10% Off or More (62) 25% Off or More (12)Finding the right bed sheets and buying a mattress that works for you are important to a good night's sleep. However, sometimes a well-appointed bed is not quite restful enough. Enter: The mattress pad. Also called mattress toppers, these can range from a thin padded protective sheet to thicker slabs that are almost like a small mattress. Moreover, mattress pads are great for providing extra cushion to a firm mattress and they can often help guard against dust mites. The style, thickness and size of a mattress pad will depend on your personal sleeping habits and your bed. But, if you're looking for one in the market, here are some very general things you should keep in mind.Cotton, latex and wool are commonly used for mattress pads. Cotton ones are usually thinner and quilted, but they are machine washable. Latex and wool pads are dust mite and mold-resistant, which makes them more durable than cotton. Almost counterintuitively, wool pads can work for the warmer months -- since they're absorbant, which helps keep you cool.
However, natural latex will stand up to the test of time (20 years or more!) because it's derived from rubber trees.Another alternative to materials for mattress pads is memory foam, which molds to your body. Although it's lightweight and comes thicker than the other options, this option absorbs heat and can sometimes get too hot during the night. However, because of memory foam's thickness, some thicker pads can actually be a good alternative to buying a completely new mattress when you need one. Good to know: If you're often hot when you sleep, the perfect temperature to sleep in is about 65 degrees. In that case, a wool or cotton pad will definitely be a better option than memory foam. Keep featherbeds in mind. These are extremely soft and great alternatives to mattress pads if you're looking for something that's more lightweight and soft. Filled with down, they're great at regulating body heat when you're sleeping, keeping you cool in the summer and warm in the winter. If you're looking for one, go for one with about 200 thread counts, which makes it more durable but still soft.
Go for the extra features. If your mattress is not hypoallergenic, a mattress pad that is can make for a simple, affordable add-on. More recently, odor-eliminating mattress pads that act as a protective layer between you and your mattress have also hit the market. Flip through the slideshow below to see some of our picks for mattress pads in the marketplace now. And, let us know in comments below what are other important things that you look for in mattress pads and featherbeds. Have something to say? Be sure to check out Stylelist Home on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.Blog General News Research News Video Podcasts Magazine Press Center As a full-time human resources professional, Helena Costakis spends her days trying not to think about the joint pain that plagues her most of the time. But at night, when she gets ready to go to sleep, her screaming joints won’t let her ignore them anymore—so her sleep suffers. “At night, I’m in the most pain and have a very hard time sleeping,” Costakis says.
“In the morning, I have to start again, but I’m never fresh and rested.” Costakis is not alone. About 66 percent of patients in pain complain of sleep problems, says Paul Christo, M.D., a pain specialist and associate professor at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, and host of “Aches and Gains,” a national radio talk show about overcoming pain. While sleeping, a person has a lower metabolic rate, which facilitates the production of protective antioxidants, and sleep helps restore inflammatory molecules called cytokines to normal levels in a way that balances immune function, Christo explains. Conversely, sleep deprivation increases a person’s levels of cytokines, which worsens inflammatory conditions like lupus. “When you miss sleep, you miss out on the protective elements of rest,” Christo says. “The more we sleep, the more we can recuperate. Pain worsens sleep, and a lack of sleep worsens pain. It’s a terrible cycle.” Like the age-old chicken and egg question, researchers disagree about whether pain causes sleep problems or sleep problems cause pain.
However, according to a study published by the International Association for the Study of Pain in April 2014, improving sleep leads to long-term improvement in pain. “A person’s pain threshold lowers when they are sleep-deprived and they experience more pain,” says Michael Vitiello, Ph.D., lead author of the study and professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Washington, Seattle. “We think that improving sleep can improve pain, because although sleep can be disturbed by pain, that disturbed sleep can make pain worse the next day.” Regardless of which came first, people whose pain interferes with sleep agree that the lack of sleep compounds the pain problem. “Pain lowers your quantity of sleep,” says Caryl Frugoli, who was diagnosed with lupus in 2005. “And when you do sleep, it gives you a restless sleep. It affects the whole rest of the day because you didn’t rest well the night before.” For people with chronic pain who regularly lose sleep, there are no easy answers.
But there are solutions that, with persistence and consistency, can ease pain and contribute to better sleep. Managing pain is a very personal pursuit; some solutions that work well for one person may not help the next person at all. “Each patient knows the very specific things that make his or her pain worse, but he or she also knows the handful of tricks that can make pain better,” says Afton Hassett, Psy.D., associate research scientist at the University of Michigan Medical School’s Chronic Pain & Fatigue Research Center. Frugoli describes her pain management regimen as “a recipe” and says it’s taken 25 years for her to develop a pattern that works for her. When she is awakened by joint pain, creams like Voltaren® and Arnicare® help relieve it, Frugoli says. If she is in pain before going to bed, she will take Zanaflex® (tizanadine), a muscle relaxer, to help her sleep. She prefers muscle relaxers to narcotics because they are not as habit-forming, she says.
