Adults are finding comfort — and a better night's sleep — thanks to stuffed animals and baby blankets. That's a good thing.

Letting go of well-worn lovies, frayed baby blankets and favorite stuffed animals from childhood is considered part of growing up. But more adults are now — literally — embracing them, saying that cuddling up with stuffies is soothing and makes it easier to get into a more comfortable sleeping position.

Jill Provost is one of them. She didn’t have sleeping with a stuffed animal at 50 on her bingo card, but it happened. When her son was born 10 years ago, her husband’s cousin sent them a stockpile of stuffed animals from the toy shop where she worked. “At the time, I was sleeping with a furry white Brookstone pillow,” she tells Yahoo Life. “I sleep on my stomach and need something to prop up my shoulders and chest to avoid straining my neck.” Provost can’t remember why she eventually stopped using the pillow, but she does remember digging through her son’s bin of stuffed animals to find something else to sleep with — and that’s when she found Moose. “He seemed the right size and heft and was super soft,” she says.

“For a while I was embarrassed to be sleeping with a stuffy,” she says, “and I would hide him if we had company. It was more of a utilitarian choice at first, but admittedly I’ve grown attached to him. I don’t need to take him with me when I travel, and I don’t miss him, but if I lose him in the sheets in the middle of the night, it can take longer to fall asleep without Moose.”

Provost is far from alone. One survey (conducted in part by Build-A-Bear, which has a vested interest in stuffies) found that 40% of adults sleep with stuffed animals. Sales of stuffed toys have exploded — from $1.35 billion in early 2021 to $2.15 billion in the first half of 2024 — and it’s not just parents clamoring to get them for their kids. Adults are buying them for themselves. People 18 to 24, for example, are driving the majority of sales for Squishmallows, which launched in 2017 but really took off during the pandemic. And it’s not just because it’s a collectible. As one toy expert put it: “There’s a real comfort in squishing them.”

Another good example is the vastly popular JellyCat soft toys, which have become “a Gen Z obsession. " There are also entire Reddit threads dedicated to the topic of enjoying stuffies as a grown-up, including one called “Sleeping with stuffed animals as an adult isn’t weird.”

When I reached out to find people who sleep with stuffed animals or baby blankets, I hoped to wrangle a few sources. Instead, people came out of the woodwork. And while a couple were a bit sheepish about sharing publicly, the vast majority say they’re not embarrassed about it at all — nor should they be, according to adolescent and family psychologist Barbara Greenberg.

“Many adults do sleep with stuffed animals or other soothing items like blankies,” Greenberg tells Yahoo Life. “Psychologists refer to these as transitional objects when children use them as a way to provide comfort as they transition from one situation to another. We tend not to refer to these items as transitional objects when speaking about adults.”

Greenberg says that adults sometimes sleep with stuffed animals or blankets as a way to comfort and soothe themselves. “These items may be used as part of a bedtime routine,” she says. “They may help with falling asleep. The items may be particularly calming if they help adults reconnect with pleasant childhood memories.”

That’s the case for Ashley Habeck, who sleeps with a baby blanket that a family member gave her when she was just a few months old. The 39-year-old describes it as a very simple, yellow woven blanket that now looks “more like a ball of yarn with some holes and strings everywhere.” She tells Yahoo Life that the blanket acts like an extension of her pillow, and she likes that it keeps her face and neck cool at night.

When asked what her baby blanket means to her, Habeck says: “Security, comfort and a relaxing sleep.” She adds: “I never understood, and still don’t fully, my attachment to it. Emotions don’t always need explanations. …. Knowing I still have something I see every day that I’ve had since I was a baby is pretty special.”

But some comfort items don’t stem from childhood at all. Devorah Herzog has a small patchwork quilt that her friend Emily made 17 years ago for Herzog’s first child. “It was such a sweet gift,” she tells Yahoo Life. Herzog didn’t end up using the quilt for her son, but somewhere along the way, the 52-year-old started sleeping with it every night. “It helps keep me cool to have my face on it. So it’s very comforting,” she tells Yahoo Life, adding that it also makes sleeping on her side more comfortable. “I just sleep so much better with it. I love it,” Herzog says.

Brooke Buettner’s go-to is a whale shark stuffy, which belongs to her son. Before that, she’d been sleeping with a stuffed dog, which was a baby shower present for her own mom when she was pregnant with Buettner, who is now 47. As a stomach sleeper, she tells Yahoo Life the stuffy helps prop her up and “of course, if I’m on my side, I cuddle it.” She adds: “If my husband is traveling for work, I need it, plus a large pillow on the other side of my body, or I can’t sleep at all.”

While some stuffies never leave the confines of the bedroom, others are brought along to major life events or are world travelers. Sharon Kang’s Pink Bear — which, as the name implies, is a pink bear — has been to Asia and Australia. “She’s the most well-traveled bear,” Kang, who is 29, tells Yahoo Life. You would never know that from Pink Bear’s humble beginnings on a shelf at the now-defunct Party Giant store. “She was on sale because they were going out of business,” says Kang, who was 8 years old at the time. “I already had a couple of other stuffed animals, but I convinced my mom to buy it for me, and ever since I would sleep with her every single night.”

Kang says that Pink Bear is “the perfect size” for cuddling. “She has a big butt,” she laughs. “She fits perfectly. I’m so obsessed with her.” Pink Bear’s smell, she adds, “reminds me of home.”

Tricia, who prefers not to use her last name, took her Beanie Baby cat called Little Girl on her bachelorette trip and honeymoon. “She’s coming to Vegas with me this weekend,” the 34-year-old tells Yahoo Life. “She’s got a life to live.”

It didn’t start out that way for Little Girl, who was one of several Beanie Babies that Tricia has had since she was 8 years old. “She wasn’t my favorite back then,” she admits. But before heading to graduate school, Tricia decided to take the stuffy along, mostly because she looked cute and was conveniently small. Now Tricia shares that she’d be sad if she ever lost the soft toy.

Little Girl provides comfort, especially when Tricia is traveling. “There are times I’ve forgotten her on a trip, and it’s a bummer,” she says. “It’s like when you forget your socks or your PJs, and you’re in a strange hotel bed. It’s the thing that makes an otherwise potentially not typical setting a little bit more typical.” In other words, it’s a piece of home.

?? Sleep better

• Doing simple exercises like chair squats, calf raises and standing knee raises with straight leg hip extensions can add 30 minutes to your nighttime sleep, according to research. [Yahoo Life]

• Try this viral sleep hack developed by the military. [Today]

• Maybe you should have a nighttime routine like a baby. "Sleep like a baby" is a saying for a reason after all. [Yahoo Life]

• Find your "Goldilocks" sleep temperature. Too hot or too cold of an environment could negatively affect shut-eye. [Health]

• A cooling blanket may help you get better rest. [Yahoo Life]

• Is magnesium foot spray the new 'sleepy girl mocktail'? [Yahoo Life]

• A sleep divorce may help. Don't knock it until you try it! [Today]

• 7 secrets to the perfect nap, according to sleep experts — including why you shouldn't snooze too late or for too long [Yahoo Life]

• The 4-7-8 method, which promotes slow, deep breathing, can help put you in the present moment, increasing relaxation and bringing on sleep. [HuffPost]

• Catching up on sleep on weekends may lower heart disease risk by 20%, according to research. [Yahoo Life]

• Soft bedding, mattress topper, duvet insert, fluffy pillows and more! Assemble a comfy sleep setup inspired by a luxurious hotel bed. [Yahoo Life Shopping]