How I found out why a good mattress is really important….
The average person spends about 26 years sleeping in their life which equates to 9,490 days or 227,760 hours.
– Sleep Matters Club
If you factor in that we also spend around 7 years trying to get to sleep, it totals up to 33 years in bed – that’s nearly half the average life span! It’s a statistic that came to mean a lot to me recently when I sold my house and moved into a rental property. The landlord, who is a dear friend, had planned to replace all the furniture when the previous long-term tenants moved out. However, he left some basic pieces in situ because our furniture would not arrive until 7 weeks after we did. I therefore ended up sleeping on a mattress that definitely had seen better days…
Being complacent about your bed will cost you
You should change your mattress every 6-8 years
– Sleep Foundation
I admit it. I had been guilty of taking my comfy, king-size ‘Emma’ mattress for granted. It’s always the way with such close relationships – you don’t know how much they mean to you until they’re gone. Suddenly, I was waking up feeling sore all over after a night in search of a semi-comfortable sleeping position. It could be argued that my sleepless nights were a result of the stress of moving house and country. Or, it could just have been that old mattress.
What I found really disturbing was how cumulative the experience was. The more uncomfortable nights I experienced, the harder (and physically painful) my days became. I began to feel unwell at a nearly cellular level. My mind was exhausted and my emotions all over the place. Thankfully, I could use my Kneader massage tool to iron out my tight shoulders and stiff neck. As a massage therapist, I also knew a thing or two about muscles and how to stretch them effectively, which I did every morning. Yet all that self-care still wasn’t enough to fully counteract the damage that my nightly discomfort was doing to me. I felt the pain of the tethered Prometheus and the grinding exhaustion of poor Sisyphus. I prayed for my suffering to end.
Light at the end of the tunnel
Thankfully, it did the day the movers delivered our stuff. The first thing my husband did was put together the bed and WHAT a difference a day or- in this case night – makes! Even though we had a further 4 weeks of unpacking and a tsunami of admin ahead of us, I woke the next day refreshed and free from the aches and pains that had become all too familiar. The future looked bright again.
So, to end, I strongly recommend – as both a massage therapist and a fellow human – that everyone review their mattress situation because a good mattress really is that important. It’s just as integral to a healthy lifestyle as diet, exercise and massage! If you’re wondering what’s the best mattress for you, this link to the Sleep Foundation’s page on how to choose a mattress will help.
