Top 5 Sleep Problems & Solutions The perfect mattress solves common sleep-related problems like tossing and turning, sleeping too hot and waking up from motion transfer. To sleep more comfortably, we'll help you find the bedtime solution that's just right. “I suffer from back pain. Sometimes my back feels worse when I wake up in the morning." Our Mattress Professionals say: Those with back pain should look for a mattress made with materials that reduce painful pressure points on the body. Memory foam mattresses such as a Tempur-Pedic contour to your body, providing proper spinal alignment while reducing pressure points. If you prefer the feel of a traditional coil mattress, choose one that combines an innerspring with layers of memory foam. You'll get similar pressure-relieving benefits with the familiar support of an innerspring. Shop Hybrid Mattresses >I wake up in the middle of the night in a pool of sweat even with the AC on. It’s uncomfortable and keeps me up at night.”
Our Mattress Professionals say: Many older mattresses are made of materials that don't breathe, which can worsen your night sweats. We have mattresses made with cooling gel-infused memory foam, or a layer of cooling gel. These new technologies absorb and deflect heat away from your body, regulating your body temperature and keeping you cool. Shop New Cooling Gel Mattresses > “My snoring is so loud it keeps my wife up at night. Is there anything I can do to ease my snoring & help her get a good night’s sleep” Our Mattress Professionals say: You’re not alone. According to a survey conducted by Sleepy’s, the biggest pet peeve among couples is their partner’s snoring! One trick you can use to help reduce your snoring is changing your pillow. The right pillow will correct your sleeping posture, align your neck and spine, and open up your airways. Shop Snore Solution Pillows > “My partner and I wake up whenever the other moves the slightest bit. How can we stay asleep?”
Our Mattress Professionals say: Ah, the beauty of companionship! You'll want a mattress that absorbs your body weight so you're not rolling toward the middle or waking up whenever your companion gets in or out of bed. A mattress with memory foam can help. Memory foam contours to your body and absorbs some of your weight, minimizing the feel of your partner's movements. Shop Memory Foam Mattresses > If foam isn’t for you, a mattress with pocketed coils may do the trick. Pocketed coils (also called wrapped coils or encased coils) provide maximum motion separation because the coils are individually wrapped. Each coil moves independently, making motion transfer a thing of the past. Shop Mattresses With Pocketed Coils > “My back and body are OK, but I’m waking up with neck pain. Is there anything that can help me” Our Mattress Professionals say: Neck pain can be a sign it's time to replace your pillow Choose a pillow that keeps your neck and spine naturally aligned.
If you sleep on your side, use a pillow that supports your neck and spine while evenly distributing the weight of your head. For back sleepers, extra support under your shoulder is necessary to alleviate pressure on your back and neck. Stomach sleepers need a pillow that's thinner so it won't arch or turn yourr neck. Shop Pillows By Sleep Position >Odd, really - I'm in a shop called Dreams, yet I'm having what can only be described as a nightmare. I'm trying to buy a new bed. So far, I've lain down on half a dozen and have already forgotten whether I preferred the Silentnight Harmony, the Dunlopillo Dickens, or the Hypnos Beethoven. Which is bad news, really, since there are at least another 50 to go and already my back is starting to play up. Bed behaviour: Brits get only 6.6hours of sleep per night, rather than the recommended eight Yes, like 49 per cent of people in this country, I get some form of lower lumbar aggravation at least once a year and, like 99.9 per cent of people, I don't have a clue what bed would suit me best.
Nor do I know how to find out. Amazing, given that we spend one-third of our lives asleep. Or not asleep, in my case. Recently, I've noticed my joints echoing the creaking sounds the bed makes each time I turn over. Plus more of my dreams seem to feature me clinging on to the edge of a cliff, upon which I wake up and find I'm trying to stop myself falling into the mattress valley that has opened up between me and my wife. According to the Sleep Council - the promotional wing of the National Bed Federation - we Brits get only 6.6hours of sleep per night, rather than the recommended eight. Dr Chris Idzikowski, of the Edinburgh Sleep Centre, says that if we all treated ourselves to a new bed, we would get an extra 42 minutes' shut-eye per night. Not surprisingly, the bed industry is big on the benefits of swapping your old mattress for a new, preferably more expensive one. The Furniture Industry Research Association claims a bed can lose 70 per cent of its strength over a ten-year period, while the Sleep Council warns that, like a marriage, a bed will start deteriorating after seven years.
