A Good Night's Sleep

 

 

The benefits of sleep are endless, (you only need to Google it or look at what’s in newspapers to see the research) and it affects everything from weight loss to ageing, but surprisingly sleeping well is only a top priority for 16% of us. So whether it’s a priority of yours or you’re part of the 84% of people who don’t consider it a top priority, you need to make sure that when you do hit the sack you get the absolute most out of it for your health’s sake. We can’t change your partner’s snoring, but we can make sure the bed you sleep in will provide you with everything you can possibly get from a bed for a more than decent night’s sleep…

 

Some statistics from Sealy Sleep Research, Heywood Research Ltd 2008 illustrate just how tricky getting a good nights sleep is…

 

• 62%of us have broken sleep so no wonder we are the worst sleepers in Europe.

• 50% of us get a good night’s sleep just once a week! – we’re not the only tired ones out there!

• 50% of this is caused by stresses and worries but 62% have aches and pains – often caused by poor support with 22% complaining they wake in physical pain (minor aches and pains) on a regular basis.

• And 52% of us get too hot in bed.

• Partners – snoring, motion transfer and lack of space all contribute (sadly this is one I cannot help with!)

 

22% of people complain of waking with minor aches on a regular basis, this really is a common problem and with 45% of people concerned about their health and looking after their back when buying a bed -  having the right bed truly is the key to helping back ache.

 

Sealy (the world’s largest bed manufacturer) have just launched the world’s most technologically advanced bed this is ideal to hep sufferers of back ache (Sealy bed’s are supported by backinaction - http://www.backinaction.co.uk/sealy). With 80% of Sealy owners rate the quality of their sleep positively above the overall average – so Sealy bed’s really do help with your aches and pains.

 

Over half of us toss and turn in the night which can cause more aches and pains, mainly due to pressure points – pressure point ‘hot spots’ result when the blood flow is restricted on the same soft tissue = pins and needles = urge to move!

Mattresses with good pressure distribution minimise this (Posturepedic!) However we still need to move to pump air around our bodies for ventilation and disc recovery. Therefore the ideal is support with energy loss and avoidance of backwash after movement. Sleeping in too deep memory foam means more effort to turn and is also very hot!

 

Therefore the ideal bed needs to:

*          Maintain you neutral spine position (zonal sleep system – softness for shoulder, firmness for hips, extra support for the lumbar) 0 this is crucial to help support your back in the correct way to reduce back pain.  

*           Help you move (dynamic support to stop back ache but not constant tossing and turning!)

*        Deliver ‘comfort and delight’ – surface softness (good pressure distribution – point elasticity)

*           Provide ventilation – temperature/moisture regulation

*           Allow you ‘space’ – maximise sleeping surface

 

All of these factors are included in a the new Sealy Posturepedic, with 7 zones… individually designed to provide maximum pressure relief but with the push-back support that is equally important – and of course also providing maximum comfort and temperature and moisture control to stop you feeling too hot or too cold.  These are the only beds that tick all the boxes to help you get a Sealy better night’s sleep to help your body to repair and eliminate back pain.

 

As well as all this back relief did you know that the University of Chicago found that skipping beauty sleep can actually make you old! And that sleeping problems get worse with age because levels of melatonin - a hormone which regulates sleep – fall. With 50% of us ONLY get a good night’s sleep once a week it really is a worrying issue.

 

 

AT LAST, THE MOST TECHNOLOGICALLY ADVANCED BED IN THE WORLD HAS ARRIVED IN THE UK…..

Sealy are the world’s biggest bed company (one of their beds is sold somewhere in the world every 3 seconds) so it’s fair to say they know more about sleep than most…. That’s why their latest Posturepedic bed range, launched on to the UK market this Easter, is the most technologically advanced, ever, with seven zones along the length of the bed and each zone tailor made to react to each part of the body.

With research¹ showing just over 50% of us only get a really good night’s sleep just once a week and the repercussions this undoubtedly has on our everyday health and wellbeing, we need to do as much as we can to help ourselves remedy this situation. 

Scientists say the body needs to gently move 35 times a night in order to reoxygenate its muscles and keep the blood circulating smoothly.  This movement, however, is not the same as tossing and turning which uses energy and leaves us feeling more tired when we wake up than when we went to bed!

 

Tossing and turning happens because some parts of our bodies are heavier than others, creating areas of concentrated weight and pressure.  This pressure causes loss of circulation leading to numbness and pins and needles and the automatic reaction by the body is to move and turn over to lay in a different position…. But, the more supportive your mattress, the more pressure points are created, and the more pressure relief offered, the less support you get.  To eliminate these pressure points, ideally you need both push-back support and maximum pressure relief.   The problem is that there are all sorts of different types of bed available to choose from and each offers different options to help you sleep, but,

·      Memory foam beds relieve pressure but give poor support and can also be very warm

·      Pocket sprung beds provide comfort but poor pressure relief

 

·      Traditional continuous coil beds provide good support but limited comfort

The solution to all this is a bed with a mattress that answers all the problems by dealing with them in the appropriate zones.  Sealy undertook a pressure mapping exercise – the biggest ever undertaken around the world, in some 50 countries - to investigate height, weight and BMI, side sleeping positions and duration of positions and involving literally thousands of people of every size and shape imaginable to research how we all sleep.

This has now resulted in Sealy Posturepedic beds which are divided into 7 zones… individually designed to provide maximum pressure relief but with the push-back support that is equally important – and of course also providing maximum comfort and temperature and moisture control to stop you feeling too hot or too cold.  These are the only beds that tick all the boxes to help you get a Sealy better night’s sleep….