Sensory Integration

The importance of senses to your well-being

We depend a lot on our sense of touch as well as our muscle and joint position sense to feed input back to the brain about our own body. If we cannot feel ourselves and struggle with body awareness, it can lead to issues ranging from minor to severe, as well as poor well-being. Some people struggle to fall asleep or only sleep lightly without entering deep, healthy sleep. Others experience difficulties in concentrating and/or develop stress symptoms, anxiety, depression, or mental and physical unrest.

High level of expertise

Protac has been developing sensory-stimulating aids since 1994. The products are recognized aids that are used in private households as well as institutions and in health services. We have always heavily emphasized an evidence-based approach and research, and the efficacy of the products has been documented through numerous studies and research projects over the years.

How The Product Works

The Protac sensory-stimulating products are filled with plastic balls – the movement and deep touch pressure from the balls stimulate the sense of touch and the sense of movement.

The stimulation of these senses enhances the awareness of the body and provides a sense of being secure, calm and peaceful for body and mind.

The sense of touch

Our most important sense is the sense of touch in our skin which registers contact. In therapeutic terms, the sense of touch is referred to as the tactile sense. Touching the skin sends stimuli to the brain and gives us a sense of the body’s boundaries. The skin thus serves as a boundary. helping us to distinguish between what is ‘me’ and what is outside ‘me’. The sense of touch helps us to establish a sense of our own body and helps the brain to keep us up to date with our body and body movement.

Changing pressure enhances body awareness

Although the sense of touch keeps up updated on our body, it only happens, if the input varies over time. If the input is uniform and lasting, the brain ‘fade-out’ and the input ceases to be registered – the sensory impression simply fades. To maintain a sense of your body, the pressure has to vary. The plastic balls in Protac products give deep and dynamic pressures distributed across numerous points, helping the brain to register the body to a far greater extent than through uniform pressure. The balls will move through slight changes in position and the skin is continuously stimulated in new ways and updates the brain about the body and the surrounding environment.

The sense of movement

Another important sense is the sense of body position and movement, also known as the proprioceptive sense or the muscle-joint sense. This sense has receptor organs in the joints and muscles. The muscle-joint sense calms the nervous system and we often use our sense of movement to create calm. If we feel restless, we may fidget on the chair or tap our feet – intuitively we use our sense of movement to relieve our restlessness and to calm ourselves down.When the weight of the balls in Protac’s products offers resistance to the body’s joints and muscles, a message is sent to the nervous system, which the brain registers as movement. This is why the weighted balls have a calming effect. Sensory stimulation helps relieve restlessness in the body and head. By using our products, you stimulate both the sense of touch and the sense of movement. If during the night you move under the blanket, the weighted plastic balls will move too and a new sense of pressure and touch will be transmitted to the brain. The enhanced awareness of the body and its physical delimitation provides a sense of security and calm in the head and body. This is why many people experience that the products relieve stress and anxiety while promoting concentration, focus and learning.