Neck Pain

A slight diversion today.  Most of the time lower back pain can be crippling, neck pain is quite debilitating as well.  While there are medical reasons for neck pain, often times it is caused by the same things as lower back pain.

I am not a doctor, so I want to tend to stay away from medical diagnosis.  The mechanics of our neck is similar to our back, after all it is the top part of our spine.  The neck supports our head, one of the heaviest parts of our body, especially when considering over all weight and volume.  Like our back, our neck likes to be in a posture position.  There is a natural curve to it, and our muscles work to keep it in posture.  If we do things that may force it out of posture, then the joints will be stressed, as well as the muscles, and the result is pain.

This blog wants to promote good posture, it is one sure fire way of helping to manage pain naturally.  Since we spend one third of our life in bed, it is a good place to look.  Our mattress will help promote spinal alignment, especially in our lower back, but the pillow we choose does the same for our necks.  Consider the shape of your head and neck.  The head and shoulders are much wider than your neck.  Because of this when we sleep, especially if we are a side sleeper, we can find our neck in a non posture position for that third of our life.  This puts pressure on the joints, and makes our muscles work overtime to compensate.  A proper pillow can help our bodies to keep that posture position.

So, you ask, what is the best pillow for support?  When it comes to pillows, there are two basic kinds:  Foam and filled.  While there are some cross overs, all pillows are made of some sort of fiber or natural fill, or solid foam.  The filled pillows come in many different configurations.  There is Down, polyester, foam pieces, and other materials like the buckwheat hull pillows.  These pillows will allow your head to fall deeper into them, and if you lay on them right, support your neck.

Foam block pillows come in two basic designs:  Contour and standard shaped.  The foam can be memory or latex, but the commonality is they are one solid piece.  Memory foam will mold to your shape, and many believe that these memory foam pillows are very good at supporting your necks posture.  Latex will do much the same, the advantage of latex is that is is usually a little less warm.  The contour pillows offer support for your neck, immediately, where the standard shape needs time to mold to your individual shape.  And like the filled pillows, these pillows can help you maintain neck posture, as long as you sleep on them correctly.



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What is the correct way to sleep on a pillow?  A pillow is designed for your head and neck.  One thing we often see is that when testing a pillow in our store, a good percentage of people will put their shoulders on it as well.  If that describes you, we would recommend that you take your shoulders off the pillow, your shoulders should be supported by you mattress, not the pillow.  If you use it under the shoulders, it takes all the support away from your neck, causing strain and muscle contraction.  In your normal sleeping position your head should line up with the rest of your spine in a normal posture position, in other words, your head should not be propped up.  on fiber filled pillows you can scrunch the bottom of the pillow to support your neck, the foam pillows will do this for you.  When purchasing a pillow, just like any other product, the pillow should fit your body.  You can't know if it fits if you purchase from a catalog or online.  Even many stores just have the pillows stacked on counters, and the best you can do is feel it.  There are a few stores, primarily mattress stores that actually let you sample pillows on a mattress.  If you take this route, make sure the mattress feels similar to yours at home.

So what's the bottom line, which pillow is best?  There are a lot of great pillows out there, the best is mostly a personal choice.  While the foam pillows may offer an easier support system, if you tend to sleep hot, or like to scrunch, these may not be the ones for you.  In the case of fiber filled, they tend to let a lot of air pass through, and will sleep a bit cooler.  But the best pillow is the one made of the materials you prefer, and promote good posture for your neck.  If that is foam, then it's the best pillow, if it is fibers, then it is the best pillow, it all depends on you.

In the future, we will talk more about neck support, and talk about Smart Phone neck or Game boy neck, or even Computer / TV neck.  Until then...

Sleep Well!

Back Pain, Chapter 3

Back pain is bigger than just one blog, in fact it is immense.  We are trying to saturate the subject over several posts, and today's is the third installment.  We covered mattress shopping as a means to help put our bodies into a good posture position.  Today we want to look are non sleep related helps.

We know back pain, it used to own us pretty good.  There wasn't a day that my back didn't hurt.  But when I finally started looking at it, and stopped assuming that it was just not going away, I was able to take a whole lot less pain killers.  The reason I have concentrated on sleep, and the reason we now own a mattress store is that our sleep surface was the best change we ever made.  There are other things, and let us talk about them.

