You may eat right, exercise, and avoid unhealthy lifestyle behaviors, but how well do you sleep? Do you wake up some mornings feeling like your body is sore or tender? Do you run out of energy halfway through the day? Do you have chronic back pain or a stiff neck and you can’t isolate the reason? Find out what makes a mattress therapeutic and if a therapeutic mattress might be right for you.
Defining Therapeutic
The word “therapeutic” means something that contributes to the treatment or curing of illness. A therapeutic mattress is one that either treats or cures a physical condition. For example, a therapeutic treatment for migraines might involve medication and lifestyle changes aimed at reducing or stopping severe headaches and therapeutic treatment for a broken arm might be immobilization and physical therapy afterward.
A therapeutic mattress helps treat or cure a range of conditions by bringing the spine back into alignment and allowing for regular, restorative sleep. All sleepers are heaviest at the shoulders and hips, so these parts of the body sink down into the mattress. Conventional mattresses press on these points, causing pain.
Even when sleepers don’t wake up, they experience pain and sleep is disrupted. They turn to find a more comfortable position, but soon experience pressure and discomfort in a new area. The spine stays out of alignment and they rarely achieve truly restful sleep.
What Do Therapeutic Mattresses Treat?
Some people have health conditions that make it hard to get a good night’s sleep. Musculoskeletal disorders like fibromyalgia and arthritis cause pain around the clock and make it hard to fall asleep.
Fibromyalgia impacts the brain and often gets worse at night. Sleep disturbance is one of the key symptoms. Arthritis is a group of disorders that cause inflammation in the joints. For sufferers with either disease, the right kind of mattress is imperative.
People with asthma experience breathing difficulties that are often connected to allergens. Conventional mattresses trap environmental elements that may make asthma worse, so doctors often recommend a therapeutic mattress that prevents allergen accumulation and provides good back support.
Some mattresses actually cause poor health. Dead skin and body oil become embedded in mattress surfaces and provide a feast for dust mites. The tiny parasites leave their droppings behind and cause sneezing, sinus pain, and irritated nasal passages. Worn mattresses sag at the places they experience the most pressure and instead of providing support, become a sink hole. Sometimes couples end up with a sagging spot in the middle and spend every night trying not to roll into it.
When your spine is out of alignment, you may end up with back pain. Some research indicates a bad mattress could be linked to sleep apnea, obesity, even heart disease.
How Does a Therapeutic Mattress Work?
Therapeutic mattresses were first used in hospitals to provide patients with a restful night’s sleep. Hospital patients often spend days, sometimes even weeks or months in bed. They may have limited mobility and be unable to turn to another position to find relief from pressure. Bed sores develop from experiencing ongoing pressure in the same areas.
Therapeutic mattresses reduce pressure points while still providing support. They regulate body temperature and allow consistent blood flow even to areas that are the heaviest. Conventional mattresses often contain toxic chemicals meant to make them flame retardant like formaldehyde and boric acid. A therapeutic mattress is made of non-toxic ingredients.
Do I Need a Therapeutic Mattress?
A therapeutic mattress isn’t just for people with ongoing pain. All bodies need support, and conventional mattresses don’t always provide that. One way to tell if you might need a new mattress is to evaluate your overall sleep quality.
According to the CDC, most adults need around 8 hours of sleep every night. Some need more, others require a little less. Most people aren’t even in bed for that many hours, so they’re far from getting the recommended amount. However, just because you have your eyes closed doesn’t mean your body and mind are completely at rest. Look for these signs you might not be getting enough sleep.
- Your emotions are unpredictable – If you feel moody, easily annoyed or depressed, it might be caused by not getting enough sleep.
- You have little stamina – When you run out of energy early in the day and just don’t feel like doing any more work, your body may not be regenerating through restorative sleep.
- You put on pounds – When you don’t sleep, the stress hormone cortisol rises and leptin falls. You feel more like snacking and the calories you consume go right to your waistline.
- You always feel tired – You constantly find yourself reaching for caffeine to make it through the day.
- You have trouble focusing – You may need to read the same sentence twice to make sense of it or struggle with finding the right word. You forget what time the meeting starts and where you left your keys.
When you don’t sleep, it affects every aspect of your life. Often a therapeutic mattress can give you the rest you need.
Can a Mattress Really Change Your Health?
It may seem hard to believe, but a mattress could actually cure or treat conditions like back pain or obesity. Therapeutic mattresses conform to the body shape to provide gentle support to every area of the body, evenly distributing weight to prevent pressure buildup. Just relieving those pressure points allows the sleeper to spend the night without tossing and turning and experience true rest. Instead of pain at shoulders, hips and heels, sleepers have a supported lumbar and relaxed muscles.
Therapeutic mattresses also inhibit motion transfer. If one sleeper is more active when they sleep, their movements don’t disturb their partner. They are extremely durable and made of materials that inhibit mold and dust mites.
While traditional wisdom says firm mattresses provide the best support for chronic pain, they can be uncomfortable. Intellibed mattresses provide that support along with extreme comfort through our cutting-edge Gel Matrix. This gel was developed for hospital use and provides pressure-free support. Experience a better night’s sleep for the rest of your life when you shop our mattresses today.
