Back to School Sleep

The time is nearing, it's time for the children to go back to school.  Another exciting year of learning and fun needs a good base to build on.  It's a little exciting here as our first grandchild, and namesake of our business is heading to kindergarten.  The other night we got to meet the teacher, and that is another blog entirely!  Things have certainly changed since we went to kindergarten.  More importantly, it is time to review things that will help your child thrive in school.  Click on the links to see more detailed information about individual subjects.

This blog is about sleep so we will concentrate there.  And we feel that sleep is critical to effective learning.  It is during sleep that we process stimulus (learning) from the just finished day.  Ineffective sleep, or too little sleep can impact the ability to retain knowledge, and affect grades.  Schools do a pretty good job of not overloading the hours kids are there, and as parents or grandparents, it is important that we give those we love the best chance to excel.  When it come to sleep, here is what you can do.

• Set a bedtime for school nights and encourage the same time throughout the week.
• Make sure there is wind down time prior to bed time to make sure that sleep starts on time.
• Get home work and projects done earlier in the day, so as not to cause the sleep hormones to short circuit.
• Make sure the bed and room are optimal for sleep.
• Set expectations early, to form a habit for later years such as college.
• Encourage a "normal" wake time as well, as tough as that will be with teens!
• Make sure that the kids get the appropriate amount of sleep for their age.

Setting bed times, wake times, with the right amount of time in between is important.  The sleep cycles must complete in the normal time associated with them over the course of a night.  If the bed time is too late, then the child will not perform well.  We understand that there are video games to be played, TV to watch, or computer related activities that attempt to steal sleep.  Please be firm about the bed time, in 20 years they will understand, even though they are angry now.  I remember once, my mom said "I don't care what the other kids are doing, you're going to bed!"  What a declaration of love, thanks Mom!



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Proper sleep can help your child learn, but it can also help the teacher with classroom discipline.  Well rested children do less things that were not thought through.  Enhancing the environment of learning.

Sleep can also help them perform better in sports and PE.  Sleep is when the body is conditioned to respond to the needs of the muscles.  While it will not add muscle mass, it can help coordination.

Finally, make sure the kids are not too busy.  We all want them to experience everything, but that will impact sleep and they will be less able to perform at all things.  Let them choose, encourage them to do what they are good at doing.  And don't let the schedule affect total sleep or bed times.

They are only young once, and life offers no do overs, so help them do it right the first time, and start with sleep. 

Sleep Well!

Neck Pain II

So we talked briefly about neck pain.  We spend 8 hours a day in bed, so that is why a pillow is so important.  After all, we should get a good start on the day.  To recap, when in bed the pillow needs to support your neck and allow your head to assume a normal posture position.  This takes the strain off the individual vertebra.  It allows your joints to relax, and may promote some rejuvenation leading to lesser pain.

What about when we are not in bed?  We use our neck all day, and it can become fatigued.  If we take care in how we perform our daily duties, we can often side step future problems.  Let's look a at few scenarios.

Office workers today use a lot of computers.  Computers have made generating reports, completing sales, and accounting much easier than in the past.  Early in the computer age, computers were brought in to the office and set on desks, sometimes that is still the case.  We need to look at the ergonomics of computers.  Today's screens tend to be flat panel, so they are easy to move.  Pay attention to the location of the screen, it should be at eye level as you are sitting in a good posture position in the chair.  If you have to lift your head up or down to view the monitor, it is not aligned properly.   That alignment is critical, because of the amount of use it gets.  If you find yourself massaging your neck during the day, consider moving the monitor.  Maybe use those useless phonebooks to raise it off the desk surface, or if the stand adjusts change that adjustment.



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Construction workers often find themselves in peculiar positions.  If you have to look up or down too long at your work, this too can create stress on your neck joints and muscles.  There is no way to avoid all positions, but if you can adjust a work table or ladder to bring your work in to a more eye level position, it would help take the stress off.  Any breaks you get be sure to try to maintain your neck in a good posture to relax those muscles and joints.

So we get home at night, we do our chores, then we relax before bed.  Many of us will surf the net, or read, or watch TV to relax in these situations.  Do it with your neck in mind.  Make sure any screens are eye level, avoid long periods of time when you have to lift up or bend down your head.  Adjust the height of the screen to encourage a good posture.  At home, we can also use a pillow or comfy chair to support our head and neck in a good posture way, relaxing the joints and muscles.

While some neck issues are medical in nature, many of our "pains" are just the way we live our lives.  And even those medical issues might be helped by attempting good posture.  And while some pain is part of the human condition, we can strive to minimize the every day pains due to living.  We hope that this gets you thinking some, and that it might help you to be more pain free in your life.  If you have any tricks, why not leave a comment below.  Until next time....

Sleep Well!

