After a hard day’s work and the hustles and bustles of life, everyone deserves to come home to a great home, to enjoy a good night’s sleep. There are several things that come to play for one to have a good night’s sleep. You want to have a good temperature, proper lighting, proper aeration and the list goes on and on. Even if the list is complete, sleeping on a horrible mattress and/or using a horrible pillow makes every other nice factor you may have to enhance your sleep becomes useless.
The importance of mattresses and pillows cannot be overemphasized because asides giving a good night’s sleep, a bad mattress or a bad pillow give adverse health implications that you sure want to avoid.
Thus, the process of choosing a mattress, a pillow or both is a very crucial one and an individual who wants a good sleep every single night and an accompanying great health needs to know what to look out for to make the good choice of a comfortable mattress and pillow.
Thus, we will deal with the choice of each separately.
Steps to Pick a Comfortable Mattress
The mattress you purchase would probably last for years. Therefore, making a choice you won’t regret is a thing of concern. These steps will help:
- Have a good grasp on the knowledge of mattress types
There are several types of mattresses in the modern day market. You should have a good knowledge of the basic types (or go further depending on what you want) such as the memory foam mattress, the basic firm or plush mattress, the plush mattress and the sleep number mattress. You can also read up reviews and comparisons, such as Leesa vs Ghostbed Mattress.
Also, don’t just settle for a popular brand. Look out for various brands and their advantages. Also, do not jump into a quick conclusion based on the number of coils a mattress has.
- Understand your person, your personal as well as your physical and health needs
The needs of every person are different. Consider things like your preferred sleeping position, how mobile you are and if you will be sharing the bed with another person, you also need to consider them, their physical size (as well as yours) and the definition of comfort of you both.
- Draw a budget
It is important to know how much you are willing to spend. This way, you will never feel cheated. When you know exactly how much you have to spare, then you can’t be confused and no one can talk you into buying something that is beyond your budget.
- Check out different stores
Search online for the mattress reviews of several mattress stores around you. Check the ones that look good till you are sure you would like to settle for a particular store.
- Test out the mattress in the showroom
If you like some particular mattresses or brands, ask for permission from the appropriate authorities to test the mattress. Lie on each for about one minute to know what they actually feel like. It is best to take your time in doing this instead of getting home and realizing you have made a horrible choice.
- Negotiate
It’s that simple. Negotiate through and through to ensure that you’re not being cheated in any way. Ask if there are discounts and take advantage of every freebie that comes with buying a mattress, such as delivery or a free bed frame. If there’s a warranty, don’t miss out on it too. Once you’re good with all the terms, after thinking through, go ahead and purchase it.
- Leverage on your trial period
The mattress may feel weird for the first few days, so you can begin to objectively decide if it is affecting your sleep and your sleep pattern positively or negatively after the third day. Ask yourself things like how the mattress makes you feel, compare the number of hours you have slept for using the mattress to that you have spent sleeping on horrible mattresses and ascertain if you feel well rested on it even if you haven’t slept for too long. The list is endless, but ensure you keep pointing out objective factors that would make you ultimately decide if the mattress is really comfortable for you. In a case where you have to, return the mattress and get a better one (with respect to your complaint).
Steps to Pick a Comfortable Pillow
As small as a pillow is, it plays a role in determining your sleep quality. A pillow supports very important parts of the body, so you want to make sure you choose the right one and avoid cases of neck pain or tension, headaches or any pathology in the shoulder.
Here are the steps to help in choosing a very comfortable pillow:
- Know your most preferred sleeping position
There are three common sleeping positions—on the back, on any of the sides or on the stomach. There are mixed sleepers as well. Knowing your best sleeping position is a great determinant of` the type of pillow that will be most comfortable for you.
Stomach sleepers typically need a soft and fairly flat pillow. In fact, some stomach sleepers are most comfortable without pillows. Sleeping on the stomach however is not particularly a healthy position.
Back sleepers sleep better when they use medium-thick pillows; as if it is too thick, their head will be in a very forward position. This could affect important structures in the neck. They should also avoid very soft pillows as it makes their head directly sink into the pillow, giving no real support.
Side sleepers would enjoy sleeping with a firmer pillow, as it will support the neck properly.
Mixed sleepers are safer with medium thick pillows, since they hardly pose any threat to their sleep or their health.
- Choose your preferred filling
Your pillow filling should be chosen majorly on the basis of the user’s health. Someone with asthma (for instance) shouldn’t choose a filling that emits any sort of dust over time. People with neck problems may need to be careful not to pick options that do not make the pillow flexible too. Types of filling include: feather, latex, wool/cotton, memory foam pillows and specialty pillow.
- Take the necessary steps to buy your preferred pillow
Check online for reviews and go to the store of your choice. Know that prices and brands aren’t everything, so check out the kind of pillow you actually need based on your sleeping position. Following this; test the pillow by resting your head on it. In a case where you cannot test the pillow by lying down and testing how it feels when your head is rested on it, put it against a wall and put your head on it.
Final Thoughts
Buying a bed and a pillow is such an important process and by simply following the steps in this article, you can be sure that you won’t go wrong.