Chiropractic care is a good thing.  If you can find a good Chiropractor, they can lead you in a way to find the cause, while they alleviate the symptoms.  For many years all alternative medicine types were taken for granted, finally the mood in the country is changing, and Chiropractic is a good thing.  Now keep in mind there are still some practitioners that claim things that are incredulous, but most honestly try to help their patients be more pain free.  They learn body mechanics, and can be a well spring of help in identifying your problem.

Osteopaths are similar.  They also study body mechanics, and can help identify problems.  They tend to deal in a more medicine world, an osteopath may also be a trained physician. 

Medical doctors also work with pain.  A medical doctor can also be a surgeon, and there are times that surgery is the best course.  Never ignore any possibilities.  However, since surgery is very invasive, if possible, we recommend trying less invasive treatments first.

Along with these professionals there are a myriad of products on the market that claim to help.  Some are better than others, and for these products we recommend that you talk to friends that may have tried them.  If you do find something that helps, please review their product for the sake of others.  The more information you can find, the easier the decision, and a personal recommendation is a great help.



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There are basically two ways to attack the pain.  The first is to mask it with drugs.  While drugs can be useful, particularly in extreme cases, they do not go to the cause of the pain.  The second are mechanical devises or wearable devices.  These would include clothing worn to maintain posture, or machines that manipulate your skeleton.  Isn't it better to try to find the cause of pain and correct it than to just take pain killers forever?

Again the important part is finding out what is causing the pain.  Keep a journal noting what you are doing before you feel pain.  Once you see a trend, analyze that activity.  Let's use an example.  We will assume that we have discovered gardening is causing us pain.  We need to look at how we garden.  Are we lifting heavy plants or fertilizer bags incorrectly?  Are we stooping in odd ways?  It could be something as simple as the shoes you wear while gardening.  Attempt to change habits or wear different shoes and see if it helps.  Learn the proper way to lift, and get help with really heavy things.

We hope that helps you to start on a road of recovery.  And of course we are available at our store to help.  If you know of a product or service that has helped your pain, let us know in the comments.  We want you to have less pain, and we will do our part!  Until next time...

Sleep Well!

More About Back Pain

So when we wrote about back pain, we didn't expect it to be so popular.  To date, that particular entry has been viewed by four times as many people as any other blog we have written.  We did a search for back pain and blogs and what follows is a screen shot of just the blog results.



 

There seems to be an infinite number of results for that search, and with good reason.  According to ABC News, 6 of 10 people report back pain.  And that's a lot of people!  Back pain is even worse when we realize that almost everything we do involves using our backs.  Even sitting still requires our back muscles to hold us in place.

And if we have a chronic condition, it really impacts our lives.  Why do so many experience back pain?  Depends on who you listen to, however, most people really don't care, they want it to go away.

The causes of back pain are many.  It may be because of our jobs, or because of our body mass, or even the posture that we keep ourselves in.  It could be related to injury, or even genetics.  And the big one, in our view, aging.  The problem is, that unless we can repair the damage, the pain will continue, and in some cases intensify.

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How can we repair it?  Again, depending on the source, many different things.  We do propose a consistent and quasi scientific approach.  Remember the old joke:  Doctor my back hurts when I do this.  And the Doctor replies Don't do that!  We actually feel that is relevant advise.  We also believe that the human body is an amazing machine.  For minor to some extreme problems, your body will strive to fix itself.  Tissue regeneration, and other things can help, as long as you do not continue doing what caused it in the first place.

We like to suggest to start with the most natural approach to back pain.  Keep in mind that you should at least mention it to a medical professional, they will have insights that you will not.  Pain in general is a warning sign that something is wrong, back pain is no different.  The first thing to do is determine what is causing the pain.  Once you have isolated the cause, then you can consider what to do.  Obviously, if the cause is an accident, medical attention is critical. 

The natural approach is our primary choice simply because for thousands of years it was the only choice, and our bodies have a significant arsenal to deal with it.  The biggest weapon in that arsenal is sleep.  During sleep our brains are regenerated, information is committed to certain memory centers, and our physical body is addressed.