Types of Back Pain

Today let's talk about the causes of back pain. Back pain can come from a number of reasons, the following list is not all inclusive.

• Overwork
• Stress
• Genetics
• Injury
• Obesity
• Lack of exercise
• Age

We can overwork our back causing muscle soreness. This is the easiest to “cure” our backs will normally go back to a non-pain condition if we rest long enough. And the plus to this type of pain is that the overwork may help strengthen our back muscles which can keep future pain away.

 

Stress can also cause pain. When we are stressed our muscles will tighten. It happens in our head, the stress headache, and it can happen in other parts of our body as well. This type of pain can usually be controlled with a mild analgesic and can lessen as we control the stress. However, keep in mind a continual stressful condition can harm much more than our back. If you find yourself in continuous stress, seek help to eliminate it from your life.

 

Genetics can play a role as well. Genetics would determine structure of the vertebra in the back, and imperfections can lead to pain. In this situation there is generally only a few ways to deal with it. Constant pain medication or surgery. If the pain is bearable, consider other homeopathic ways of dealing with the pain. It has been our experience that there is a high level of failure in back surgery.

Injuries, whether on the job, in a car or other transportation vehicles, or any other way in this world can cause pain as well. Some injuries are mild and with some aspirin and time will heal nicely. Others are more serious, and as with genetics, the very worse injuries need to be deal with medically.

In the United States, we tend to have a problem with obesity. Obesity will foul the mechanics in the vertebra and cause injury to the spinal column due to extra stress on the joints. Sometimes just losing the extra pounds will help. While doing that, find ways to support good posture. Back support is available, along with our favorite, a great bed! Posture will allow your body to rest between stress periods.

Lack of proper exercise is another cause of back pain. The reason for this is our muscles work integrally with our vertebra to maintain a minimal stress position. When you ignore the muscles in the back, they will atrophy, or weaken, preventing them from doing the job. Add exercises designed to work the back muscles to strengthen them.



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And of course as we age, parts wear out. Things like osteoporosis or other degenerative diseases can weaken the bone, or wear down the discs that cushion them. Some medications can hasten this, like steroids. Talk with your doctor to determine the cause. This is probably the worse pain to deal with, and often the saddest for those who love you. There are some things you can do, from taking supplements, or changing diet, to surgery. Unfortunately, sometimes there is nothing that can correct the problem, then you will have to manage the pain. Again, talk to your doctor about proper pain management.

While doctors were mentioned a few times above, there are other providers to consider. Acupuncturists, and Chiropractors come to mind. And if you have read here before, we generally like to recommend the least invasive treatments first. Saving the most invasive treatments like surgery for if nothing else works. There are also some machines that gently stretch and align your back. Less invasive treatments also are less expensive, and have a quicker recover time. However you handle the scourge of back pain...

Sleep Well!

Your Back Hurts, Now What?

Your back hurts now what? As we were reading through the news recently, we discovered several interesting articles. One of them in particular, piqued our interest.  It was an article about multi-disciplinary treatment of lower back pain.

This is typically what we like to recommend.  Primarily because we don't believe any one discipline has all the answers.  It is that belief that has motivated us in our quest for back pain relief. If one were to go to a medical doctor, perhaps some invasive technique would be used like surgery, or even spinal shots. If one went to a chiropractor, surgery would not be performed. We believe that no one discipline offers all the solutions for every back pain sufferer.  Sometimes it takes a combination approach to be successful.

 And while we admire all the practitioners, our main scope is to try the least invasive treatments first. 
 Sometimes surgery is indicated, sometimes surgery fails.  If surgery fails, we look at it as irreversible.  So we would urge people to try other things first.  The way we got into back pain management was through our store.  We sell mattresses and bedding, and we have experienced back pain.

Perhaps the least invasive thing one can do, is to sleep on a new, better bed. If this doesn't help the pain, it is reversible.  There are other technologies, or treatments that can be tried next.  There are products out there like machines that hang you upside down, allowing gravity to take the pressure off  the spine.  There are products that manipulate the body to stretch muscles.  And these products are generally cheaper than surgery as well.



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 The next least invasive thing would be a massage therapist, followed by a Chiropractor.  Chiropractors manipulate the bones to try to get to alignment, when that happens the patient can then maintain it with good posture.  After Chiropractors there are Acupuncturists.  Then Doctors and Osteopaths.  If you climb the ladder as such, perhaps all that is left is surgery.  Isn't good to know that that surgery was necessary, rather than unnecessary?  We believe so, that's why we like this approach.

Many people will suffer back pain in their life, many of those can manage the pain, or improve it by listening to their bodies.  By maintaining great posture from an early age, we can avoid a lot of issues.  When pain shows up, don't ignore it and hope it's going to get better.  Except in the mildest cases it will not.  Be proactive. 

Here's hoping that this helped some, and as always...

