Is Your Mattress Making You Sick?

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American gospel and contemporary Christian recording artist, Mandisa loves her bed. She says, “I named my bed Rufus. It’s so good to me that I thought it deserved a name.”

We can certainly all relate to the love she feels for her bed. After a long day, nothing sounds better than crawling into your bed and snuggling under the covers, where you feel safe and secure. Even after a long vacation, what do most people want? Their own bed. Nothing is as comfortable as crawling into your own bed and knowing that you are where you belong. Whether you name it or not, you have special feelings for your bed.

Reduce Cortisol Levels For a More Restful Sleep

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In 1942, gasoline cost 20 cents a gallon, people knew their neighbors, and Americans got more sleep than they do today. According to a Gallup poll, 40% of Americans get less than the recommended seven hours sleep. On average, we sleep 6.8 hours, down more than hour from 1942.

The National Sleep Foundation recommends that adults receive between seven and nine hours of sleep each night. The foundation “developed age-specific recommended sleep durations based on a rigorous, systematic review of the [world’s] scientific literature relating sleep duration to health, performance and safety,” said Charles A. Czeisler, PhD, MD, chairman of the board of the National Sleep Foundation, chief of sleep and circadian disorders at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Baldino Professor of Sleep Medicine at the Harvard Medical School.  Currently only 59% of American adults meet the sleep standards, while in 1942, 84% did.

Sleep Habits and Tips from Birth to 12 Years of Age

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Understanding your child’s sleep habits can help you to understand them better. Older children have a Circadian rhythm that regulates their wake and sleep cycles based on light and dark. Newborns don’t have this development yet, and tend to sleep and wake throughout the day and night. The good news is that the wake and sleep cycles develop between three and six months so you can get some rest too.

How Stress Wrecks Your Sleep & Solutions To Help You Relax

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Stress management strategies can help you to lower your stress levels so it is easier to go to bed and sleep at night instead of tossing and turning, having nightmares or waking up repeatedly.

Aromatherapy

Aromatherapy can instantly reduce your stress levels. Some of nature’s scents help elevate your mood, concentrate better, promote focus and reduce your anxiety levels. The idea is for the scents to stimulate your limbic system, which releases the chemicals in your body associated with feelings of calmness, tranquility and relaxation. Lavender has a soothing scent that lowers your heart rate and regulates your blood pressure so you can relax and fall asleep. Cypress has a balancing and grounding effect to promote clear breathing and reduce the tension in your muscles to help you to relax. Rosemary can lower your cortisol levels, which rise in your body in response to stress. Rosemary can also enhance your memory, increase your mental clarity and relieve your anxiety.

How To Get Your Toddler To Sleep In Their Own Bed

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You just get comfortable, all snuggled under the covers, when you hear the little voice.

“Can I sleep in your bed?”

Having a young child sleep in your bed can cause numerous problems, the most common being lack of sleep. You may end up lying in uncomfortable positions and waking up with aches and pains. Additionally, you are not doing your toddler any favors by continuing to allow her to join you in bed.

A healthy sleep pattern includes a consistent, personal sleep space. Angela Mattke, M.D. in Community Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine at Mayo Clinic told USA Today that it’s important for Mom and Dad to find the right approach to breaking their child’s association of sleep with his or her parents.

How to Fix a Mattress That Sinks in the Middle

Healthy Sleep, In the Bedroom4 Comments

Let’s just get right to the point, most of us cannot fix a sagging, wearing mattress. It’s simple if you happen to have expensive mattress manufacturing equipment lying around your house and the knowledge and expertise of mattress assembly at your fingertips.  For the rest of us the fact is when the padding materials used on the inside of a mattress dents in and breaks down, there really is only one way to repair it since they are sealed products that are sewn  shut. The most effective way to fix that big dip is to open it up and replace all of the worn upholster layers and sew it back up.

Thinking of trying to repair it yourself? Here is a list of the 10 most popular tricks and advice that is suggested to increase the support under a mattress, make it more comfortable, and raise the places where the mattress is sagging.

Do You Have A Sleep Disorder?

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Sleep disorders, also known as somnipathies, are medical disorders that affect the sleep pattern of an individual, sometimes to the point that can interfere with normal daily functioning. Problems can vary from bedwetting and teeth grinding to night terrors and narcolepsy.

Disorders involving sleep typically fall into one of the following categories:

  • Insomnia – Difficulty falling or staying asleep when there appears to be no medical or physical cause.
  • Dyssomnias – Trouble falling asleep or remaining asleep due to medical conditions or personal choices. as well as excessive sleep or tiredness. Examples include sleep apnea, narcolepsy, and disorders related to alcohol dependency.
  • Parasomnias – Abnormal movements, behaviors, and dreams related to sleeping, including the various stages of wakefulness before falling asleep and upon waking up. Examples include sleepwalking and restless leg syndrome.
  • Circadian Rhythm Sleep Disorders – Difficulty sleeping during what is considered normal resting periods, even though the individual is capable of resting completely according to their own internal sleep clock. Examples include jet lag or night shift workers.
  • Sleeping Sickness – A physical disease known as African trypanosomiasis that is transmitted through the bite of an infected tsetse fly.

Would You Revive Your Mattress If It Only Takes 15 Minutes?

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A new mattress cleaning service is available for those who’d like to do a little CPR on their existing mattresses, and we’re interested in your thoughts, questions and feedback about it. Within 15 minutes, right outside of your residence, a mattress can be sterilized, freshened, dried and ready for reuse — all with the use of environmentally friendly methods.

That’s right, it’s a mattress cleaning service whose technicians actually come to your home!

Mattresses are gathering places for some of life’s unhealthy elements about which we would rather not know or dwell on. But, staying ahead of hygiene objectives with mattresses is a wise step to take for your own personal well-being.