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Does Your Mattress Support Healthy Sleep?

Getting plenty of healthy sleep is the most important thing you can do for yourself.

If you’re having difficulty sleeping, one of the most overlooked but effective changes you can make is your mattress. The wrong mattress can be the cause of tossing and turning throughout the night, resulting in aches and pains and chronic sleep issues. If you wake up stiff and sore and feel like you’ve been through a battle during the night, it’s certainly time for a new mattress. Do you have an active bed partner keeping you awake from all the movement on their side? You’ll need a mattress that reduces motion transfer so you won’t feel it when your partner is tossing and turning.

Healthy sleep with the right mattress

Investing in a new bed might also provide stress relief. A study comparing sleep quality and stress-related symptoms between older beds and new beds indicated that participants’ sleep quality significantly improved with the replacement of the old sleeping surface. Similarly, stress (both symptoms and behavior) was significantly reduced after 4 weeks of sleeping on the new bed.

For deep, rejuvenating, healthy sleep, your body needs good support and a comfortable surface. When it comes to comfort everyone is different. How do you find a bed that’s right for you?

There’s no research that proves whether a firm or a soft mattress is better for sleep. It all comes down to what is comfortable for you. Some people prefer soft and others sleep better on a firm mattress. If the mattress is too soft, you sink in too much and won’t have enough support. But if it’s too hard, you’ll feel pressure on your low back and your shoulders. Ideally, a mattress that provides good support while reducing the pressure points on your body should give you a better night’s sleep.

Pressure points on your body can restrict blood flow when lying still for periods of time. This is the reason why you roll over at night. When this happens, your sleep is briefly interrupted. By relieving the pressure points, you can lessen the impact and go right back into deep sleep. A medium-firm mattress or a firm mattress with a softer surface layer or pillow top may give you the correct balance of support and cushioning for pressure point relief.

Avoid toxic materials in your mattress

Most mattresses on the market contain toxic materials with flammable synthetic foams and gels that need flame retardant barriers or chemicals. By law, the U.S. requires mattresses to be manufactured with a “fire barrier” which can contain a mix of chemicals. This is concerning since healthy sleep needs to be rejuvenating and regenerating for your body – not toxic!

During sleep, your body goes into repair mode and does some gentle detoxifying as part of the regeneration process. It’s important to allow your body this time to detox and to not be adding toxins to your body’s burden, which could create more trouble sleeping.

You may have experienced the new mattress chemical smell. Sometimes you can smell the toxins, but usually not. The smell fades over time, but toxins remain and continue to be released via small particles or off-gassing. You are breathing in and absorbing these toxins through your skin while you sleep. Babies and children are especially vulnerable to toxins in a mattress.

Organic materials such as organic cotton and wool are produced without chemicals and with sustainable farming practices. Natural organic latex can provide a comfortable healthy sleep experience, better than memory foam, and without the toxicity.

Read more about how to choose an organic mattress and how to know if it’s really non-toxic

There’s a lot you can do to ensure you get plenty of deep, healthy sleep. If you’re having trouble sleeping, make it a priority to make some changes and you’ll begin to feel a lot better. It’s amazing how getting a good night’s can change everything!

See our Guide to Choosing Your Organic Mattress

2 Comments

  1. Pingback: Trouble Sleeping - You May Not Have Thought of This
  2. This is absolutely true. A mattress is very important for a sound sleep. I tend to prefer firm mattresses rather than soft ones, although I have used a soft one before.

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