Her arsenal of pain-reducing tools includes rice bags, heat packs, and a heated quilt. She also makes monthly payments on a Tempur-Pedic® memory foam mattress and says it’s worth every penny. “The most important thing for me is to deal with it immediately,” Frugoli says. “If I’m getting a migraine or my hips are hurting, I do what works for that specific pain right now. I don’t try to push through the pain anymore. You have to be kind to yourself during a painful episode.” For fellow sufferer Costakis, getting to sleep and staying asleep involves a regimented nighttime routine. She practices mindfulness meditation and stretches before trying to sleep. She keeps aromatherapy beanbags and a nighttime mask in the freezer or heats them in the microwave to place heat or a cold pack on her hurting joints. She also uses therapeutic spearmint oil on her pillow to promote relaxation. “I still use my aromatherapy even if I’m having a good night, just to stay consistent,” Costakis says.
“The mind and body are very connected. I give myself a pep talk and maybe have a conversation about my pain with my significant other. Talking about it helps a little, but there is a difference between talking about it and dwelling on it.” Costakis also uses an ergonomic bed, which allows her to raise her legs or lower her head if she has swelling in certain areas. If she feels moderately uncomfortable before going to sleep, she takes acetaminophen “to head off extreme pain,” she says. Dion Langley, who was diagnosed with lupus in 2011, has learned which daytime activities will keep him from sleeping. As a professional drummer, Langley uses his upper body constantly. “If I’ve had a long studio session, I know I will need a pain pill,” he says. Langley also knows how to prepare himself for sleep. “Sometimes your body is tired but your mind has to catch up with your body,” he says. To relax his mind, Langley often takes a hot shower, uses a heating pad, and spends 15 or 20 minutes listening to music, reading, or watching a relaxing movie.
He also experiments to find the right position for his specific pain. For instance, “I know I can’t lie flat,” he says. Hassett recommends experimenting with various “tricks” until you determine two or three things that help manage your pain. Common strategies include medication taken at a specific time before going to bed; using a topical analgesic; gentle exercise earlier in the day (not too close to bedtime); meditation or visualization before bed; taking a warm shower; regular tai chi or yoga practice; gentle breathing exercises to relax the body and mind; and even—or especially—thinking positively. It may seem unusual to suggest that thought processes affect pain and sleep, but Hassett says they are closely related. “If you crawl into bed and begin to worry about things, including falling asleep, you are not likely to fall asleep anytime soon,” she says. “If you instead think, ‘I’m going to sleep great tonight’ and visualize relaxing in your favorite place, your chances of falling sleep will be greatly increased.”
Just as thoughts and feelings can help some people with pain sleep easier, a lack of sleep can affect mental health as well. “When I’m not rested, I’m more worn out emotionally,” Costakis says. “My anxiety is higher; with every little thing, I wonder if this is the next flare-up or crisis.” If a lack of sleep causes increased worry and anxiety, Christo recommends writing down any concerns before going to bed and then putting the paper in a drawer, out of sight. This will help you “shut off your mind” and get to sleep easier, he says. Langley, the professional drummer, says avoiding stress as much as possible helps him both with the pain of lupus and with sleep. “You cannot be stressed at all,” he says. “Surround yourself with positive people. Avoid people that bring you down. You have to get rest, so you have to stay happy.” Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), a psychotherapeutic approach often used to help teach patients how to cope with emotions, has been shown to help people overcome pain to get sleep, says Michael Vitiello, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Washington, Seattle.
For instance, people who have trouble falling asleep might try stimulus control therapy, a method of CBT that involves getting out of bed and “doing something boring” until they get sleepy, he says. Another form of CBT that has worked for people who have trouble staying asleep is time-in-bed restriction. “People tend to think the more time they spend in bed, the more sleep they’ll get, but that’s not true,” Vitiello says. “If they limit their time in bed to a certain number of hours each night with a regular rise time, eventually they’ll get more quality sleep during that time.” It’s not necessary to pay for one-on-one sessions with a licensed psychotherapist to benefit from CBT for sleep problems, Vitiello says. Group sessions and telephone sessions work, too, and increasing amounts of data show that online CBT programs are successful as well, he says. To try modifying your sleep behavior on your own, Vitiello recommends setting a regular bedtime and rise time and sticking to them, as well as employing “good sleep behaviors” like optimizing your sleep environment and getting regular exercise and plenty of light exposure during the day.