I'll Be Relaxing Under My Weighted Blanket All Summer Long, Thanks to This New Cooling One

It may be great (and widely beloved) for many, many things, but there's one thing the weighted blanket is not historically good at, and that's keeping its users comfortable when the temperature heats up. The appeal of a weighted blanket for adults is its heft, that it can suppress the nervous system and mimic the full-body pressure of being hugged—and in many cases, that heft comes with some serious heat-trapping power.

Most weighted blankets are heavy, thick, dense, and fluffy—all characteristics that mean bad news for hot or sweaty sleepers. For these types, curling up under a weighted blanket for a nap might be just fine, but sleeping under them all night long means turning into an overheated, pajama-clad mess. And in the warmer months of the year, almost anyone might find themselves getting a little hot while sleeping or resting under their weighted blanket.

Plenty of weighted blanket companies have been seeking solutions—after all, true weighted blanket fans will want to use their stress-busting blankets all year long—and one, a company called Hush, may have made a cooling weighted blanket that really, truly works. Hush Iced launched a Kickstarter in April to raise funds for production, raising more than $800,000, and the cooling weighted blanket is now available for preorder through Indiegogo. Blankets are expected to ship to backers—a.k.a. people who preorder or support the blanket through Indiegogo or Kickstarter—in July, and blankets will likely be available for purchase through Hush's website around the same time.

This cooling weighted blanket will cost about $200 when it's available for retail, but early shoppers can get one for as little as $149—25 percent off—until the preorder campaign ends, placing Hush Iced among the more affordable weighted blankets currently on the market.

Now for the million dollar question (literally): Does this cooling weighted blanket live up to its promises?

In my experience, yes. The weighted blanket, somehow, is cool to the touch. I wouldn't call it cold, but it's smooth and chill. When I'm curled up under the blanket, it's certainly heavy, but not hot—it's barely even warm, honestly. If I were to curl up under it in the winter, I'd be cold; as it warms up, it feels like it's barely there at all (except for the 15-pound weight, of course). It's a very strange feeling, but one I could get used to during the peak of summer heat.

Hush calls its Iced cooling weighted blanket cover—Hush sells a standard thicker, fuzzy cover for its weighted filler blanket, too—thin and sweat-wicking. It's made of a proprietary cotton and bamboo blend and is currently available only in a light gray. Overall, the Hush Iced cooling weighted blanket does feel thinner and flimsier than other weighted blankets, but that might only contribute to its cool feeling and heat-free offerings.

The nice thing about two-part weighted blankets made up of a heavy blanket and a cover is that you can swap covers with the seasons, so a cooling weighted blanket in the summer doesn't have to mean a chillier winter—now, all you need to do is figure out how to wash a weighted blanket.