- How much sleep is enough?
- Sleep and health
- Health and your Mattress
- Best mattress for you
- Give Mimpi a try
Getting a good night’s rest is an essential component in maintaining your physical and mental health. Numerous studies have resulted in research that links getting enough sleep to increasing your concentration, productivity, and cognition. Basically, getting enough sleep is essential to maintaining healthy brain function.
Sleep plays an important role for things such as thinking and studying – which are really very important. So, needless to say, a lack of sleep negatively impacts the cognitive process and it potentially poses many health issues.
Mimpi is exploring and celebrating health and sleep this month, and so in this article we will be running through the importance of getting enough sleep, why it’s important, and what mattress you should be looking for.
How much sleep is enough?
Sleep requirements vary between individuals, depending on many factors, but mostly determined by age and genetics. Our internal biological clock runs on a 24-hour cycle, but if that clocks runs fast then you are more likely to be a morning person, and if it runs a little slower then you tend to be a night owl. Most adults need between 7.5 and 8.5 hours of sleep a night. Sleep needs throughout life change, but tend to be close to the following when considering age:
- 1 to 2 months old – 10.5 to 18 hours
- 3 to 11 months old – 10 to 14 hours
- 1 to 3 years old – 12 to 14 hours
- 3 to 5 years old – 11 to 13 hours
- 5 to 12 years old – 10 to 11 hours
- 12 to 18 years old – 8.5 to 9.5 hours
- 18 years old to the end of life – 7.5 to 8.5 hours.
Individuals vary in their lifestyles and levels of physical and mental activity. Whilst experts recommend 7.5 to 8.5 hours a night, a professional athlete would typically require more, as would a farmer or someone involved in heavy manual labor. This is also true for people who spend long days in front of computer screens dealing with complex mental issues.
So it’s important to pay attention to how sleepy or physically exhausted you are during a day, and adjust your sleep accordingly. It can also help to keep a diary of your sleeping habits, recording when you go to bed and when you wake up, so you know exactly how much sleep you are getting in an average week. And if it isn’t enough, make sleep a priority. Try getting into bed early, reading a book (not your phone), and not setting an alarm to wake up to – if you have the luxury of a flexible schedule or a few days off work.
Sleep and health
When people are time poor, sleep is often the first routine to suffer, as we squeeze more into the day by getting up early and staying up later to achieve what we need to in any given day.
The physical costs of not enough sleep can go unnoticed until it’s too late as they often develop over long periods of time and are linked to other factors such as genetics, poor nutrition, and lack of exercise. Although scientists have just begun to seriously study and recognize the connections between a lack of sleep and disease, experts generally agree that getting enough sleep can be as important to health and long-term well-being as diet and exercise.
Numerous studies have concluded that reducing sleep by just two or three hours per night can have dramatic health consequences, as listed below:
- Obesity — There is a link between insufficient sleep and weight gain. A study titled “Sleep Duration and Body Mass Index in a Rural Population” found that people who slept fewer than six hours per night on a regular basis were much more likely to have excess body weight, while people who slept an average of eight hours per night had the lowest relative body fat.
- Diabetes — A large 2006 study showed that people who reported sleeping less than five hours per night had a greatly increased risk of having or developing type 2 diabetes. Other studies have shown that getting more sleep can have a positive effect on blood-sugar control and reduce the severity of type 2 diabetes.
- Cardiovascular disease and hypertension—A 2008 study found “found a robust and novel association between objectively measured sleep duration and 5-year incidence of coronary artery calcification,” meaning that reduced sleep is associated with a greatly increased the risk of coronary disease, a major predictor of heart attacks and death due to heart disease. This research also indicates a connection between sleep loss caused by sleep apnea and heart disease.
- Immune function—The link between sleep habits and the immune system are well known. People experience this in their own lives when they are sick and experience the need to sleep. While scientists are just beginning to understand these interactions, current work suggests that sleep deprivation may decrease the ability to resist infection.
- Common Cold – In a study called “Sleep Habits and Susceptibility to the Common Cold”, it was seen that those who get less than seven hours of sleep a night were about three times more likely to develop cold symptoms and people who got better quality sleep were the least likely to come down with a cold.
