Can a mattress impact the quality of a person’s sleep at night and their health? Absolutely. Not only does a mattress impact comfort and the ability to relax, both aspects being needed to be able to fall asleep quickly, poor support can also result in body aches and pain, disruption of the deep sleep cycle, and even chronic health problems over time.

Lack of proper sleep compounds physical exhaustion and damage to the body, which in turn can lead to stress problems, weight management concerns, lack of awareness when awake, and even more serious issues like heart disease and diabetes. Simply put, the body needs sleep to repair itself daily, and a bad mattress can make that extremely hard to achieve if disrupted every night. Numerous studies of military personnel having to sleep in poor conditions and health effects afterward have confirmed these conclusions over the years.

Aches, Pains and Soreness

A very frequent problem with a bad mattress involves waking up in pain in the morning. This can be a combination of issues from muscle pain and stiffness to more serious issues of disc inflammation in the spine in serious cases. Young people recover better from these issues and usually have resolved the soreness within an hour or two. However, older sleepers can easily end up with a soreness or muscle cramp that lasts the entire day or longer, especially if their spine or back muscles are already sensitive due to a previous injury or weakness. Poor mattresses are also a big contributor to injuries having nothing to do with sleep becoming worse versus better. Lumps, bad support, and irregular performance can create circulation problems for the body, impairing its ability to move, feed, and repair the injury as fast as possible.

An Old Design That’s Been Around for Decades

A good amount of research has been applied to mattress design, which for many decades stayed the same in production. The common mattress essentially involved bound springs in a wood frame surrounded by padded layers for cushioning. However, it’s the spring assembly that basically provides the support to the body. While at first springs seem to be responsive, over time they warp and lose performance. When that occurs, the mattress seems to sag in different years and the support for the body begins to fail as well. This is common in older mattresses and is noticeable where partners have different weights. The impact can be felt by simply switching sides and feeling the difference.

Going Outside the Industry for Ideas

Modern mattresses have looked to research outside of basic product design to produce better products. Some of that science has come from conditions where people have been required to stay in a seat or position for a long time, as well as with constant testing and endurance experiments on products. Aviation design and space research have been big contributors to this kind of resource, especially where pilots and astronauts needed support and cushioning that could also deal with the effects of gravity. The results have found far more options being available beyond simple spring designs. The combination of the top layer, cushion, and support has also produced variations in sleep impact as well. Similar to pillows, mattresses work differently for different people.

For example, those who are heavier need a mattress with stronger support to handle their weight and still provide the comfort needed for a solid night of sleep. On the other hand, those who are smaller and weigh less may need a less responsive mattress. Stiffness can actually work in the opposite direction, making it hard for a lighter person to fall asleep on a mattress that is too responsive.

Types of Changes in the Mattress Industry

A good example of change has been seen in the application of “memory foam,” which doesn’t use springs at all. Instead, a bed support is formed with a thick, highly dense layer of foam. That foam sinks to some extent with weight, but it expands back once a person gets off the mattress again. The support increases the more compressed the foam is, which allows a method of custom support that can vary from one person to the next.

Alternatively, adjustable beds which include controls that allow a user to change the firmness and angle of the bed allow additional customization that matches a user better. This kind of feature has become especially popular with households where users in a shared bed vary significantly and need different versions of a mattress to sleep comfortably.

Sample, Try, and Research

The most important thing a consumer can do nowadays is to sample and try mattresses where possible. Given the fact that sleep is so important to one’s health, settling for a mediocre mattress can be a big mistake. Many focus on what kind of mattress they use when traveling, for example. Hotels change out mattresses on a regular basis, so they provide a very good opportunity to feel what different mattress models can do or how they perform over a full night’s sleep versus just a few seconds in a showroom.

Doing research online can easily be focused on performance over time-based on people’s comments and reviews. Granted, people aren’t carbon copies of each other, but a mattress that is continuously receiving low ratings and detailed problems stands as a good argument it should be avoided versus one that consistently receives high scores and strong positive reviews.

Invest in Yourself

Remember, a pure comfort mattress is more than a place to sleep as a long-term resource for your daily recovery. It really needs to be treated as a health investment, paying dividends over time with deep sleep and full body repair versus chronic disruptions. Add in some bedgear pillows and the health impacts become very noticeable every morning. There’s no question that eating right and exercise help people live longer, but good sleep makes a big difference as well.