If you’ve browsed around our site a bit, you’ve read us raving about a Luna weighted blanket’s ability to provide the amazing benefits of Deep Pressure Stimulation. What is Deep Pressure Stimulation and why is it a beneficial therapy? How is it that weighted blankets can help you experience Deep Pressure Stimulation on a regular basis, right at home?
Read on below to find out how this exceptional therapy technique positively affects the brain and body.
How the Body Processes Information
Similar to how your digestive system is responsible for processing food, your nervous system is responsible for processing information. Most of us learned there are five senses with which we intake information: sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell. In addition to these core senses, our bodies have three additional sophisticated senses/systems for processing our reality: vestibular, proprioceptive, and interoceptive. Your vestibular input system processes how you are oriented in space and affected by gravity. Your proprioceptive system senses your musculoskeletal system—think of it like how your body knows what muscles to recruit and how much effort to exert to, say, pick up a pen. And finally, your interoceptive system, which is your ability to feel emotional sensations within your physical body. Think, how your heart rate may go up when something makes you angry, or how to you "know," to go to sleep when you are fatigued or drained.
What is a Sensory Processing Disorder?
Any one of the above 8 modes of taking in information can result in a “traffic jam” in individuals who experience a Sensory Processing Disorder. Instead of the information flowing freely into the brain, it can overstimulate or under-stimulate certain people and manifest as things like anxiety, insomnia, and more.
Additionally, it’s important to note that people without Sensory Processing Disorders can certainly experience overstimulation from time to time. As our daily demands shift through our lives, of course we all can feel stress, fatigue, restlessness and more.
How Does Deep Pressure Stimulation Help?
Deep Pressure Stimulation, also sometimes called Deep Pressure Therapy or Deep Pressure Touch, is a technique used by many therapists in-clinic to help clients that have Sensory Processing Disorders to take in and route information more easily. It consists of applying firm, evenly distributed pressure to the body. The discovery of the Deep Pressure Therapy technique is largely attributed toDr. Temple Grandin, a noted researcher and author. Grandin observed how farmers would utilize a “squeeze chute” to calm cattle.
This inspired her to create a “hug machine” that would help calm her own anxiety. Researchers eventually found that the pressure signals to the brain to release serotonin and melatonin, two neurotransmitters that can make you feel at ease and relaxed in both body and mind. Over time, more iterations of this affect took place from her hug machine to sensory hammocks, to squeezing by hand and now, weighted blankets.
How Does a Weighted Blanket Proved Deep Pressure Stimulation?
A weighted blanket is a great tool to have on hand to help iron out a sensory “traffic jam,” because it’s one of the simplest ways to reap the benefits of Deep Pressure Stimulation right at home. (and one of the most affordable, as well!) Luna weighted blankets are intentionally designed to deliver Deep Pressure Stimulation, so we use high-quality materials like OKEO-TEX® 100 Certified cotton and dense, premium glass microbeads. Other brands use cheap plastic beads and fabrics that can’t provide the same quality of weight for true Deep Pressure Touch.
Luna weighted blankets are also constructed to provide as evenly distributed weight as possible with our quilt-work pattern within which the glass beads are sewn. This prevents the shifting and accumulation of beads in one corner.
What are the Benefits of Deep Pressure Stimulation
Ultimately, Deep Pressure Stimulation provided by a Luna weighted blanket can help you:
- Naturally relax the mind and body
- Improve sensory processing ability
- Produce melatonin and serotonin
- Fall asleep with more ease
- Stay asleep for longer
- Reduce racing thoughts and anxieties
- And so much more
While all of these benefits are mostly a result of one another, depending on your reason for acquiring a new Luna weighted blanket we hope you feel much improvement. It could be for mid-day relaxation, a sensory processing tool for you or a loved one, or your ticket to a better night’s sleep.
Order Your Luna Weighted Blanket Today
Don’t wait another night to start enjoying the myriad Deep Pressure Stimulation benefits of a comfy, cozy, sleep-science-based Luna weighted blanket. We have multiple colors and fabric types—classic cotton, fluffy sherpa, cooling bamboo—and a whole line of weighted blankets for kids so the whole family can find something they love. Shop around, place your order, and let Luna do the rest! Sleep tight.
