When your body is tired but your mind is racing, your sleep can suffer. Emma Stonegård Abrahamsson, an elite Thai boxer who has been diagnosed with ADHD and struggles with anxiety and motor restlessness, knows this all too well. For her, sleeping with Novista’s weighted blanket helps—here she shares her experiences.
Emma Stonegård Abrahamsson, 25, has three Swedish Championship gold medals, one World Championship gold medal, one World Championship silver medal, and one European Championship bronze medal in Muay Thai, and made her national team debut in 2019. Her path to the top has been straightforward and marked by success, but mentally, it has been all the more complicated.
– I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was 16, and I’ve struggled with severe anxiety and depression at times. I can tire my body out as much as I want, but my brain is always racing and constantly in overdrive. The pressure from the weighted blanket gives me a general sense of calm in my body that helps me wind down and dampens my motor restlessness—that is, a kind of restless agitation that can set in when I’m trying to sleep. I don’t feel that anymore,” says Emma Stonegård Abrahamsson.
Photographer Hilda Forssell @hildaforsell
“I’ve always lived a wild life and been out and about a lot at night.”
She has a packed and meticulously planned workout schedule, averaging 8–10 sessions a week—all while studying full-time to become a naprapath.
– Life is fast-paced in general, and that’s when recovery really is everything. If I don’t sleep well, my performance suffers in both training and my studies, and as an elite athlete, I need to be at my best both physically and mentally. The weighted blanket helps me recover better between training sessions, but it actually also improves my overall quality of life.
What do you think are the most noticeable effects of sleeping under a weighted blanket?
– Not only do I wind down faster, but I also sleep more deeply and move around less. I’ve always been a restless sleeper; it’s been like a stormy sea—in the sense that I’ve tossed and turned a lot in bed and slept rather fitfully and lightly. Now that I have even pressure across my entire body, I relax differently and sleep both more deeply and more peacefully. It has definitely improved the quality of my sleep and given me more energy during the day.
“The weighted blanket helps you recover better between workouts, but it actually also improves your overall quality of life.”
Emma Stonegård Abrahamsson explains that she received help from Novista’s occupational therapist in determining the right weight for her weighted blanket, and much of the focus at the time was on her motor restlessness.
– I got to try an 8-kilo weighted blanket, and we came up with that weight together after I told her about the anxiety I sometimes feel—both mentally and physically—when I’m trying to fall asleep. I like the pressure—it’s like someone is hugging me really tightly, which calms me down. It’s good for my brain; my body kind of takes over and does its thing so my mind can rest.