Muscles freeze during sleep, at one point you are paralyzed.  This mechanism helps the body find and deal with minor injuries of the previous day, but also more severe injuries.  Doctors even induce coma to help with certain injuries.  A coma is very similar to sleep.  Here's the hitch, though, if sleep is causing the pain, it won't fix it until you figure out why.

Doctors, Osteopaths, and Chiropractors all would probably recommend to sleep on your back.  They would probably go farther to tell you to use a pillow under your knees.  But why?  What they are trying to do is to get your body in a good posture position.  Taking the stress off the joints, allows the body to start repairs.  We go one step farther, we suggest you look at your sleep space.

Since the late 1800s, Innerspring mattresses have provided us with our sleep surface, and today 70% sleep on springs.  That is not bad, as long as all those decades of experience doesn't influence your decision when you buy a mattress.  There are many myths about mattresses that we all take as fact.  Spring beds can be a great surface.  Too many of us buy them wrong.  Hard is not firm, there is a minute difference.  Firm indicates that the surface helps your body maintain posture.  Hard just indicates the feel. 

Today, there are alternatives to springs, and many have been developed since the 1960s.  If you have pain in your back, especially in the morning when you rise, do research on what each technology can do for you.  Please do not exclude any technology until you have experienced it.  For 25 years, I traveled for a living.  Driving town to town all over the Midwest.  Staying in a different motel most nights (by the way, I am glad those days are over).  As a result, I slept on many different beds.  Springs were the most, but water beds, memory foam beds and air beds were also in the mix.

I found, as an example, I did not do well on memory foam, water beds made me cold, if I forgot to turn on the heater, and some motels had really bad spring beds.  That was my experience, yours may be different, after all we are individuals.  So what style of bed would work best for you?  Here's the natural approach:  Check the styles out in stores, the ones you think you may do well on keep in mind.  Once you have a idea of what you would like to try, consider a weekend trip with your spouse or significant other.  Find a motel or hotel that has the style you want to try.  Spend a couple nights on it.  Evaluate how well it worked, or didn't work.  Repeat.  Two things come from this approach, your social life is helped, and you can experiment relatively cheaply.  Build your perfect bed in your mind.

Once you have the style in mind, continue shopping.  Look for models that feature what you want.  If you are a side sleeper, you will probably like lots of comfort materials on top.  Back and stomach sleepers prefer much less.  Do not buy a "fashion" bed, or in other words, a bed that is popular because of a TV show, or a brand name.  Brand names can be useful, but do not assume all offerings in a brands catalogue are the same.  The trend today is "Good, Better, Best" marketing.  Use a retailer that is genuinely interested in you, not in up selling.  You can tell by observing how they approach the sale, keep in mind that they all want your business and will ask for it.  Are they overly hyping one brand over another?  Are they trying to sell you on the lowest price?  Do they listen to what you say? 

The last step is to try to find a store that has a return policy.  We are making a good guess, but you never know.  Continue to evaluate how your pain is feeling for several weeks, if it is improving, you made a great choice.  If not, it is time to try other things to help it. 

Since back pain is a popular subject, watch for our next entry as we continue to explore ways of helping us live pain free lives, naturally.  Until then...

Sleep Well!

50% off! And a Few of Our Favorite Ads.

How Can They Do It, It's Crazy!

Sound like a bed ad you have seen or heard?  We thought so.  But not at our store.  We try our best to offer the best product, and the fairest prices, everyday.  You will not see a 50% off sale here, our regular retails and sale retails are just too low to do that.  In fact, some of our beds are priced below the 50% off marketing geniuses, all day, everyday.

We Guarantee the Lowest Price!

Another good one right?  Most stores have limits on the geographic area.   Most stores require the same exact model, most manufacturers make many different models for this reason.  Those price guarantees are mostly worthless.  Our store does not restrict the geography, and we will match prices even to a different manufacturer, as long as the item specifics show it is substantially like the model we carry.

Queen Mattresses $399*!

Then in the small print it says "each piece when bought as a set."  Not sure of those stores but our most expensive, normal foundation is $299 everyday.  And we have platform bases for about $199.  Our least expensive queen mattress is $699, for a high quality, long lasting mattress.  Same price, but a better bed.

