If you have ever bought a mattress you will know what an arduous process it can be. The choices are endless, with a mind boggling array of different structures and materials from latex to memory foam, pocket sprung to open coil, and cotton to damask. 
 
Add the plethora of new ‘mattress in a box’ companies, including Simba, Eve, Casper, Leesa, Bruno, Otty, Hyde & Sleep, and many more, claiming to have the world’s most comfortable all-in-one hybrid mattress for all sleeping styles and body types, then the picture becomes even more complicated.
 

Getting a good night’s sleep can be far easier if you have a comfortable bedroom environment. A restful sleep depends on a lot of factors, but you can do many things to help you achieve it. Let’s have a look at how to create your perfect sleeping environment.

Room temperature

These are common problems for many people, sometimes caused by insomnia or just by day-to-day worries. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to help solve and improve the problems.

What to do when you can’t fall asleep

If you’re getting out of bed in the morning with muscle or back pain, you need to look into the causes. Whilst a sore back or muscle is not normally indicative of a serious problem, it’s still something that needs sorting out! So, what are the main reasons for morning aches and pains?

An old mattress

Sadly, stress is very much a part of modern life. Whether it’s caused by our personal lives, our work or just a bad day, stress is inevitable. And stress can have a serious effect on our health and sleep patterns.

So, what are the ways in which stress wrecks our sleep? Let’s look at them in more detail:

Stress prevents us from logging enough sleep

Narcolepsy is a rare disorder that causes people to suddenly fall asleep with little warning. This is because sufferers’ brains are unable to regulate sleeping and waking patterns in a normal fashion.

There are a number of symptoms of narcolepsy, although not everyone will experience the same ones. In addition, some sufferers experience regular symptoms, whilst others are less frequently affected. Symptoms include:

Excessive daytime sleepiness – This is usually the first sign of narcolepsy but is often just misjudged as people being lazy.

Insomnia is a very common problem, affecting around one in three people in the UK. Insomnia is difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep for long enough to feel refreshed the next morning. Whilst occasional episodes of insomnia may come and go without problems, the issue can persist in some people for months or even years. And persistent insomnia can have a serious impact on quality of life.

Although most of us are familiar with the usual side effects of allergies, such as sneezing and itchy eyes, but did you know that they could cause disturbed sleep as well? And in serious cases, allergies can even increase the risk of sleep apnea. So it’s crucial to try and deal with allergies to aid a good night’s sleep.

Circadian means ‘roughly daily’ and is taken from the Latin terms ‘circa’, meaning about and ‘diem’, meaning day. Circadian rhythms cycle daily according to the 24-hour rotation of the earth, and are internally produced in all living things.

Restless leg syndrome, sometimes known as Willis-Ekbom disease, is a relatively common condition of the nervous system, which causes an overwhelming, irresistible urge to move the legs. The urge is usually strongest in the evening or at night and can also cause a creeping sensation in the feet, calves and thighs.

Snoring is an incredibly common condition, where a person makes a snorting or rattling noise when they breathe during sleep. It’s caused by the soft palate and tissue in the mouth, nose or throat vibrating. Did you know that the exact sound made by a snorer depends on the type of soft tissue that’s vibrating? If it’s the soft tissue at the back of the nose vibrating, the snorer will produce a quiet, pinched nasal sound. But if the tissues at the top of the mouth (soft palate) and back of the throat (uvula) vibrate, a louder, more guttural sound will be produced.

Sleep apnea, sometimes known as Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), is a fairly common condition where the walls of the throat narrow during sleep and cause an interruption of normal breathing. There are two characteristic types of breathing interruption with sleep apnea. The first is apnea, where the muscles and soft tissues in the throat relax and collapse sufficiently to cause a total blockage of the airway. It is characterised as an apnea when the airflow is blocked for 10 seconds or more.

Sleepless nights can have a detrimental effect on us in many different ways but did you know that even one sleepless night could affect your focus? A study conducted by Willamette University in Oregon, USA suggests that a sleepless night may affect your ability to filter out information and focus on what’s important.

When we sleep, our immune system is busy producing protective, infection-fighting substances that help protect us from bacteria and viruses. A lack of sleep means that we’re unable to build up this protection and our bodies will take longer to recover from illness. This in itself is bad enough, but sleep deprivation can lead to far more serious health issues.

Diabetes and sleep issues can often go hand in hand. When blood sugar levels are high, the kidneys try to get rid of this by urinating. This leads to people getting up frequently in the night to go to the lavatory, and sleep is obviously affected by this. In turn, diabetes can also cause sleep loss and there is even evidence that not sleeping well can increase the risk of developing diabetes in the first place.

Sleep and mental health are intrinsically linked. When you are sleep deprived, your brain becomes exhausted meaning that it can’t perform its duties as well as it should. Even a small amount of sleep deprivation can begin to negatively affect emotions and mental health.

Nothing affects us more than how we sleep at night. How we feel during the day depends on how well we rest overnight. For many people, getting a good night’s sleep can be a challenge, but there are various ways you can boost your chances of waking up feeling refreshed each day.

Exposure to light

Sleep is essential for our brains to forge new connections and help with memory retention. At least two processes are at work while we sleep. Firstly, sleep helps to protect new memories from the disruptions that are inevitable during the day. And secondly, sleep consolidates memories according to their importance.

One of the most surprising results from sleep deprivation is the fact that it can lead to weight gain. There is a clear link between sleep and the peptides that regulate our appetite. Ghrelin stimulates hunger, whilst leptin suppresses it and shortened sleep time has been proven to be linked to decreases in leptin and increases in ghrelin.

Our bodies need to sleep to function and a lack of sleep can have a dramatic effect on our wellbeing. When we sleep, it gives our bodies a chance to restore chemical balance and to heal. In addition, our brains forge new connections and help us with memory retention.