Our patients at Monmouth Pain and Rehabilitation understand what they can do to promote wellness and health outside the office and during their days. However, what about their nights? Did you know that many of us will spend 1/3 of our lives sleeping? That means that if we live until 100 years of age, we could potentially spend 33 of those years in bed! Is there something we can all do to help with our posture and wellness during the twilight hours? The answer lies in your mattress.
I have spoken to many patients that have told me that they work very hard to maintain a healthy lifestyle during the day and then come home and sleep on a very poor mattress. Well, let’s make an analogy to understand this situation a bit better. We already understand that we can spend 1/3 of our lives in bed (Approximately 33%). This means that even if we are “perfect” during the day with our wellness and health, and ignore our sleeping conditions, we would only score a 67 on our wellness and health test. Where I went to school, a 67 is a “D”. Who wants to score a “D” in the wellness and health department? It is imperative that we all make sure that our mattresses are supporting us properly and not pushing our health backward. Do you need a new mattress? If so, following are some tips for what to look for in a mattress to make sure that you are taking care of that other 1/3 of your life:
1) Support: Support is the utmost important aspect of a mattress. Our spines are naturally curved at certain points and it is imperative that we have a mattress that supports those curvatures properly. Posture is very important to all of us at Monmouth Pain and Rehabilitation. It can be extremely frustrating for all of us here to be helping a patient along with correcting their posture to only find out that we are fighting against a horrible mattress. A good mattress is actually supposed to keep your body in the same proper posture as if you were standing up. A poor mattress in most cases will not do that.
2) Quality and Durability: It is extremely important that you purchase a mattress that will be there for you in the long-run. Once you start to understand the price ranges of quality mattresses, you will understand the importance of making a smart investment. Numerous mattresses right out of the wrapping could provide the proper support needed and then gradually lose that support over time. Do some research and understand which beds are of higher quality and durability. Also learn which beds are known to slump less over extended periods of time. There are even some manufacturers that guarantee a lower amount of slumping and will replace the mattress if it slumps over that amount.
3) Comfort: While support and quality are important, so is your comfort! It doesn’t matter how great the mattress is if you are not sleeping! Tossing and turning all night on a high-end mattress is as good as sleeping on the roof! Lack of sleep is not what we are going for here so make sure that you add comfort into your buying decision. When testing a bed for comfort, try sleeping in the actual positions you do at night. You might find it extremely hard becoming comfortable on a mattress that sits in the middle of a busy showroom but it is very important to try. You need to have a good feel for this before the purchase.
4) Replace your box spring: Many new mattresses have matching box springs. Numerous new quality mattresses are extremely heavy and require a custom box spring to support the weight. If the proper box spring is not underneath the new mattress, it is possible that you will not be receiving the proper support.
Bottom line: Sleep well. So many of us are extremely focused on how we function during the day that we forget to pay any attention on how we sleep. Sleep prepares us for the following day. If we do not receive the proper rest, we will not be able to function properly when the sun rises. Pay attention to the state of your mattress and replace it if it is no help.