Free TV with Purchase!

Bottom line on this one is that you pay a higher price for the bed, to get a free TV.  Buy them separate, you will get a better bed, and a better TV.

Best Price of the Year!

Probably is, however, it is the price they have sold it at all year.  Nothing special about the price.  All stores need to make a profit to pay rent, utilities and labor.  Instead shop a store that has lower overhead.  How do you know?  Just look at it.  We, as an example, have a nice store.  It is clean and light.  We do not have fancy ceiling work, we do not have a special lighting scheme, we do not have a fancy pressure mapping system to help you choose your bed, we let you decide by what is important, how it feels.  Your back is the best pressure mapper around.

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There are marketers out there, but the cost to all retailers is essentially the same.  Whether you are the largest retailer in the nation, or a small family business in St. Louis.  We know of a retailer that spends fully 50% of what you pay for a bed in marketing.  We don't, guess who has the better value?

We also use a business model that keeps overhead as low as possible.  Doing that takes inventory costs out of the equation.  We do not have a CEO or a broad management base.  We just read a story of a public company, the CEO makes over $2 million in compensation.  They have 400+ stores, so that works out to about $5000 per store.  We do not have share holders.  We sell great products, but because of our overhead, we will save you money.

What we do instead, is educate ourselves in the art of great sleep.  We are not afraid of offering sleep tips.  We are also not afraid to admit our limitations.  We like hearing from past customers, whether good or bad.  We love to help solving sleep or mattress problems.  We have never taken a customer frivolously, and we never will.  We have never had a BBB complaint in over 2 years in business.

Here's what we mean by that.  We shop our competitors regularly.  One such trip recently, we were particularly interested in Tempurpedic mattresses, as we were preparing to launch our Sleep Harmony line.  The Sales pro was nice, but for some reason he had to get us away from Tempurpedic, and have us try a different memory foam bed by a different manufacturer.  It was obvious to us that he made a better commission on the other bed.  We don't care.  We make enough on what ever bed you purchase and are not looking to squeeze a few extra dollars from the sale.  We have set our commission schedules to favor no one brand or bed.  Meaning you get what YOU want here.

Is it time to change the way you shop for a bed?  We think so.  And by the way, want to see that this is how the industry works?  Check out this video by a store in Michigan.  Wish we would have thought of his word:  "Beducation"  That's what its all about!

Sleep Well!

Mattress Myths and Economics

We write another blog about economics, so we thought it might be alright to talk about the economics of mattresses.  We also are finding some myths out there about what constitutes a good mattress. so without further ado...

Mattress economics is quite simple.  Stores have mattresses and you need somewhere to sleep.  That's when it gets complicated.  There are at least four separate technologies out there to choose from.  The oldest is Innerspring.  Most myths developed around these spring mattresses, and frankly a number of them are true.  The biggest is the bed needs to be firm.  This is true, but only if you are talking about springs, and only if you know the definition of firm. 

Firm as it applies here means a high coil count, not just a harder surface.  The coil count in a mattress determines how many points of contact it will make with your body.  The more points of contact, the more support the bed will have.  Stiffer, but fewer in number coils do not offer as much support as higher count springs, but the less springs, the less raw materials, and the less it costs to produce.  Laying on a spring bed and choosing it because it is harder than other test beds is a mistake.  Weed out the low coil count beds and then test what is left.  A great spring bed will support your posture with a large number of coils reacting to the weight of your body, that is support.  Too hard and it will throw your body out of posture and you will wake with pain at some point.

While this is true of spring beds, the opposite is true of other technologies like water, air or foam.  The truth is that for these beds softer is some what more supportive as it will allow your body to find equilibrium on the surface.  If you think you might want a softer sleep, like you get in the trusty recliner, consider these other technologies, you might find they suit your needs better.

Another myth, promulgated by some of our brothers is that you should replace your mattress every 8 to 10 years.  This one is more or less true for spring beds.  Spring mattress manufacturers design their beds to last about 10 years for the average sized consumer.  If you are heavier than that average, your bed will last less, and if you are lighter your bed will last longer.  They use 10 years for a reason as well.  Our bodies change over time.  The support we need on a mattress will change as our bodies change.  The average length of time where the current support will not be optimal anymore is 10 years.



