What to Look for When Choosing a Quality Mattress
All mattresses are definitely not created equal, so when you’re looking to buy one, there are a few things you should keep in mind, so that you end up with what you really need. First of all, you’ll have to figure out whether to go in-store to shop for your mattress, or whether you can look for one online. You should think about whether you want to choose a mattress which is more budget-friendly, or whether you want to splurge and invest in one of the more expensive mattresses.
Then too, you should consider the size and shape, and the materials which will make up your new mattress. As you can see, there are quite a few considerations to account for, when you’re looking to purchase a new mattress. Some of the points below should help to serve as a guide for you, so that you end up making the right choice, and you can sleep comfortably for years on your new mattress.
Sleeping position
It’s important to account for the sleeping position you normally have, because that can play a major role in choosing the type of mattress you buy. Most people will either sleep on their backs, their sides, their stomachs, or some combination of these three positions. If you commonly sleep on your back, you will probably want a medium-firm mattress, because a really firm mattress will cause you to feel tension in the shoulders and the back, and a really soft mattress could allow your hips to become misaligned with your shoulders, and generate back pain.
If you sleep on your side, you will probably need pressure relief at the point where your hips and your shoulders touch the mattress, and this calls for a softer mattress which will match the contours of your body. For side sleepers, the number one concern is that they sleep on a gentle bed which has been designed for pain relief and pressure relief.
People who sleep on their stomachs are in the opposite camp, and will generally require a really firm mattress which helps to align the hips and the shoulders. Softer mattresses will not work as well with stomach sleepers, because they allow the hips to sink out of alignment with the spine, thereby creating discomfort for the sleeper.
Mattress firmness
The firmness of a mattress refers to how soft or how hard the mattress feels to the touch. This is an important consideration because it can make the sleeper feel comfortable or uncomfortable, depending on the actual level of firmness. For this reason, a firmness scale has been developed, and most sleepers prefer a mattress between level four and seven on the firmness scale, which goes up to a maximum of 10. Depending on the position that you sleep at night, you may want to move more toward the lower end of the scale or toward the upper end.
Sleepers’ weight
Another factor which should be considered in your mattress purchasing decision is how much you weigh. This is because when purchasing a new mattress, your weight will determine how much you sink into the mattress, how you feel, how much cooling action you will receive, and how much support you will receive from the mattress. It could even be that your weight and your body type are the single most important factors in determining the kind of mattress you need to buy.
Most people who weigh between 150 and 180 pounds prefer to sleep on a mattress between four and six on the firmness scale, because they won’t sink into the mattress like a heavier sleeper would. That means medium firmness between five and seven and firm firmness between seven and nine won’t feel quite as comfortable to lightweight sleepers.
Sleepers who weigh up to about 200 pounds have by and large the same preferences for a mattress that a lightweight sleeper would, and will generally prefer either a soft or a medium firmness mattress, because they won’t sink in as much. People weighing over 200 pounds generally are better suited to a medium feel mattress or a firm feel mattress, with both of these being to the upper side of the firmness scale. That’s because these sleepers will generally sink into the mattress more, and that means more firmness is required for them to be comfortable, sleeping on top of the mattress.
