Blanket Sleeper - Design Considerations

Design Considerations

Blanket sleeper are usually intended as practical garments, worn mostly by younger children and only in the home. Style and fashion thus tend not to be important in its design, and the basic design of the typical blanket sleeper has changed little over the years.

The sleeper serves mainly to keep the wearer warm at night, even in the absence of blankets and bed covers. The sleeper covers the entire body except for the heads and (in most cases) hands, where it is snug at the neck and wrists. The use of a zipper closure in place of buttons or snap fasteners also further retains warmth by eliminating drafts. This is especially important for infants, for whom loose blankets may pose a safety hazard (including increasing the risk of SIDS), and possibly for older children, who may still be too young to be relied upon to keep their own sleepwear or bed covers adjusted so as to prevent exposure to the air of bare skin. This is reflected in advertisements by blanket sleeper manufacturers, which often emphasize that their garments "can't be kicked off", or that "no other covers are needed". The permanently attached feet can also be a beneficial feature for children who are prone to get out of bed in the morning before their parents are awake, and are too young to be relied upon to put on slippers or other footwear to keep their feet warm. Blanket sleepers without feet allow more room for growth and reduce the possibility of slipping. Also, children with larger or smaller feet find a better fit.

The blanket sleeper is designed so that it can be worn either by itself as a standalone garment, or as a second layer worn over regular pajamas or other sleepwear. The one-piece design is simple to launder and has no detachable pieces that could be individually misplaced.

Yet another potential benefit of the blanket sleeper is that it may help prevent infants from removing or interfering with their diapers during the night. This can also apply to older children with certain developmental disabilities, such as Angelman syndrome. In particular, parents of Angelman children have been known to take such additional measures as cutting the feet off the sleeper and putting it on backwards, and/or covering the zipper with duct tape. Some specialty locking clothing and other adaptive clothing purveyors offer blanket sleepers, with or without feet, for adults with dementia or other disabilities, for similar reasons.

Blanket sleepers may also appeal to cultural mores relating to body modesty. This can, for example, be a consideration for some parents when siblings sleep in the same room and/or bed.