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With higher coil gauge and coil counts, and better materials, there is no reason a spring bed couldn't be engineered to last 25 to 30 years.  But the cost would be high, and at about 10 years your body will need different support anyway, which is an economic waste of money to throw away a good bed.  The same is true of foam beds.  Honestly, there are only two technologies that lend themselves to long usage, water and air.  Both of these technologies have the ability to change the support level as your body changes.  As a result the most reputable manufacturers of these technologies use better foams and fabrics and they can last 20 or more years, some of the best will last indefinitely, as you can change parts and avoid buying a whole new bed.  Water beds are somewhat out of vogue, as air beds are climbing in popularity.  Tempurpedic, a foam company, is launching an air base bed for this very reason.

The last myth of this post is that if your bed isn't quite right, you can just add a topper to it and it will last another 5 years.  This is untrue for all technologies.  Hope springs eternal, but the fact is foam toppers, like pillow tops offer comfort, not support.  If you are waking with back or neck pain, the support in your mattress is gone.  Putting a topper on it will not correct the issue.  And all "valleys" in the bed do not mean the support is gone, it can be just the foam, in this case a topper might help, but will not give you long term repair.

Beds have three major parts inside that cover.  They have a base level, a support level and a comfort level.  Some manufacturers to save money eliminate the base level, as the customer doesn't feel it.  Spring beds base level is a box spring, or a foundation with springs in it with a hard surface.  Foam beds use high density foam as a base level, other foam as the support level, and a comfort level that is designed to feel good, like memory foam or latex foam.  Some sagging comes from inferior foams, or even layered foams and batting.  Seems the demand was for higher mattresses, and so some added loft by making the top layer too high.

I have had laments about not being able to flip mattresses any more.  Flipping would make them last longer, but in consumer research, manufactures have found people don't flip anyway, so why add the expense.

Mattresses are a commodity.  As such they are extremely competitive on price.  Two things add to the price, raw materials and promotion.  That's right promotion.  I know of at least one company who spends about half of the wholesale price of their beds to buy advertising.  So when you shop, and you think you might like a certain mattress, check out all offerings.  The best deal may not be the easiest to find, because they don't promote as heavily.  In the case of springs, while there are a lot of brands, there are probably three spring makers, who sell to all the brands.  In the case of foam and air, check out the quality of the components.  Most air manufacturers make "modular" beds, there is no reason to not look under the hood to see the foams and other parts.  Judge these beds by their components.

Hope that helps a bit.  As you do research, and that is most common any more, use sites like the BBB, Angie's list or specific sites like Sleep Like the Dead.  You can tell a lot about the quality by the number of complaints ( or lack there of) lodged against different technologies.  Hope this helps you to...

Sleep Well!

$175,000 for a Bed?

What does $175,000 buy?  Top of the line Memory Foam?  The top of the line air chambered bed?  How about Gel Memory Foam?  Nope, none of those.  As we were scanning the news for sleep topics, we ran across this story:  $175,000 Mattress Sold as 'Investment' in Good Sleep.  It caught our attention!

Our family runs a bed store, and what we would give to sell a mattress at this price.  But, we guess it is out of our price range!  It does indicate what some people value good sleep at.  Do you think that this is a special mattress?  Maybe, it is a throwback, like some of the soft drinks lately.  And it is a publicity stunt.

There is no reason to pay this much money for a mattress of this type, unless perhaps your royalty in England.  Just a note, there are a lot of great mattresses out there that will not cost you the price of a house in the mid west!

Spring mattresses generally will cost between a $1000 and $2000 for better queen size mattresses.  Spring beds will last 7 to 10 years.  Then repeat the process.

Memory foam beds will cost more for the high end brands, but there are some very good brands that will actually cost you less than a good spring bed.  The lifespan of foam is 10 to 20 years, with some wear expected in the topper foam.

Latex beds are slightly more than memory foam, but it seems they will last longer, so value goes to latex in the foam bed segment.

