Where I live, it has been over 100 degrees out for the past week. Even with the high temperatures, I still find myself reaching for a blanket at night. This may seem strange, but chances are you can relate.

Even when it’s very hot outside, many people simply can’t sleep without a blanket, and it turns out that we’re not crazy. There are actually many reasons that a blanket helps us sleep.

First of all, blankets help regulate our body temperature. That might sound crazy when it’s 100 degrees outside, but it’s true. When we are asleep, a blanket can help us keep a consistent body temperature.

Another reason that blankets help us sleep is that they are part of our bedtime routine, and that bedtime routine most likely started when we were very young. We tuck our children in with blankets every night, and as we grow up, we continue this practice out of habit. It feels comforting.

Blankets aren’t just comforting because of habit though. When we are children, we might be scared of the dark, and covering ourselves with a blanket helped make us feel safer. But, why?

Blankets are comforting because they help release the feel-good chemical serotonin in our bodies. If we feel stressed out, a blanket can help us calm down and drift off into dreamland.

If a normal blanket doesn’t help you calm down enough at night, you might want to try a weighted blanket. Many people have found many benefits from sleeping with a weighted blanket at night. For more about the benefits of weighted blankets, watch the video below.

It certainly sounds like it might be a good idea to get a weighted blanket, and you might be surprised who you know who already sleeps with one.

According to David Fuchs, the CEO of BlanQuil, a company that makes weighted blankets, a weighted blanket “seems to help people sleep by the calming effect of feeling like they are being held.”

Raj Dasgupta, MD, is the assistant professor of clinical medicine at the University of Southern California. He says that a weighted blanket is “like having the best hug for a long period of time.” He also says that it could be a good alternative to sleeping pills.

Do you have trouble sleeping at night without a blanket? Do you sleep with a weighted blanket?