Getting enough sleep is one of the best ways to ensure you stay as healthy as possible. But did you know that a bad mattress can negatively affect your health in other ways? It’s true! You may not realize that your mattress is making you sick or at least making your body feel out of sorts. The professionals at Queensway Mattress provide five ways that a mattress affects your health and explain why you should change out a bad mattress for a good one right away.

Allergies

Some mattresses are hypoallergenic, which means they actively work to prevent your allergies from getting activated when you sleep. These allergies primarily come from dust mites that get trapped in fabric, including that which is on your mattress. It doesn’t matter how clean you keep your house, dust mites exist and they quickly multiply in warm, humid places like bedding and mattresses. Even if you’re not allergic to dust mites, you still might experience allergy-like reactions such as sneezing, coughing, and itchy eyes.

A hypoallergenic mattress includes a barrier between these dust mites and your mattress so they can’t get into the fabric and multiply. It’s quite effective at stopping dust mites from invading your mattress and causing your allergies to flare. If you can’t get a new hypoallergenic mattress, consider getting a hypoallergenic mattress cover and put it over your mattress to create that barrier.

Back Pain

Sagging mattresses lead to lack of support for your back, which leads to a curved spine, and ultimately, back pain. If your mattress provides the proper amount of support to your back, you won’t wake up with any back pain at all. But, approximately 80% of people have at least some lower back pain, indicating their mattresses aren’t doing their jobs. A new mattress is usually the way to solve this problem, but you can temporarily try a mattress topper to see if additional support helps.

Neck Pain

Lumpy mattresses are notorious for causing neck pain. Your neck should always stay aligned with your trunk while you sleep. It should not tip forward or backward, which is why having a supportive pillow is critical even when you don’t have a lumpy mattress. If your mattress is full of lumps or bumps, it’s time to get a new one. There’s no way to really fix this except by changing it.

Excessive Sweating

While sweating may not necessarily be a health problem, it can prevent you from getting sleep, which makes it unhealthy. Certain mattress materials contribute to sweating by retaining heat. For this reason, it’s recommended that if you easily get hot while sleeping, choose a mattress that is made from materials that allow air to circulate through the mattress.

Joint Pain

There is such a thing as a mattress that is too firm. Your back does need a lot of support, but if your mattress is too firm, it can lead to joint pain in your knees, shoulders, and hips. This is because the mattress creates pressure points that create pain in the joints that make contact with the mattress. A medium-firm mattress usually solves this problem, but you can also get a plush mattress topper to fix an extra-firm mattress as well.

Conclusion

The mattress you choose to sleep on is an important decision and one that can’t be made lightly. Do your research and discover the options available so you can get the mattress that will give you the best night’s sleep every night.