How Your Mattress Affects your Health

Your mattress plays a key role in helping you to fall and stay asleep. If your mattress is old and/or of low quality, it may be having devastating effects on your health in both the short and long term. In this edition of the Odd Size Beds blog, we look at some of the negative health effects that sleeping on a poor-quality mattress can have.

  • Daytime Drowsiness. If it's taking you a long time to drop off, the quality of your sleep is affected. This can leave you feeling drowsy the next day, which has a direct effect on your alertness and productivity. Daytime drowsiness can also be dangerous if you are driving or operating machinery, for example. 
  • Back Pain. This is one of the most common negative health effects experienced by people who sleep on a low-quality mattress. Such a mattress can force you to twist your body into unnatural positions to feel comfortable, putting a strain on your sensitive spine and resulting in injury over time. A proper mattress gives your back the support it needs. 
  • Obesity. If you don't sleep enough or wake up frequently during the night, you have a higher risk of gaining weight. This is because sleep deprivation causes a lack of energy that can lead to overeating as the body tries to adjust. 
  • Skin and Respiratory Irritation. The older a mattress, the more dust mites it will contain. These minuscule creatures can cause or worsen all sorts of irritating conditions such as asthma and eczema. 
  • Weakened Immune System. Your body's immune system, which fights off illness, needs sleep to be able to function to an optimum level. If you're not getting enough quality sleep, then you're more likely to get ill and the symptoms are more likely to be severe. 
  • Impact on Heart Health. Sleep deprivation has been linked to a negative impact on cardiac health. A scientific study published in the authoritative European Heart Journal revealed that people who don't get enough quality sleep have a massive 48% higher risk of developing heart disease than people who do. 
  • Memory Loss. Sleep plays a crucial role in the creation and retention of memories. People who suffer from sleep deprivation suffer from diminished memory recall, as well as being less able to form new memories. 

At Odd Size Beds, we supply a comprehensive collection of mattresses of all different kinds, allowing you to easily find the one that is right for you. Don't let a bad mattress affect your health: browse our collection of quality mattresses today!

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