Are you getting a poor night’s sleep? Waking up tired and aching?
You may be one of the thousands in the UK that are neglecting your wellbeing by sleeping on a poor quality mattress.

Getting a proper night’s sleep is essential to your mental, emotional and physical welfare. In fact, back and neck pain is commonly caused by sleeping on a poor quality mattress. Whilst buying a mattress is time consuming, expensive and easy to put off, it is important to have a good quality, supportive base on which to sleep.

When was the last time you changed your mattress? A major problem, and one that is often overlooked, is deterioration of mattress support over time. The springs lose firmness and begin to give way under your weight, but they do so unevenly, and unsurprisingly in that areas where you would most commonly lie when sleeping. There should not be air between your body and the mattress when you lie down, and if you’re sinking in when you get into bed, your mattress is not giving you the proper support. This lack of support reinforces poor sleeping posture, causes unnecessary strain on your muscles and does not maintain the correct alignment of your spine – all contributing factors to lower back pain.

According to an Oklahoma State University study, participants with a mattress five years old or older, and those using the cheapest category of beds, reported drastic improvements in sleep comfort, sleep quality, back pain and spine stiffness when sleeping on a new mattress. It was concluded that new bedding systems can significantly improve selected sleep variables and that continuous sleep quality may be dependent on timely replacement of bedding systems.

As well as the musculoskeletal impact a poor quality mattress can have on your body, research has shown that regular poor sleep puts you at risk of conditions including obesity, heart disease and diabetes.

Try out quiz below to see if you may benefit from a new mattress:

• Is your bed 5 years old or more?
• Do you feel tired throughout the day?
• Do you wake up with neck or back ache?
• Do you find it difficult to get comfortable in bed?
• Do you find it difficult falling or staying asleep?
• Can you feel springs or ridges when lying in bed?

If you answered yes to some of these, it may be time to look for a new mattress.