Getting a good nights sleep is an important part of a healthy lifestyle. It’s like drinking plenty of water and breathing fresh air – you can survive on the minimum, but you will not feel your best if you don’t get enough.
Lack of quality sleep can lead to illness, distraction and an overall lack of being able to do your best each day and that includes simply enjoying life. Lack of sleep can make you cranky, unproductive and cause weight gain.
I think a lot of people don’t realize the impact poor sleep has on their bodies. We chalk it up to a necessary part of being a parent, or a breadwinner, or whatever, but the thing is, not getting enough sleep doesn’t address the QUALITY of sleep you are getting when you can finally close your eyes and rest your head on that pillow. 10 hours of poor sleep is no better than not getting enough sleep.
Most people also don’t realize how bad their sleep quality is, they have had such poor sleep for so long that it really seems like that’s just how it is supposed to be.
But it’s not, and you can sleep better!
I don’t mean for this to sound like an infomercial, but it has been 6 months since we got our Sleep Number bed and I really can’t help but give a glowing recommendation.
In The Beginning
When we first got our Sleep Number Bed (read about our Sleep Number delivery experience) our nights weren’t filled with heavenly music and feelings of sleeping on a cloud.
My back HURT.
Part of this was because I believe that after sleeping on a bed that left my back in the wrong position, my spine was actually aligning to its correct position. The other reason was because buying a Sleep Number Bed is like buying a whole pile of different mattresses and changing them out til you find the right one that works for you. With a Sleep Number Bed you will never experience buyers remorse having bought the wrong mattress, even if you or your spouse have totally different needs.
The Sleep Number Settings allows you to individually select the perfect firmness or softness for the way you sleep by selecting a number between 0 and 100 (0 being the softest, 100 being the hardest). And your spouse or partner can set their side of the bed for their own comfort as well.
I think it took roughly 2 weeks before we each found our perfect settings. We knew from visiting the store and experiencing how the Sleep Number bed works what number we should start at and we went from there. We tried that for a couple of nights, found it wasn’t quite right, and went up or down with the number repeating it until we felt it was ideal for us. We both experienced minor back pain in the beginning but as I mentioned, I really believe that it was our spines aligning back into a correct position.
The Last 6 Months
I didn’t notice it right away, but I have slept better these last 6 months then I have slept most of my adult life. I have always been the type of sleeper who wakes up at even the most faint of sounds. A “light sleeper” would be the right term for it, and I would awake at every little sound. If my kids came into my room at night while I was sleeping, I heard them before they even got out of bed and knew they were coming. But that has all changed. I am no longer a “light sleeper.” My kids wake me up from such a deep sleep that they scare me. I fall asleep and do not wake up until morning.
I also noticed that my hands no longer fall asleep in the middle of the night. With my old mattress I would wake up every morning with pins and needles in my hands because they were numb.
When I lay down in my Sleep Number Bed, it takes mere minutes to fall asleep, as opposed to frequent nights laying awake till early morning sometimes unable to sleep with our old mattress.
With all this comes with the bonus of waking up refreshed.
Waking up with energy to face the day.
I have experienced some back pain since our initial few weeks with the Sleep Number bed, but ONLY when I sleep in hours longer than I normally do and only in the morning during that time when I am trying to force myself back to sleep. With these morning backaches came the realization that for the first time since I can remember, I was waking up fully refreshed and there is no need to go back to sleep!
Sleep Number i8
If you are in the market for a new bed, I encourage you to check out Sleep Number. Visit a local store, test out the beds, and be prepared to change the way you sleep for the better.
Note: I received a sleep number bed to test and review, opinions expressed are my own.
