More people nowadays are using electric blankets rather than relying solely on their central heating or additional space heaters in their homes. This is due to the increase in heating costs. With the winter months fast approaching this is when people start thinking about choosing the right electric blanket.
At Utterly Home, we’ve featured electric blankets as one of our options for staying warm in the cold weather. Although some people reading this might be put off because they’ve read some horror stories of fires or electric shocks caused by electric blankets, but perhaps they haven’t heard about the benefits of having a new electric blanket in their home.
5 Benefits of Using an Electric Blanket
Horror stories aside, electric blankets are made to higher standards of quality than ever before and although the answer now is still the same as its always been to the question of electric blanket safety they can still be of great benefit.
Yes, they help save money on central heating, but there are many other advantages to owning these comforting and warming accessories in your home. Let’s look at some of the most important.
1. Cost Less To Run Than Gas Central Heating
Due to improvements and upgrades to electric blanket design and engineering, they are more efficient than they ever have been in the past. As a result, they are able to provide heat where you need it most, at a fraction of the overall cost of your normal central heating bill. Due to their very nature and where they are used, they just need the right amount of energy to warm you and your bed up, not as large as space as your whole room.
You can increase the savings you could make even more by investing in a higher-quality thicker electric blanket made with a plush material. It can be a false economy to spend on cheaper blankets just because they are cheaper. Whereas more expensive blankets will tend to have quicker warming up times and are likely to stay warm for longer, even after they are turned off.
2. They Can Signal To Your Body That It’s Time for Sleep
The body’s internal clock, otherwise known as the circadian rhythm, is what your body uses to determine when it’s the right time to sleep and when it’s the right time to be awake and active. This is influenced by several different factors, including the amount of physical activity you get, your diet and eating habits, whether it’s dark or light outside and the temperature.
Your circadian rhythm can get disrupted if your temperature fluctuates a lot throughout the night when you are lying in bed which can make it harder for you to get to sleep. This may also be the reason why you wake up much earlier than you should.
With an electric blanket in use, however, you can keep yourself at a consistent and comfortable temperature for the whole night, which will, in turn, create a better, healthier sleeping pattern. That’s even when those colder, darker, wintry nights come along.
3. They Help You To Sleep Better Once You Are Asleep
Following nicely from the point above, another benefit of electric blankets is that they help you to sleep better once you are asleep. There are five different stages of sleep that your body, like everyone else’s cycles through naturally over the course of a night.
Temperature changes that disrupt your sleep can cause you to be pulled from the deep sleep stage, but without fully waking you up. This means you will wake up the next day, having seemingly been asleep for the right amount of time, but not having the quality of sleep you need.
With an electric blanket, as highlighted above you can keep your body temperature to a consistent and suitable temperature that ensures you are able to sleep through the different stages of the sleep cycle properly. As an additional bonus, you may even notice an increase in your productivity and energy levels in the morning when you start using an electric blanket.
4. Proven by Science to Improve Your Mood
In order to stay warm, your body needs to use lots of energy. This can leave you feeling stressed and anxious if a lot of your body’s energy supplies are used to keep your body temperature at a consistent level.
With the use of an electric blanket though, you can reduce the amount of energy your body needs to use to provide it with warmth, which in turn sends signals to your braining letting it know you feel content and satisfied which in turn helps you to feel more relaxed and much happier.
Therefore, along with electric blankets, hot steaming cups of hot chocolate and hot baths are remedies to improving your mood on those cold wintry nights.
5. Help You With Aches and Pains and Health Conditions
Applying a source of heat to somewhere on your body that is experiencing pain or has an injury, because of sciatica or arthritic pain, your body’s heat receptors cancel out the pain signals, reducing the pain.
They also help to increase circulation and remain more flexible. That’s another good reason why you should invest in an electric blanket!