Health and your Mattress
In a 2011 poll, the National Sleep Foundation found that 92 percent of people say a comfortable mattress is important to a good night's sleep. When you consider that more sleep can help you lose weight, improve your memory and just generally live longer, it becomes important to invest in a good quality mattress. When you consider the risks associated with poor sleeping patterns, it’s well worth the money you spend.
Most studies agree that a medium to firm mattress is the best choice for a good night’s sleep, but there is no common standard on what makes a mattress medium to firm. So it’s an individual choice based on needs and experience.
A study by Research Triangle International and Duke University examined 16,000 nights of sleep for 128 subjects, making it one of the largest studies ever completed on normal pain-free sleepers and how mattresses impact their health. It concluded that the differences in mattresses make a large impact on sleep, and thereby on health. It also concluded that, as mentioned above, each person is different and no one firmness of mattress can be considered the best. What is clear however is that a bed that accounts for nighttime movements (tossing and rolling over) and contours to the body to provide comfort in the most positions is the best bed, regardless of firmness, and provides the best sleep.
So again, the higher quality of the mattress, the better the rest. Ideally, when selecting a mattress for optimal rest, an orthopedic bed of layers is the better choice, as it distributes weight evenly and contours to the body, providing neutral alignment of the spine and and reduced pressure on joints.
The Mimpi range of mattresses are all orthopedically designed and certified by doctors in Belgium to minimize pressure on the spine and joints and keep your spine in a neutral alignment. Mimpi mattresses have a four layer technology that provides a firm mattress that sinks in the right places and pushes back in the other places you need support.
Best mattress for you
Interestingly, the Research Triangle International and Duke University study also concluded that selecting a bed in a show room often leads to the wrong choice of mattress, stating “When allowed to test mattresses in a typical showroom experience, individuals appear to choose mattresses that do not optimize their sleep. Given that this ‘test drive’ approach is commonplace, it would seem that most of the general public may be sleeping on mattresses improperly suited to the individual owners.”
People tend to only spend a few minutes on the bed, and select it for the comfort felt in that moment, not basing their decision on how it conforms to their body shape, aligns the spine and minimizes pressure points – or the effect it will on their partners if they are moving. Essentially, most people choose the wrong mattress for a good sleep, instead choosing it based on how good it feels for a couple minutes while they are awake.
It is for this reason that the Mimpi mattresses all come with a standard 100-day return policy. So if you decide that it isn’t the right mattress for whatever reasons, you can exchange it for a different Mimpi mattress or simply get your money back. And if you’re concerned about buying a mattress you haven’t yet tried, then rest assured, trying the mattress doesn’t help (according to the study), and you are better off selecting a bed based on the technology it offers, not how comfortable it feels in the showroom.
Mattresses that also contain hypoallergenic materials can greatly increase the quality of your sleep if you are prone to allergies. All Mimpi mattresses are constructed with a natural latex core and are constructed from hypoallergenic materials with anti-microbial properties that resist mold and dust mites. So, if you are not getting enough sleep due to allergies, and exposing yourself to the risks discussed above, then Mimpi could be the right choice for that reason also.
Natural latex is also a an organic material, 100% natural, and that means it’s also good for the environment as well as you and the family.
Give Mimpi a try
Mimpi offers you premium quality mattress with an affordable price. Founded in 2016 by two friends from Belgium who relocated to Indonesia, Mimpi is produced in Indonesia from local and European materials, but made for Indonesian people.
Mimpi is also unique in that it is packaged compressed in a box, which means it’s easy to get to you and easy to set up. And when you cut the sealed packaging inside the box, both you and kids will be amazed at watching expand into a full orthopedic mattress.
Mimpi’s core values are health, luxury and comfort. Mimpi will give you the most beautiful sleep experience you’ve ever had. Proper sleep is our goal. So is it time to recharge your mind and body and live a better, more productive and healthier life?
If the answer is yes, then visit www.mimpi.co.id for further information and to get your new, medically certified mattress and enjoy the comfort of our 100-night return policy.
