06-30-2023, 03:20 AM
I have always envied people who can slip right into sleep. Bedtime is rarely so calm for me: Just when I wish I could drift off, I find myself up against looping, anxious thoughts. Counting sheep is no match for my mind’s nightly churn—but cuddling one is.Get more news about stuffed animal exporter,you can vist our website!
I rediscovered the habit of sleeping with stuffed animals in the terrifying early days of the pandemic, when I grabbed a polar bear from my childhood bedroom to ward off the onslaught of bad news and fear. I had never been particularly attached to him as a kid—he may actually have been my brother’s—but he was the perfect size to hold in my anxious adult arms.
Although I can’t be sure how common this is, I’m probably not alone: In a 2017 survey of US adults commissioned by Build-A-Bear (so, yes, possibly biased), 40% of respondents who own, or once owned, a stuffed animal said they still slept with one. But before writing this article, I couldn’t name a single other grown-up who shared this part of my bedtime routine. Maybe that’s because I was too reticent to divulge it: Talking with friends and coworkers about mattress toppers or humidifiers is easier than discussing the childlike whimsy of a stuffed polar bear.
Once I asked them, however, I was flooded by enthusiastic responses and tender insights into people’s stuffed seals, amoebas, pickles, and hedgehogs (even robots). For my part, since rediscovering that polar bear, I’ve settled into rotating a cast of salvaged childhood favorites and a lightly weighted, heatable Warmies cow I bought for myself.
It is perhaps no surprise that I turned to stuffed animals during a period of heightened stress. Max Genecov, author of a 2018 New York Times Magazine ode to his plush friends and a clinical graduate student in psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, pointed out in an interview that stuffed animals can be transitional objects (PDF), a psychological term often used with regard to children for an item that provides comfort during times of anxiety or change. Jade Wu, PhD, DBSM, a board-certified sleep psychologist and researcher at Duke University School of Medicine, told me that she began sleeping with her older child’s stuffed alligator during pregnancy, when it soothed her after vivid nightmares and also made side-sleeping more comfortable by helping to support her growing belly. Companies have also taken note of adults’ childlike tendencies in this regard and are incorporating these ideas into their marketing of things that can help adults sleep.
If all of this seems rather childish, it is! As Wu explained, “Kids love stuffed animals. It’s because they’re cozy and ... just personified enough to provide a bit of social comfort. That’s a great way for kids to self-soothe. We adults can do the same thing.” Jennifer Goldschmied, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, told me that when people go to sleep, self-soothing reduces “cognitive arousal,” the type of active thinking that dominates a person’s waking hours. She elaborated that while it’s a myth that the human brain shuts off for sleep, people still have to enter a more relaxed mindset in order to drift off: “Your brain is always active, but it’s active in a different way during sleep. If you’re thinking and cognitively aroused, that kind of change in activity in your brain isn’t going to happen.”
Though there is no robust scientific literature on the effect of stuffed animals on adult sleep, several studies have shown that plush companions can help adults self-soothe. A 2016 study observed that holding a stuffed animal during group therapy allowed college students to better comfort themselves. The act of hugging has also been associated with stress relief, and a 2013 study found that interacting with a huggable communication device lowered stress hormones in blood and saliva. Maybe that’s why I reached for that polar bear during a stressful time.
I rediscovered the habit of sleeping with stuffed animals in the terrifying early days of the pandemic, when I grabbed a polar bear from my childhood bedroom to ward off the onslaught of bad news and fear. I had never been particularly attached to him as a kid—he may actually have been my brother’s—but he was the perfect size to hold in my anxious adult arms.
Although I can’t be sure how common this is, I’m probably not alone: In a 2017 survey of US adults commissioned by Build-A-Bear (so, yes, possibly biased), 40% of respondents who own, or once owned, a stuffed animal said they still slept with one. But before writing this article, I couldn’t name a single other grown-up who shared this part of my bedtime routine. Maybe that’s because I was too reticent to divulge it: Talking with friends and coworkers about mattress toppers or humidifiers is easier than discussing the childlike whimsy of a stuffed polar bear.
Once I asked them, however, I was flooded by enthusiastic responses and tender insights into people’s stuffed seals, amoebas, pickles, and hedgehogs (even robots). For my part, since rediscovering that polar bear, I’ve settled into rotating a cast of salvaged childhood favorites and a lightly weighted, heatable Warmies cow I bought for myself.
It is perhaps no surprise that I turned to stuffed animals during a period of heightened stress. Max Genecov, author of a 2018 New York Times Magazine ode to his plush friends and a clinical graduate student in psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, pointed out in an interview that stuffed animals can be transitional objects (PDF), a psychological term often used with regard to children for an item that provides comfort during times of anxiety or change. Jade Wu, PhD, DBSM, a board-certified sleep psychologist and researcher at Duke University School of Medicine, told me that she began sleeping with her older child’s stuffed alligator during pregnancy, when it soothed her after vivid nightmares and also made side-sleeping more comfortable by helping to support her growing belly. Companies have also taken note of adults’ childlike tendencies in this regard and are incorporating these ideas into their marketing of things that can help adults sleep.
If all of this seems rather childish, it is! As Wu explained, “Kids love stuffed animals. It’s because they’re cozy and ... just personified enough to provide a bit of social comfort. That’s a great way for kids to self-soothe. We adults can do the same thing.” Jennifer Goldschmied, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, told me that when people go to sleep, self-soothing reduces “cognitive arousal,” the type of active thinking that dominates a person’s waking hours. She elaborated that while it’s a myth that the human brain shuts off for sleep, people still have to enter a more relaxed mindset in order to drift off: “Your brain is always active, but it’s active in a different way during sleep. If you’re thinking and cognitively aroused, that kind of change in activity in your brain isn’t going to happen.”
Though there is no robust scientific literature on the effect of stuffed animals on adult sleep, several studies have shown that plush companions can help adults self-soothe. A 2016 study observed that holding a stuffed animal during group therapy allowed college students to better comfort themselves. The act of hugging has also been associated with stress relief, and a 2013 study found that interacting with a huggable communication device lowered stress hormones in blood and saliva. Maybe that’s why I reached for that polar bear during a stressful time.
