Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Proper Mattress Care

Hi everyone, hope you’re going well. While we seldom talk about it as much as we should, sleep is actually a very important element of health and fitness. Today, we have our rising-contributor Sheila Olson from http://fitsheila.com/ who is going to share with us some tips about mattress care. Here goes:

( Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash )

Although it’s often overlooked for the more flashy of the furniture (like couches and easy chairs), the true workhorse of your home furniture collection is your mattress. When you think about it, you spend around one-third of your entire life lying on your mattress, yet you rarely think about its care and upkeep. Here’s why you should start now.

The All-Important Mattress

While it’s impossible to attribute all of your aches and pains to having a poor mattress, it can be said that sleeping on a mattress that is ill-fitted for you, in particular, can contribute to adverse effects. A lumpy mattress can cause neck pain, for example, and a mattress that doesn’t provide the proper support can lead to back and hip pain. Not only that, but old, dirty mattresses can harbor allergens, pollutants, and microbes that can make you sick.

A good mattress facilitates restful, uninterrupted sleep, whereas a bad one promotes the opposite. Proper sleep is vital to maintaining physical and mental health, so it’s easy to see why good overall health starts with proper mattress care.

Tips for Proper Mattress Care

If you want to prolong the life of your mattress as well as ensure it’s contributing to better — not worse — overall health, consider the following tips.

• Rotate and flip your mattress four times a year. If you do it right, you will never be sleeping on the same side or the same part of it for more than a few months. Evenly distributing the wear helps to smooth out lumps and mattress “hot spots.”

• Know when to give up on your current mattress. If you’ve had your mattress for more than five years, chances are it is covered with bacteria, dust mites, and other allergens that can be detrimental to your overall health. Even if you try hard to keep your home and bedding situation clean, it may not be enough. At this point, it may be time to buy a new mattress. Buying a mattress isn’t easy, and there are a lot of options and price points. It’s smart to do some research, read online reviews, and find the best mattress for your particular body and sleep style.
• Invest in a good mattress protector. The best ones are waterproof, mildew-proof, and mold-proof. Some may even protect against a collection of dust and dust mites.

• Make sure your bed frame is up to snuff. If your mattress is not supported on all sides, corners, and throughout the middle by your frame, it can sag and wear unevenly (causing longevity and support issues).

• Let it breathe. Every week, strip everything off your mattress and let it air out. This includes all sheets, foams, pads, and protectors. Fresh air can prevent the growth of bacteria, mold, mildew and other unsavory things. You should wash your sheets every week, and that’s the perfect time to give your mattress a two- or three-hour air-out.

• Using the upholstery attachment, give your mattress a thorough vacuuming whenever you vacuum the rest of your house. In and on your mattress lurks pet hair, human skin cells, dander, dust, dust mites, and a host of other things you don’t want to breathe.

Very few things are more important than getting quality sleep. If you wake up tired, sore, and feeling generally unwell, it could be due to improper mattress care. Taking less than an hour every week or so to devote to mattress care could contribute to an improvement in your overall health and happiness.

Once again, thank you Sheila! Please check out her website by clicking on the image just below. And check out the other links below that too!