HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT MATTRESS AND THE RIGHT FIRMNESS

The IMPORTANCE:

An old or unmatched mattress to your needs or body type can cause back pain, create unnecessary heat and be a major cause of sleep loss. Choosing the right mattress and firmness can support your spine, keep you cool and give you comfort.Choosing your mattress wisely is paramount in getting good sleep and improving your health.

Here’s WHY:

The two most important factors of a great mattress are support and comfort, with staying relatively cool coming in at a close third. The spine really needs support.  It needs it to help lengthen and decompress our bodies and reduce the stress on the muscles, tendons, ligaments and discs.

1)  Support:   The support is created by two things in a good mattress:  The Quadra Foam Design and the careful selection of the PREMIUM foam layers of the mattress.  The key to both of these two critical components is the proper level of “push back”, or in other words, what type of gravitational resistance the mattress can produce to support the curves of your spine. But the spine (and our bodies as a whole) also needs pressure relieving comfort that can also only be delivered through the correct materials/foams.  The comfort is a critical aspect of selecting a mattress, and as you’ll read in a minute, the firmness will greatly depend upon a person’s weight and age.  Also, if a person has painful pressure points, e.g. in the outer hip region, the knees, the shoulders, etc., this can definitely disrupt sleep.  So a good pressure relieving surface is also important.

The need and adequacy of the support of the spine is not well understood by most people selling mattresses. Do you need a lot of support to accentuate the “hollow” or “lordotic” curves of your spine like in your low back and neck or do you need to decrease the curves of the mid back (kyphosis) and sacrum; which tend to lengthen out the spine and make you a bit taller?  The answer is you need to do both; to support the curves (lordosis) and flatten or lengthen the rounded areas (kyphosis).  A good mattress will do just that.  My new JUST SLEEP mattresses with my Quadra-Foam design has an FOUR foam layers that gives your spine an active sensory recovery in the undersurfaces boasting a layer of Talalay Latex Support that further enhances the supportive resiliency.  Then, in all three mattresses in the collection I have imported a Coconut based upper surface layer that optimizes pressure relief and temperature control for a person’s comfort.  Both the latex (which is basically derived from the sap or “milk” of a rubber tree and the plant based coconut derived foams have an open cell structural property that allows them to actively recover very quickly yet still have a tremendous pressure relieving quality.  These are the two most brilliant foams available and are the two most complicated foams to make but I have decided to spare no expense and not compromise in the quest of creating the most premium mattress available on the market, period. The active recovery (AR) or what I like refer to as the “resilience” is the key to a good supportive mattress. As mentioned, “resilience” is push-back or the inherent ability to spring back quickly yet softly, giving you comfort and pressure relief, and using two different CERTI-Pur base foams as an undercarriage for the foam allows me to use a softer and more comfortable upper layer(s) and still have the support. Both the coconut and the latex foams are both much more expensive to make because of the materials needed, but they are more durable, better at relieving pressure, cooler and most importantly in a mattress, they give you different layers of supportive comfort.

And so important to most people, the plant based foams mentioned above don’t appreciably off-gas and are certified to not contain harmful substances.  Classic Memory foam gives you the “sag” effect, what many people describe as a lack of support.  Old memory foam molds to your body and allows good pressure relieve, but essentially gives no push back recovery which is truly what the spine needs.  Our less expensive line, the SELECT has a revolutionary new Gel Infused Memory Foam and although not as perfect as the PREMIUM line, still offers excellent support and pressure relief for the economically driven consumer.

To Summarize:

Let me give you an example of everything I just spoke about: While on your back, the mid back needs pressure to lengthen and straighten and the low back (and neck with your pillow) need to have support under the curves and not be allowed to completely straighten.  The good thing is that it will take the same amount of pressure to straighten the mid back as it does to support the low back. Therefore, one sleep surface push back recovery is what you need. Pushback support is important for side sleepers, as well.  The spine needs to stay straight and not allow for transient scoliosis, which also disturbs the weight-bearing distribution of the spine. But what level of push back is right for you and secondly, what mattress firmness is right for you?

1)  First rule of thumb; look at the undercarriage:  Any bed system you choose should offer proper support of the spine whether you choose a plush, medium or even a firm and you should always select a mattress with firm supportive resiliency as a base for any mattress, no matter what foam or other material makes up the top portion of the mattress.

 

2)  All sleepers are not alike.  For the best night’s sleep possible, it is important to sleep on a mattress with the level of firmness that is appropriate for you based on a) sleep position  b) history of back pain  c) age  d) body weight, and e) personal preference.  Use the chart below to determine which mattress is right for you.   If you can identify with and check off four or more in one firmness category, you would most likely benefit from that level of firmness in your mattress.

SOFT (or PLUSH)

• Side sleeper or stomach sleeper

• Body weight of 110 pounds and under

• No back pain or minimal back pain

• Looking for ultimate, soft, pressure-relieving comfort

• Very thin body type

• All ages

 

MEDIUM

• Back or Side sleeper

• Body weight of 110-200 pounds

• Back pain sufferer or seeking prevention of back pain

• Thin to medium build

• Age 10 to 100

 

FIRM

• Back sleeper (primarily)

• Body weight of 200 pounds or more

• Age 10 through 60

• Back pain sufferer or highly seeking prevention of back pain

• Prefer firmness over softness

• Slightly more body fat or very large torso or hips.

3)  Select a mattress with non-toxic, pressure relieving and highly supportive active response support layer of Talalay latex and a top cover foam layer of the unique qualities of the Coconut Biofoam for coolness, uniformity, durablity and pressure relief.

 

About JUST SLEEP:

The JUST SLEEP mattress collection is designed to fit everyone’s comfort needs and budget. We have two mattress styles to choose from; Select and Premium, both coming in all standard sizes of beds and offered in various comfort levels.  One of the key factors that make our mattresses unique is the quality of workmanship and the design.  The PREMIUM, the ultimate and most sought after mattress in Dr. Hall’s collection has a combination of Talalay foam made here in America and an imported Italian Coconut foam for the top layer to reduce heat and give the perfect cloud-like pressure relief. 

Learn more: www.justsleepbeds.com

About PILLO1: 
Made in America, PILLO1 cervical pillow is a premium, hand-crafted pillow to prevent wrinkles, reduce stiff neck pain and restore spinal alignment. Created for back and side sleepers, PILLO1 is the perfect eco-friendly cervical pillow on the market, made of hypoallergenic non-toxic latex foam.  
Learn more: www.PILLO1.com