All About Sleep and Mattress Buying Guide

All About Sleep

The Value of Sleep

Sleep is not a wasteland of inactivity. While we sleep, our bodies are busy working in five important areas:

Growth – especially critical for baby and children.

Restoration – repairs tissues, recovers.

Immunity boosting – fights infection, increases energy level.

Memorizing – sorts information, aids memory storage.

Learning – stores, reorganizes and prioritizes information.

Understanding Stages of Sleep

Your nightly cycle
After one’s first REM period, one will fall again into Stages Two, Three and Four, then move back again through Stages Three and Two and into more REM sleep.

This cycle repeats itself every 90 to 110 minutes until you wake up. Depending on the length of time you sleep, you will travel through four or five of these cycles before morning. Remember, dreaming is not the only function of REM sleep. REM sleep is absolutely essential for preparing the mind for peak daytime performance.

Whenever you have a short night of sleep you are eliminating the long REM periods that come towards morning. This can impair your daytime learning, thinking, memory and performance. REM sleep prepares your mind and body for success.

Essence of Quality Sleep - Uninterrupted Sleep

For sleep to be rejuvenating, you must get your required amount of sleep in one continuous block. Six hours of uninterrupted sleep is more restorative than eight hours of poor, fragmented sleep. The two most common causes of sleep interruption are:

Movement on the bed: The average person tosses and turns 40-60 times a night. When you sleep with a partner, the number of movements increases, and so does the potential to wake up and disturb your sleep cycle.

Physical stress: When we sleep, our weight exerts pressure on our body. If your mattress cannot provide optimal support to different parts of your body, you will respond by tossing and turning unnaturally to relieve the pain and stress.

Creating Ideal Bedroom Environment

Three key things to promote good, sound sleep in a bedroom are:

Quiet: Fans or other white noise generators near the bed can help mute sleep distractions. A cheaper alternative is to set the tuner of your FM radio between any two stations. The pseudo white noise you will hear will do wonders to mask unwanted sounds

Light Level: Use room darkening shades or dark fabrics to reduce the amount light leaking into the room. Eyeshades may also do the trick.

Temperature: 25° C is the ideal temperature for sleeping. A warm room or too many blankets can interrupt your sleep.

10 Sleep Strategies

Simple modifications to your daily routine are an effective way to help your body’s sleep cycle regulate itself.

(Source: Power Sleep by Dr. James B. Maas)

Reduce stress.
Exercise, but not within two hours of bedtime.
Keep mentally stimulated during the day.
Eat a proper diet.
Stop smoking.
Reduce caffeine intake.
Avoid alcohol near bedtime.
Take a warm bath before bed.
Maintain a relaxing atmosphere in the bedroom.
Establish a bedtime ritual.

Mattress Buying Guide

Research

Do your homework. Obtain brochures; visit mattress brands websites to find out more about mattresses. Get fully involved in the purchase decision. Keep in mind that the mattress you are about to buy will last you at least ten years and that you will spend more time on it than any other piece of furniture in your home.

Take your partner with you (for couples)

According to Dr. James B. Maas, Author of Power Sleep Book, Sleep Educator, an average person tosses and turns 40 to 60 times a night. Clinical studies show that the ripple effect caused by a bed partner’s tossing and turning can result in up to 20% loss of critical deep sleep as 70% of the time a partner moves, the other follows. Therefore, it is important to try the mattress with your partner.

Know Your Needs

Basically, you want a well-built mattress that gives you great support, great comfort and good value for your money. Keep in mind your height and weight while shopping for your choice mattress. This will help you to select a mattress that will not end up too soft or too firm.

And if you do suffer from any back pain, we recommend that you mention it to our sales consultants. But prior to shopping for a mattress, you may like to seek the orthopaedic’s advice. We do recommend you to preferably opt for a firm, tight-top mattress such as our signature Simmons® BackCare® Series for better back support. Other factors, which you may like to consider while shopping for your choice mattress, are as follows: What is your current mattress comfort like? Is it firm or soft? What is wrong with your current mattress? Why are you changing your mattress?

Space

Given no space constraint, consumers, particularly those who sleep with a partner, should choose a bigger size mattress. A king size mattress also delivers greater motion separation effect. Simmons mattresses come in a variety of sizes. The following are our most common:

Malaysia Sizes
Single: 91cm x 190cm
Super Single: 107cm x 190cm
Queen: 152cm x 190cm
King: 182cm x 190cm
King Long: 182cm x 198cm

Check with our sales consultants on American or Customized sizes.

Purchase Simmons mattress and/or foundation only from Simmons Gallery, or a reputable retailer or an authorized dealer

Now you have identified your needs, before you hit the stores, be sure you visit only Simmons Gallery, major department stores and authorized dealers to purchase your Simmons mattress. All Simmons’ authorized dealers carry a certificate of proof, which customers can request to see. A warranty is only given to a product when it is purchased from Simmons Gallery or a reputable retailer or an authorized dealer.

Try it out

At the store, we recommend you to try a maximum of three mattresses with different levels of firmness at any one time. Lie down for a few minutes on the mattress in your most common sleeping positions. Do not just sit on the edge, as this does not provide a good gauge of comfort and support level. Give each mattress a few minutes before moving on to the next one. This is the only effective way to shop for a mattress that suits you and your partner’s needs best.

Ask questions about mattresses features and benefits

While at the store, ask our sales consultants to explain the key features and benefits of the mattresses you are interested in. This will help you better understand Simmons products, particularly on its coil construction.

Three key factors to note are:

i) Conformability; refers to how well the mattress adjusts to the shape of your body to provide support and reduce pressure points. The goal is a responsive sleep surface that constantly adjusts to your body weight. The higher the conformability, the less you toss and turn and the better your sleep.

ii) Plushness: the cushy feeling you experience as you lie down. Plushness comes from layers of foams, fibres and even natural materials like latex, memory foam, cashmere, silk or wool on top of the coil unit. These layers add to conformability to give the mattress that special touch appeal. These layers also act as insulations and contribute to the firmness of mattress.

iii) Support: is how well your weight is distributed by your mattress. The more you weigh, the more support you need. Support and firmness go hand-in-hand. Firmness is the resistance the coils offer when your body compresses them. Put it simply, firmness is how the coils push up when you lie down. Only Simmons® Original Pocketed Coil® makes it possible to fine-tune support and firmness, thanks to the greater spring effect as a result of pre-compression of its coils and the no. of turns in the coil that achieves it.

Choose the right base

Now that you have picked a suitable mattress, it is important that you buy a matching foundation. Foundations are built to work with specific mattress constructions to maximize the benefits of that particular mattress. Buy a mattress set with a high-quality and well-constructed foundation. A good foundation will have multiple torsion bars and strong support beams.

If you are opting for a bedframe, choose one with center support for queen/king size beds to prevent bowing in the middle of the bed and to prevent the warranty from being invalidated. Alternatively, choose a bedframe with a solid flat base board. Avoid slate-based bedframe to ensure validity of warranty for your mattress.

Compare different brands of mattresses

Buy the best you can afford

Buying a decent mattress is like buying a decent sound system. A higher quality mattress is usually bought at a higher price. However, price is not everything. Look for the best you can afford. Remember, this is an investment that will last for years. Buy the best you can afford and one that suit your needs best. For example, assuming a Simmons mattress costs you MYR9280, has warranty of ten years, the cost of owning a Simmons mattress per day is: MYR9280/10 years = MYR928/365 days = MYR2.54 per day.