Sleep Well!

Fibromyalgia and Sleep

Fibromyalgia is a disease that can impact sleep.  It can mimic arthritis, but is generally more related to muscles, a deep pain, and it generally is more widespread than arthritis.  Because of the pain, this disease will impact sleep, both quantity and quality.  So what should we do?

There are many who say they sleep enough at night, but feel fatigued when they wake.  The pain from Fibro is probably impacting the sleep cycles, preventing them from staying in the sleep cycles long enough to be productive.  Lack of sleep over a long term can affect other parts of your health.  So the trick would seem to be how to get enough sleep.  Getting enough sleep and the right kind can help your body to handle the pain better.

Sleep can be elusive, but is necessary, so it is important to learn to sleep better.  Sufferers from fibro need to be sleep experts.  And of course (here come the shameless self promotion), your bed can make a major impact.  If the bed conforms to you, it will spread the pressure out over more of your body, lessening it at any given point.  Less pressure means you can sleep better.  Our store sells beds that, if purchased correctly can mitigate pressure.  Whether it is our great Comfortaire air chambered beds, or our amazing Sleep Harmony foam products, good sleep can go a long way to helping you manage this issue.

Of course there are medical treatments to help with the pain, and since pain is the primary culprit, these would be a good thing, especially in more aggressive cases.  One thing not to rule out is other more natural ways to help your body sleep better.  For instance, low impact and aerobic exercise.  Exercise can do two things:  Help keep the stiffness in check, and help your body sleep better.  Just remember, you do not want to exercise close to bed time because it will bring up your body temperature, and increase your blood flow and tendency to be awake by decreasing certain hormones.



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If exercise is good for people in general, then it is crucial for the sufferers of fibro.  Diet can also impact your sleep, and with all health related issues, a good balanced diet is a very good thing.  The pain and lethargy of fibro will sometimes cause sufferers to not want to cook or exercise.  It is our spirit that can help keep us going.  And, if it helps that is even more encouraging.  A good body weight would also mean that the muscles have less work when at rest, which may help.  Strong muscles may also help over ride some pain, perhaps not all, but is it worth a try?

Most of fibro treatment is managing the disease.  We have not heard of a cure.  And that can be frustrating.  So a positive mental attitude is also important.  That may be the hardest part of this regimen, after all, chronic pain never goes completely away.  If you live with a person suffering, first understand it is real pain, then help support a healthy lifestyle, and perhaps get a book of jokes to try to keep your partner's attitude up.

The last thing for this post is to control stress.  Stress seems to be part of the equation, and many of us do not handle stress well.  Stress also increases our propensity to eat bad, and to save energy by not using any unnecessary movements, IE exercise.  So study stress management, and exercise to increase endorphins, the body's natural pain killers.  Find ways to control stress levels in your life, again different people react differently, but there is a method that will work, don't give up trying!

There is much we are learning on this disease.  It is important to keep watching the news on this, especially if you or a loved one suffer from it.  We hope that in the near future there will be strides towards eliminating this, and help those inflicted with it.  But until then...  try to...

Sleep Well!

Internet Reviews

Just a quick vent today.  I was out on the Internet earlier.  I like to see the competitive landscape, since we are in the mattress business, we need to know we are aggressively competitive in the market place.  I ran in to a similar product to what we sell.  And like most in our particular end of the mattress universe, this was another air adjustable bed site, which I only briefly explored earlier.  This particular site had a YouTube video on how to assemble their mattress, and I thought it would show insight in to how their beds were made.  And it did.

Have you ever noticed how at the end of a YouTube video, there are always options that show tie ins to the video you just watched?  This one did too.  I clicked on a random video, and up pops a review, actually a second review by the same person, of Sleep Number Beds.  As some or all of you may know, I am not a fan of Sleep Number Inc., they are my largest competitor, and they seem to be able to suck up a vast majority of sales.  And my attitude has always been:  good for them, and I explore to see if there is anything that might help us.  Before I go any further, let me just state, Sleep Number makes a great mattress.  And, the mattresses we sell are made by the second largest name in the industry, Comfortaire.  There are similarities between the 2, I believe the Comfortaire product is just a little better in materials and value. 

This reviewer starts out by saying he doesn't like Sleep Number, he doesn't like Tempurpedic, he doesn't like iComfort by Serta, he doesn't like "cheap" spring beds, and he doesn't like water beds.  Ladies and gentleman, that leaves only one technology he does like, and that is springs.  He does admit that you have to buy high end springs at about "$4,000 to $10,000" to find a bed he does like.  And while we think better beds is a good idea, they do not have to cost that much.  He lists off a litany of complaints against Sleep number.  And frankly it sounds like most of his problems were of his own doing.  One he mentioned twice was a broken screen on the remote, and it can happen, but usually there is some force involved.  We only wish that his complaints were true, it might help our business. 