Air chambered beds run from about $700 to $4000 depending on the construction.  A good average would be between $1500 to $2000.  These are competitive with spring beds in price, but they will last at least twice as long, making them a very good value.  In fact they will last as long or longer than that $175k bed, with much less "maintenance".



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The point is, if you want to invest in sleep, and don't own a country, choose a great mattress.  Consider all types.  Nothing is as sad as the customers we see that say they hate their bed, but will only look at the same bed again.  You may, or may not like the feel of these new beds, but consider a test drive to make sure.

The above story gave us a good chuckle, and we just wanted to share it with you...

Sleep Well!

To Gel, or Not to Gel

That is the question.  Gels have been with us for years, but Serta was the first major company to sell mattresses infused with gel.  Is it all hype?  Or does it really work?  Today we would like to explore this question.

The short answer is yes it does seem to work.  When you add gel to memory foam as Serta does, the gel does two things.  First it does help make the sleep surface cooler, and second the gel does enhance the support in the memory foam.

Memory foam is too soft to be the support of a mattress.  Without the proper support underneath the memory foam you would not like it.  All memory foam makers put memory foam over the top of other substances.  We typically see it over other foam.  But some have installed it on top of Innerspring, while others have used it over an air technology. 

All foam has received bad marks for the temperature control for the sleeper.  In an original Innerspring, there was just a thin layer of comfort materials above the springs.  This allowed a lot of air to move past the surface, and that air would take the heat with it.  Tempurpedic is probably the most successful of the memory foam makers, but if you search for what people say about it, heat is always close to the top.  Keep in mind that even they have recognized the heat issue, and have made good strides to make it better.  The memory foams of today are significantly better than the earlier versions. 

So when Serta was launching their gel memory foam, we were interested, and as a mattress retailer we were invited to a show.  We were amazed with the feel and the coolness of the bed.  Apparently so where customers.  Anytime there is a successful product, others will join the market.  Our vendor, Comfortaire released their version about a year ago and more recently expanded the line.  The gel in these beds remains cool, and we have heard that it can affect the temperature by three or more degrees. 

But is gel all you should consider?  No, the entire bed can make your experience better.  For instance, what is over the top of the bed will affect temperature.  There are Tencil fabrics, bamboo fabrics and even engineered products like Outlast or Cool Max.  All of these will enhance the performance of the bed.  Another consideration is whether or not the top is quilted.  Quilted tops do allow air to move right at the surface and that can keep you cooler as well.  Quilted tops also help with your movement on top of the bed.  The trade off is that it changes the feel of the bed, but not necessarily in a bad way.



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But what of the base foam that the gel is infused in?  Most makers of fine mattresses are using memory foam.  Memory foams popularity began when Tempurpedic introduced their beds in the late 1980s.  It was a mistake in the research arm of NASA, and while it never went to space, it has made things better for us earthlings.  As with all things, as time goes by, the substance is improved.  But there are other gel infused foams.  Recently we found gel latex.  This is remarkable stuff, and could be the next big thing in mattresses.  Latex is not as soft as memory foam.  Latex is more resilient than memory foam.  And it has a firmer feel than memory foam.  The bed we found has infused gel in talalay latex.  Talalay is a process for making foam that actually leaves holes in the finished product.  It looks a lot like a sheet of peg board, with holes every inch or so.  These holes generally go through the foam.  So what is the point of these holes? 

The holes are part of the manufacturing process.  But these holes do allow massive amounts of air to filter through the material.  And remember the Innerspring example?  More air makes for a cooler sleep.  Our newest vendor has infused gel in to the talalay to make it even better.  As we searched for "Better Beds" we are liking this new technology. 

We hope to bring these beds into our store very soon.  Our requirements are for the bed to be long lasting, which this product is, the expectations are that they will out last similar memory foam beds.  That the bed perform better than other models, this one is too new to tell, but early tests suggest it will.  And that the bed is affordable, and that is absolutely true in the case of this bed, our Queen size is set to retail at a sale price of under $1300, for the medium firm version!  And the bed must be attractive.  If you would like updates on when they will be available to test drive, 'Follow Us' on Twitter.  'Like Us" on Face Book, or 'Join our Circle" on Google+, or just watch our web site for updates.  And as always...

Sleep Well!