Sleep Tight - Best Mattresses for Those With Sleeping Issues

Sarah Jessica Smith - Contributor

Posted on Friday 18th September 2020

 

Sleep is as vital to our well being as eating healthy and drinking enough water. For many people, though, getting a good night’s rest is a serious issue, and quite often, your mattress is to blame.

Millions of people worldwide either suffer from chronic pains or sleeping disorders and, in some cases, a combination of the two. So, whether you’re looking for a mattress to prevent back pain or one that combats insomnia symptoms, it’s vital to find one that’s constructed to suit your purpose.

Why Does the Right Mattress Matter?

One of the many ways that a mattress can affect your sleep has to do with the capillaries. These are a network of small blood vessels that runs underneath your skin.

The weight that your body produces by lying on one part of your body for a prolonged period reduces the capillaries' blood flow. This deprives your skin of both nutrients and oxygen, resulting in pain sensors and nerve cells to send a message to your brain for you to roll over, which restores the blood flow and interrupts your sleep.

Some mattresses are designed to minimize the impact on your body's pressure points, resulting in a better night's sleep. Unfortunately, the ideal bed is not the same for everyone, so, what works for your neighbor might not work for you.

Dealing With Insomnia

Dealing with insomnia isn’t a pleasant experience. It’s a sleep disorder that either prevents you from falling or staying asleep and, in many cases, a combination of the two. Symptoms include:

  • Daytime sleepiness

  • Fatigue

  • Concentration or memory problems

  • Grumpiness

Anyone that has or is currently dealing with this disorder can tell you in much detail how important it is to have a good night’s rest. Investing in an appropriate mattress will prevent anxiety, help you sleep more comfortably, and potentially allow you to fall asleep faster.

If you’re looking for a mattress to help relieve insomnia, keep the following in mind:

  • Look for cooling properties, preferably from copper wiring or gel-infusion.

  • Choose a medium-firm bed, with or without a pillow top.

  • If you sleep with a partner, excellent motion transfer is essential.

  • You’ll want superior edge support.

  • If you need to have your legs or head elevated, adjustment options are crucial.

How Do You Know If a Mattress Is Right for You?

Buying the most expensive or highest-tech brand mattress doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the right mattress for you. So, instead of focusing on brand name or price, take into consideration what you want and need.

There’s scientific proof, albeit not much, that specific mattress styles do help people with certain medical conditions to rest better. Folks with neck or back pain should consider buying a medium-firm mattress.

Lying on mattresses that are too firm means too much pressure is placed on the shoulders, sacrum, and head. Those that are too soft causes one to start sinking. On the other hand, medium-firm beds provide your spine with the right balance of cushioning and support.

Investing in an adjustable bed, capable of elevating your head, might be a good idea if you suffer from one of the following conditions:

  • COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) - A common lung disease that makes it hard to breathe. 

  • Heartburn from GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease) - Happens when stomach acid flows back into the esophagus (the tube connecting your stomach and mouth).

These beds also help to relieve some of the pressure on sore joints by allowing you to adjust your hips and knees to a 90-degree angle.

Buying a “hypoallergenic” mattress to help with your allergies might not be such a good idea. There’s no scientific proof to support claims from mattress manufacturers that their products are allergy-free and don't support dust mites' growth. What science has proved, though, is that dust mites will live anywhere that there’s food, and your dead skin cells are what they eat.

Instead of wasting money on a hypoallergenic mattress, rather slip on a washable mattress encasing. It acts as a barrier that prevents dust mites from getting to you. It also robs them of their food supply, effectively reducing their reproduction.

Although there’s evidence to support that foam mattresses can help with back problems, their advantage over regular coil beds is slight. Where they do come in handy is if you’re kept awake by a partner that tends to be active while they sleep. Foam mattresses are known to reduce motion transfer, allowing you to remain still while your spouse tosses and turns.

Take a Test Nap

The number of options available when it comes to shopping for a new mattress are many, which often creates confusion. If you take into consideration that you’ll be spending hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on a new bed, you want to be sure that you made the right choice.

Fortunately, many manufacturers allow you to take a mattress for a trial sleep; if it doesn’t work for you, your only obligation is to ship it back. Alternatively, lie down on the display mattress in the store for 20 minutes. If you think about it, you won’t buy a car without taking it for a test drive, so why spend your hard-earned cash on a mattress without taking it for a test nap.

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