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Rather, often when I hear complaints like these, one of two things is going on.  Either he works for a high end spring maker, or he is mad at Sleep Number and in his own way is trying to damage their business.  And honestly, like most of us, they are not perfect.  It reminds me, and this is the point of this article, that always read with a grain of salt anything on the Internet.  Having said that, there are several good sources to look to about all beds, the BBB and SleepLikeTheDead.com.  Both of these have legitimate reviews good and bad of the beds, as well as, in the BBB's case, letter grades.  Both these sites look at the industry, not from what they like or don't but rather how the company treats their customers.  Does Sleep Number have complaints?  Yes they do, and they tend to have more than #2 Comfortaire, probably because they sell more.  There is not a spring maker that comes even close to the rating of either Sleep Number or Comfortaire, in fact Mattress Firm, who sells primarily springs and foam has an F with the BBB, compare that to Comfortaire's A+, or the fact that our store has never had a complaint lodged with the BBB.

Our industry has some public relations to do, there is a little apprehension from customers and they generally think of us like a used car salesman, but at least we're above politicians!  There are some very fine beds out there, and they don't cost $10,000.  In fact most chiropractors would recommend air or foam products over springs when it comes to keeping your posture in a good position, and eliminating pressure points.  There is clinical research to back that up.  And most importantly, there are a lot of people out there who are pleased with their air adjustable bed.

So save money, and consider air technology to...

Sleep Well!

You read About the $175,00 Matress, What About the Other Extreme?

Admittedly, the $175,000 mattress story sounded good for a blog on sleep.  Sometimes it's just a gift!  One thing we also look at is the other extreme.  You've seen the ads "Queen Mattress Sets $299".  And while something is better than nothing, some times maybe going to WalMart and getting a blow up camping mattress might be better!

There are certain costs in making a mattress.  Material, especially good material, is not cheap.  Steel for the spring costs something, and frankly there is not many people who make the steel springs, so the cost will not fall because of competitiveness.  Foam costs as well.  So how can the BIG BLASTING WAREHOUSE STORE sell beds that cheap?

Honestly they can't.  There are some things, like paper towels, toilet paper, and mattresses, that have a pretty standard cost structure.  And that's what we dislike so much about those selling these extremely cheap mattresses.  Some time take a look at paper towels in the store.  Use your smart phone and divide the price by the number of towels.  Bet you will find that the name brands and the store brands are about the same price.  Now go in to a store that sells the cheap mattress.  Ask them the coil count, bet it is much less than the quality brands we have all heard about.  Check the warranty, bet is much less than those same brands, and there is probably exclusions that will keep this warranty from ever applying.

Look at the amount of foam.  Unfortunately, you can't open these beds up and see the quality of the foam, it is not pretty.  Feel the fabric.  Lay on the bed.  The point we are trying to make is that the only way to make these mattresses cost so little is to take shortcuts.  Lower quality, less life expectancy, and purchases more often.  When we started in mattresses, most manufacturers suggested replacing your mattress every 10 years.  Now I see commercials that state:  "Replace Every 8".

We have talked to people who are shopping again, and say their beds is 3 or 4 years old, some even younger.  So let's take the $299.  Now since they will not last as long as a good mattress, let's adjust.  Since the standard is 10 years on good mattresses, and these seem to last about 3, would it be fair to use a factor of 3? (10/3=3.3333)  So now take the $299 and multiply by 3.  That's almost $900!  Now look in that same store at mattresses costing $900, and lay on them. 



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Longevity is one thing, comfort is the second thing.  The better mattresses will just feel better.  So while you are considering the cheapo mattress, realize it will not feel as good either.  But that's part of the reason... You see, you went to that store, didn't you.  You laid on the cheapo and didn't like it didn't you?  The Sales person showed you a better mattress, didn't they.  And more often than not, you bought the better mattress.  It achieved it's main objective, it brought you into their store.  And of course, since they had the cheapo, you assumed all their mattresses were spectacularly priced.  It's marketing.  WalMart does it, Kmart does it, Sears does it, as well as most other retailers in the world.  And it isn't just beds.

Grandma said it best:  "you get what you pay for."  And while we are capitalists, and believe that we should all compete in the market, this is not serving the customer well.  Buying on price alone is not a great way to buy. 

Now what if we had a mattress that had a 20 year limited warranty, and is constructed in such a way that it may last 30 or more years?  Using the same math would you pay $3000 for a bed?  Would that bed be a good value at $2000?  Or how about that bed at $1000?  We sell that bed, it's a Comfortaire, and some models are less than $600.  Is paying twice as much for a bed that will last 3 times as long, has higher quality materials, improves sleep, is more comfortable, supports better,  a value?  Let us know...  Until you do...

Sleep well!