Your mattress should hold your spine in correct alignment, which is level with no pressure points.
The correct support is vital for each individual sleeper depending on weight, build, size and age. If your mattress doesn't provide this correct support, you may develop aches and pains and your sleep will be disturbed.
The facts
(Orthopaedic warning)
Generally an “orthopaedic” bed is a generic term used to describe extra firm beds, almost always open coil, and not pocket sprung which is the ideal choice. Try asking a manufacturer for the study material and medical research that went into their ‘orthopaedic’ mattress!
- Over 100 million working days a year are lost through back problems. The figures increase annually.
- You grow in the night by as much as 2cm. During the day, your spine is compressed. At night it has the chance to straighten and recover.
- You move in sleep 60 -70 times a night, with up to a dozen full body turns.
- On average, a comfortable bed will give you one hour's extra sleep per night.
- We use our beds more than any other item of furniture in the home.
- The average life of a mattress is ten years but we recommend changing after seven.
- One in five people in the UK suffer from severe lack of sleep and will visit there doctor before they consider a new or better mattress.
To test a mattress using a pillow you should be able to place your hand under the small of your back if it fits easily or there is a gap your mattress is likely to be too hard. If you can not do this then it is too soft.
Firm or soft?
The most common question we are asked is “how firm are your mattresses” Normally we are asked for a medium to firm mattress which always brings us to the following explanation we offer.
Generally speaking the majority of us when we buy our first mattress are likely to be buying on a budget and buy an ‘open coil mattress’ as they are lower cost. First of all the main difference between an open coil and pocket sprung mattress should be explained.
Open coil
An open coil mattress is made from circular springs woven into a single spring unit. This means that as you apply pressure to ‘one spring’ you are actually pushing down on other surrounding springs as they are connected. This is the biggest cause of ‘roll together’ various manufacturers have designed and branded different ways of weaving open coil to reduce this but you will never completely get away from it. The choice in gauge/thickness of steel used to make the spring unit can vary quite a lot resulting in noticeable differences when comparing a soft to firm open coil mattress.
So this is why we often quote our requirements in terms of soft medium and firm and as well as varying spring count as to how we assess mattresses and this logic is almost always applied to ‘pocket sprung’ mattresses.
The downside of open coil
Roll together is the biggest and the inability to provide individual support at point of contact. Imagine where you are heaviest say at your hips, they will push down on the spring unit and pull away support from the lighter parts of your body and differing contours of your body therefore not supporting you properly.
Pocket sprung
A pocket sprung mattress is made up of individual independent springs held in position by a woven secure cloth sack/pocket. This essentially means it is not connected to any other spring unlike ‘open coil’. The result is a spring that directly supports at the point of contact and is not effected by varying weight and body shape. Though there are other factors such as fillings, cover tension, tufting etc this is fundamentally the greatest factor and the better means to manufacture a mattress, and the most relevant between the two types.
The second factor you should look for is the number of springs used the more the better and as the count increases you will see the cost increase as obviously the smaller the springs have to be and larger the number of springs used the more expensive it is to manufacture.
So this brings us back to the big question ‘soft medium or firm’
When you first walk into inspect mattresses I bet the majority of you will first push down with one hand to assess how ‘soft, medium or firm’ it is before lying down on it.
This is an important point – A pocket spring varies far less in its gauge/thickness than on an open coil and soft medium or firm from a spring point of view is therefore far less relevant.
With a pocket spring mattress you are pushing down on one or two springs rather than a whole unit (as in open coil) and are far more likely to feel ‘soft’ when pushed down in a small area such as using your hand/fist. But as mentioned this is far less relevant than you would think. On an open coil you are lying down on effectively one large spring on a pocket spring mattress you are lying down on hundreds!
Imagine you are ten stone lying on a hundred springs and then consider what effect the difference would be if you lay down on 200 springs? The spring is the same thickness but the mattress will feel firmer, what you will actually be feeling is additional support and this is the crucial point. As mentioned earlier there are other factors such as fillings, height of springs, resulting in varying mattress depths and weight, tufting, cover tension. Which is why the choice is so varied but the main point is pocket sprung and how many of them and the resulting support. The most relevant factor in a good nights sleep rather than ‘soft medium or firm’.
Our three choices of mattress all have air sealed, pocket springs, and 1400 of them! Compare our specifications to any retail mattress or website we offer unbeatable value in high specification mattresses.
PS Beware of 2000 pocket spring mattresses they are often two 1000 spring units on top of each other or 1000 springs in the base and 1000 in the mattress decide for your self if this is a good idea! |
