The proprioceptive input from the Cozy Calm overwhelms sensory input from mental and physical stresses on the nervous system, which is thought to produce the calming and sleepy feelings that people report when using the blanket.

In a study done on weighted blankets at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst (UMASS), published in Occupational Therapy in Mental Health, Vol. 24(1) 2008, the majority of respondents reported a reduction of anxiety and a feeling of calm with the use of a weighted blanket within five minutes.

A Cozy Calm works on the body’s sensory integration system, which regulates our input to and from the body. The weighted blankets calm the nervous system. According to an occupational therapist, Susan Axelson, “It helps calm down your nervous system. Proprioceptive input is deep pressure in the joints, and if you get enough of it stimulates increased dopamine levels in your system, which is comforting.”

The brain-body connection also comes into play. When the mind is stressed, the body will be too. Using a Cozy Calm to essentially override the body’s sensory system that is telling it to be tense can instead produce a feeling of relaxation and sleepiness.

Deep pressure is registered in the limbic system, hippocampus, and reticular activating system and may stimulate production of neurotransmitters to modulate arousal levels, similar to the effects of medication. The action of the neurotransmitters norepinephrine, epinephrine, and serotonin is associated with the limbic structures…(Ashton, 1987).

Deep pressure is a form of tactile and proprioceptive stimulation that is thought to have a calming and organizing affect. Deep pressure is often observed in forms of touch such as hugging, stroking the skin, or sustained firm pressure during massage. Occupational therapists have noted that very light touch (tickling or stroking the body hair) has an alerting affect on the nervous system, but deep pressure is relaxing and calming (AOTA, 2009). A Jean Ayers (1979) claims that this is because light pressure arouses the sympathetic nervous system leading to an increased pulse rate and respiration, whereas the deep pressure leads to a reduction in pulse and respiration.

The RAS [reticular activating system) plays an important role in filtering information and stimulation from the outside world. According to Ayers (1972) when activated, the RAS is excited to varying degrees according to the sensory information that is presented. Deep pressure information is believed to have a dampening effect on overly active stimuli, which subsequently decreases an individual’s arousal level (VandenBerg, 2001)

Another function of the RAS is the release of neurotransmitters, such as norepinephrine, epinephrine, and serotonin. These neurotransmitters have a neuromodulatory role in the central nervous system, meaning they can either facilitate or inhibit the signaling properties of a neuron (Blumenfeld, 2002). It is thought that in response to deep pressure information, the RAS releases neurotransmitters to modulate arousal levels similar to the effects of medications, creating a calming effect on the central nervous system.