As a result, practically every mattress on the market tries to talk us into bed with quasi-medical promises. Beds are given names like Ortho and Posturepedic, while the hardest mattresses are all classified as 'orthopaedic'. Much is made in the marketing blurb about the scientific research that has gone into the making of the mattresses. Tempur use an absorbent foam developed by Nasa scientists in order to minimise G-forces on astronauts during take-off. Not everyone, however, is convinced. 'I have often wondered what the word orthopaedic means in the context of buying a bed,' says Steve Krikler, a senior consultant orthopaedic surgeon based in Coventry. 'Most of the terminology is impressive-sounding jargon to persuade you to part with your hardearned cash, without any real evidence. A bad mattress can exacerbate back pain, but can it actually give you a bad back? I'm not sure there's any scientific evidence to back that up.' What gives you a bad back is not lying in bed - it's sudden twisting and lifting.
'It is a bit crazy', agrees the woman from the BackCare helpline. 'There used to be a school of thought that if you had a bad back, you needed a hard bed. The fact is, it depends on a person's weight, height and age.' And what kind do I need? She can't tell me. 'We only offer a listening ear,' she replies, 'not medical advice.' surprising, as there doesn't seem to be a doctor in the world who is qualified in the field of optimum sleep angles or the best bed for your Just as no one had heard of an IT consultant 30 years ago, so the post of clinical snoozician or horizontalist has yet to be invented. There has been some medical examination of the bed-makers'In a study in the journal Spine, back-pain patients were asked to compare comfort levels of a hard mattress, a body-conforming foam mattress and a waterbed.'The waterbed and foam mattress did influence back symptoms, function and sleep more positively, as opposed to the hardBut the differences were small,' said the researchers.
Which isn't much for the average mattress-purchaser to go on. It seems the closest you can get to expert advice is a Sleep Council leaflet, entitled The Bed Buyers' Guide, which tries to de-mystify the inner workings of a mattress. It explains the different type of spring configurations. are open springs, arranged in rows and connected by a thick, spiral Then there are pocket springs, housed in individual fabric pockets, allowing them to work independently of each other. when you turn over, the spring-ripple effect stays on your side and doesn't spread to your partner. And that's not all. There are different types of foam mattress: latex (which springs back when you get up) and visco-elastic, or 'memory foam', which doesn't, but leaves an imprint of your body. But you have to be careful, warns BackCare, not to get stuck in your own moulded hollow. 'Lying in one position can create stiffness. A mattress should be supportive enough to take the weight of your body without sagging, but firm enough for you to turn with ease.'
Bed Buyers' Guide has a picture of the perfect back shape when you're lying on your side. Think of the spine as a mouth and it should be neither tight-lipped, nor bendy and smiley, but more of a gentle, faraway grin. Too rigid a back will mean your body isn't relaxed. Too slouchy and you'll be sleeping with a bent spine. The trouble is, when you're lying on a bed in a retail outlet, you can't see the shape of your back. And you don't half feel a fool asking the sales assistant: 'Is my spine smiley or sad?' The solution is to go bed-buying with someone else, preferably the person you're going to be sharing it with. Yet, instead of settling for a one-mattress-fits-both scenario, couples can have a his-and-hers arrangement, whereby you opt for two different-strength single mattresses that fit inside a zip-up double overblanket. More fool me, then, for coming to the bed shop on my own. It's just that I can't shake off memories of the time my wife and I went to John Lewis and lay there, while other shoppers stood at the foot of our bed, like they were visiting the tomb of a medieval king and queen.
It seems few of us feel relaxed lying down in a department store. Jessica Alexander of the Sleep Council says: 'Eighty per cent of people spend less than two minutes trying the bed in which they're going to spend 3,000 hours every year. 'We recommend you spend at least ten minutes, ideally 30. If you're embarrassed, listen to music with your eyes closed. Some couples even wear their pyjamas!' Instead, I ask the sales assistant if it's all right to take my shoes off, and try the mattresses at my own pace and in my own trousers. Even so, with 50-plus beds to get through, I put in barely a minute on each. Afterwards, I write down words such as 'squidgy' and discover that mattress 'ratings' (one for rock-hard, five for wobbly) are unreliable. Similarly, the number of springs in the mattress doesn't seem to have a huge bearing on how comfortable it is by any stretch of the imagination. The other thing I discover is that if my chosen mattress and I don't get on, a quickie divorce can be arranged.