Can Your Mattress Affect Your Sleep?
Sleep plays a big role in ensuring your overall health. A healthy sleep encourages productivity and proper body functions. On the other hand, lack of sleep may cause many health problems like fatigue, body aches, weight gain, heart-related diseases, and various emotional impacts. So indeed, lack of proper sleep is a nightmare.
There are several factors that cause sleep deprivation and one of them is your mattress. An ideal mattress is designed to alleviate aches, promote pressure relief, and provide you with the right amount of comfort that you need. But if you wake up not feeling refreshed, your mattress might not provide you with the things your body needs for a healthy sleep.
Signs that Your Mattress Negatively Affects Your Sleep
Do You Suffer From Back Pain?
Do you wake up with aches and pains even after sleeping for a full 8 hours on your mattress? While it's normal to feel a bit of body pain when lying down, chronic pain even hours after waking up can be a sign that your mattress isn't doing its job well. This might be because your mattress isn't supporting your proper spinal alignment.
A mattress that is already too old may lose its ability to support your body in the long run, but surprisingly, even if you have a relatively new mattress, it may still provide inadequate support to your pressure points. This is due to an inappropriate firmness level compared to your body type and sleeping position.
Do You Experience Excessive Heat During Sleep?
There are various reasons why you sweat a lot at night. Living in Singapore, you are bound to encounter some nights that are scorching. Add the lack of proper room ventilation and heat retention. Since we live in a tropical place, it's more crucial to choose a mattress that allows proper air flow to regulate your body temperature and prevent night sweats.
If you sleep hot or sweat a lot, we recommend open-cell latex foam mattresses, hybrid or innerspring mattresses with cooling layers.
Do You Find It Difficult to Fall Asleep?
There are also several reasons why you can't sleep and stay asleep at night. Aside from checking your sleep routine, it's also vital to also check your mattress. Do you toss and turn often when using your own bed? Do you find it more comfortable to sleep somewhere else? If so, your uncomfortable mattress might not be delivering the right support and comfort that other mattresses have.
Do Feel Rested Enough After Sleeping?
Say you completed a full eight hours of sleep, but you feel like you really didn't sleep at all. If you're sleeping on a bad mattress, your body may still have a hard time reaching a restful sleep no matter how long you snooze at night.
If symptoms of sleep deprivation and restlessness persist, we highly encourage consulting a specialist.
Do You Experience Allergic Reactions?
If you always suffer from sneezing, runny nose, and itching, reevaluate your mattress. Dust mites that trigger allergies love mattresses a lot. An old mattress can be a breeding ground for dust mites, bacteria, dead skin cells, and other allergens.
Using a mattress protector, cleaning your bed sheets regularly, and vacuuming your mattress can help prevent allergen buildup. However, if your mattress is already too old, these measures may not suffice. In this case, what you need is an upgrade for a good night's sleep.
Is Your Mattress is Uneven or Saggy?
Another sign of mattress ageing is the presence of bumps, lumps, and sagginess. These are not only a pain in the eyes, but are also very uncomfortable to deal with.
If your mattress is over seven years old, you will already see signs of deteriorating quality and poor support. The bumps, lumps, and sags are obvious signs that your naked eye can detect. These call for a mattress upgrade.
Do You Experience Sleep Deprivation, Stress or Anxiety?
Did you know that your mattress can also affect your mental health? While medical experts say that poor sleep quality is caused by various mental health conditions, these mental health conditions can also be caused by poor circadian rhythm. Sleep deprivation as a result of a poor quality mattress affects your mood, mental concentration, and ability to make proper decisions. Regular lack of sleep due to conditions like insomnia or sleep apnea can significantly affect your cognitive functions, which can escalate to other symptoms.
Sleep deprivation may also prevent your body from releasing certain hormones. This is one of the causes of sudden weight gain and several health issues.
What Can a Quality Mattress Do for Your Sleep?
A Good Mattress Provides Great Body Support
A comfortable mattress promotes proper spinal alignment and quality sleep. While there is no single mattress that can support all sleeping requirements, you can always find a mattress that can help with your own needs. A high quality mattress will promote the alignment of your head, neck, shoulders, back, and hips without putting much pressure on body parts that carry more weight than others.
A Good Mattress Supports Your Sleeping Position
Different sleeping positions call for different mattresses. Generally, back sleepers will benefit from a medium firm mattress with the right amount of contour comfort, bounce, and pushback. Side sleepers may prefer a soft mattress to sink the shoulders and hips for better weight distribution. A firm to very firm mattress can be advantageous for a stomach sleeper as the firmer mattress prevents the lower back and hips from shrinking and receiving all the pressure.
The Right Mattress Provides Ideal Motion Isolation
Motion transfer might not be a big deal for individual sleepers, but it surely is a huge challenge for mattress sharers and restless sleepers. Memory foam mattresses, pocketed coil beds, and hybrid mattresses provide motion isolation to prevent disturbance when one tosses and turns.
The Right Mattress Will Keep You Rested
A bad mattress can truly take a toll on your health, while the best mattress can improve it by keeping you well rested. There are several bodily functions that only happen during sleep. This is the time when the repair and restoration happen while getting rid of toxic waste from your mind and body. Some important hormones and proteins are also released during sleep. These can help restore your immune system and promote better productivity.
How Can Mattress Firmness Affect Your Sleep?
Personal preferences play a big role in choosing the right mattress. However, there are general rules that should be considered when deciding on the mattress firmness. A mattress that is too firm can cause you joint pain, while a bed that is too soft may not give you the right support, which will also lead to aches and pains.
How Can a Mattress Material Affect Your Sleep?
Various mattress materials come with different advantages and drawbacks for your sleep. The comfort they provide and the firmness levels can significantly affect our sleep quality. Many shoppers love memory foam mattresses for their contouring comfort. Natural latex mattresses offer a supportive bounce and improved breathability. On the other hand, innerspring mattresses are firmer and also breathable.
Many mattress manufacturers also offer hybrid beds that combine the conforming feel of memory foam with the bounce of natural latex, and the support of pocketed coil mattresses.
Is it Time to Buy a New Mattress?
Using mattress toppers and protectors can help improve the quality of your old mattress. However, these are not the permanent solutions to a bad mattress. If your budget permits, a new mattress with fresh materials and benefits is worth the investment for the best night's sleep.
