It’s no secret that sleep plays an integral role in overall health and wellness. Those who share a bed with a partner are all too aware of how damaging a bad mattress can be, not only to their health and happiness but their relationship as a whole.
Here’s everything you need to know about the positive effects of choosing the right mattresses for couples.
Better Long-Term Health
Whether you’re married or in a long-term committed relationship, the idea is to spend as much of your life together as possible. Getting quality rest has a direct impact on long-term health and wellness. In essence, the better you and your partner sleep now, the more time you’ll have as you age.
Sleep deprivation is connected to the development of a variety of cardiovascular diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, and an increased risk of heart attacks or strokes. This increased risk is the culmination of many things that happen within the body without sleep, including poor metabolism, immunity, and hormonal regulation.
If your old mattress is the cause of your restless nights, it’s time for you and your other half to invest in an upgrade.
Better Focus and Cognition
Miscommunication is a challenge that most relationships face at one point or another. Even if these miscommunications result from sleep deprivation, they can be damaging in the long run.
Sleep deprivation leads to cognitive impairment, manifesting in short-term memory loss, inattentiveness, and slower thought processing and critical thinking. As many new parents can attest, losing sleep leads to the feeling of brain fog and exhaustion.
If your mattress is causing you to toss and turn so that you’re forgetting dinner with the in-laws and arguing about whether someone told you what’s going on, it’s time for an upgrade.
Less Disruption at Night
Motion and noise from your partner’s nighttime habits can be incredibly disruptive. This Old House blog points out that the best mattresses for couples will limit motion transfer and offer enough support to offset restlessness and snoring.
Look for a mattress that offers enough support so that your partner with sleep apnea doesn’t sound like a chain saw as they sink into the bed. Additionally, you’ll want enough cushioning that you don’t feel like you’re in an earthquake every time your spouse rolls over. Hybrid mattresses are a great option for couples who are struggling to find their balance.
Less Stress
Stress is a relationship killer, and sleep deprivation will exacerbate the issue. When you don’t get enough sleep, your body releases more cortisol. This hormone is often referred to as the stress hormone. It plays an important role in survival situations, triggering the fight-or-flight mechanism and shutting down anything deemed unnecessary during periods of stress (your metabolism, for instance).
Unfortunately, as smart as your body systems are, they can’t tell the difference between a lumpy mattress causing sleep loss or the fear of a late-night bear attack. It’s a primal function that’s never really evolved from the caveman era.
The solution? Swap out the lumpy mattress, or you and your partner will be the grumpy bears attacking each other.
Fewer Physical Limitations
One of the problems with an older mattress is that the support degrades over time. This effect leaves you and your spouse more likely to experience joint misalignment and pain. As a result, you’ll experience more physical limitations both in and out of the bedroom.
Upgrading to a new mattress that offers sufficient support means fewer days laying on the couch with a sore back and a better chance of getting physically active.
Better Immunity
The immune system is also negatively impacted by sleep deprivation. While the global pandemic is reason enough to worry about sleep, there’s another severe occurrence to consider: the dreaded man cold.
Upgrading your mattress can help maintain your immune system, keeping you both active and healthy together.
Better Relationship
In essence, the quality of a shared mattress ultimately impacts a couple’s relationship. No, it won’t solve the financial issues, the toxic in-laws, or the shoddy communication skills. It will, however, ensure everyone is well-rested and ready to face whatever life throws at them.
For these reasons, it’s important to take your time and do some research when mattress shopping as a couple.