comfort these children by lying on top of them.

A funny internet meme details what autistic flirting looks like. 

Note that the last point on the list addresses touch. 

The weighted blanket started out as a therapeutic tool for children with autism. In a way, it works the way a companion dog would. Weighted blankets deliver Deep Pressure Therapy to the body's sensory receptors. This calms the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS), using touch. If autistic people hate to be touched, then touch therapy would be useless.

The Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) has two sub-systems:

• The Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS): this delivers the flight or fight response and activates whenever the human body is in danger.
• The Parasympathetic Nervous System (PSNS): this activates when the human body feels comfortable and relaxed, e.g., after a bath, or just out of the sauna.

Deep Pressure Therapy delivered by weighted blankets reduces SNS activation and increases PSNS activation. This calms the body, not just for autistic people, but for other people with stressful lives too.

The weighted blanket is very effective in calming me when I have sensory overload, and my heart is beating very fast. For example, when the getai performance was too loud, the weighted blanket should be able to calm me down in 15 minutes when normally it would take an hour or more for me to get my heart rate down. Oh... if only I had been diagnosed early, and owned a weighted blanket. I would have saved myself many instances of feeling like a coiled spring, trying to fight off a meltdown/shutdown.

Anyway, The Husband borrowed my blanket last night. He has a stressful job and I thought I would lend him my blanket so that he could dial down his SNS too. He woke up this morning raving about the blanket, and how fast he was able to fall asleep, and how deeply he slept. This is not surprising because people in stressful jobs have overactive SNS that prevent them from sleeping well.

I bought a second blanket today so that we can have His and Hers blankets.

Postscript: the 2nd night, The Husband went to bed early and slept right through 8 hrs without waking. This is rare because The Husband tends to wake after 5 hrs of sleep. I feel happy that he had a good night's sleep throughout.