ADHD Founders Build Wearable 'Hug' After Realising Weighted Blankets Were Failing Millions of People

For as long as they can remember, Scott and Masen struggled to switch off.

Both grew up with ADHD. Both spent their childhoods hearing the same thing from everyone around them: slow down, calm down, settle down. But nobody ever gave them the tools to actually do it.

Bedtime was the worst. Even when they were completely exhausted, their bodies wouldn't settle. Their minds kept racing. Sleep wasn't rest - it was a fight they lost most nights.

"I used to lie there for hours," Scott says. "My body was tired but my brain just wouldn't stop. And the worst part was thinking something was wrong with me."

Years later, when they reconnected as adults, they realised they weren't alone. Not even close.

Millions of People Were Dealing With This - Quietly

The more they looked into it, the bigger the problem became. Parents were spending hours every night trying to help their children settle. Adults with anxiety, ADHD, and sensory sensitivities were cycling through the same failed solutions. Forums and Reddit threads were filled with the same desperate messages:

One theme kept surfacing over and over: weighted blankets.

Everyone had tried one. Almost nobody was still using one.

The Weighted Blanket Problem Nobody Talks About

Weighted blankets aren't a bad idea. The science behind them is real — deep pressure can calm the nervous system and help the body downshift into rest mode. That part checks out.

The problem is in how they deliver that pressure.

They use weight. And weight brings heat, bulk, and restriction. For the people who need calming pressure the most - children with sensory sensitivities, adults with ADHD, anyone who overheats or feels trapped easily, those trade-offs make weighted blankets unusable.

The gap was obvious. People weren't wrong about wanting pressure. The delivery method was wrong.

That's when the question hit them: what if you could get the same calming effect without the weight?

The Moment Everything Changed

Scott came across compression therapy - a method used in occupational therapy where gentle, consistent pressure is applied around the body to help regulate the nervous system. Not from the top down like a blanket. From every direction, like a hug.

The more they researched it, the more it made sense. It wasn't the weight that calmed people down. It was the compression. Weight was just one - flawed - way of creating it.

"That was the moment," Scott says. "I called Masen and said — why doesn't this exist as something you can actually wear to bed? Why is nobody making this?"

Nobody was. So they decided to build it themselves.

Building Something That Should Have Existed Years Ago

What followed was months of relentless iteration. Dozens of product samples. Testing different fabrics, compression levels, and fits until it felt right.

They worked with sensory experts and occupational therapists to make sure the product wasn't just comfortable — it was actually effective. Every design decision came back to one question: would this have helped us as kids?

There were no investors. No big team. Just Scott and Masen - designing, testing, packing orders, and reinvesting everything back into the product.

The first real validation came when they tested the product with children aged 6–10 who have ADHD. The difference was immediate. Children who had been running around, unable to settle, became noticeably calmer within minutes.

Meet the Nesti Pod

Nesti is a wearable compression pod. Instead of weight pressing down from the top, it wraps around the whole body in gentle, 360-degree compression — like a calm, constant hug you can wear to bed.

Because it's the compression that calms the nervous system. Not the weight. The weight was just one way of delivering it - and it brought the heat, the bulk, and everything that made people push it away.

What Happened Next Surprised Even Them

Within six months of launching, over 20,000 people were using Nesti. Therapists started recommending it. Parents who had tried everything — compression sheets, weighted blankets, melatonin, routines - were messaging them every day with the same story.

This Is Bigger Than Sleep

Scott and Masen are clear about one thing: Nesti isn't a sleep hack. It's not a quick fix. It's a tool designed to help the nervous system feel safe enough to downshift on its own.

"We both have ADHD," Scott says. "We know what it feels like when your body just won't switch off. Nesti is what we wish someone had made for us when we were kids."

They're still early. Still building. Still packing every order themselves. But the mission hasn't changed since day one: help people who feel overwhelmed, overstimulated, or unable to settle - feel calm in their own body again.

If you made it to the end, you're probably dealing with this yourself - or your child is.

The Nesti Pod exists because two people with ADHD decided the current options weren't good enough. Give it a try →