It's time to reassess the importance of our beds – mattresses and beds should be top priorities as sleep deprivation gets worse, according to recent research.

The story of one narcoleptic sufferer in The Guardian newspaper highlights how drastically sleep – whether it be lack of it or too much of it – can impact on our well being and day-to-day lives. Ideally we should spend eight hours a day on our mattress - our beds should be places of comfort, rest and relaxation. But for those who suffer from insomnia, the mattress and bed is a place of horror, anxiety and stress. Likewise, at the other end of the spectrum, narcolepsy turns the mattress into more of a prison than a place for sweet, restful dreams.

Mattress Misery for the Narcoleptic
Sleep is still a vast, mysterious territory that fascinates sleep therapists, dream interpreters and health experts. For most of us, our mattress and beds offer a place of refuge. But for those with a sleep disorder or illness, such as narcolepsy, beds can be associated with terrifying things, such as paralysis. Using a pseudonym, Helen spoke in The Guardian of why her mattress and bed were a place of horror. She spoke of how she has to sleep 15 hours a day and can awake on her mattress feeling paralysed, unable to leave her bed. She explained: “I was awake, yet paralysed and still dreaming. It was as though my body and brain had been completely severed from each other. While I was imprisoned in my mind, my body had been cast adrift.”

Beds – Restorative Sleep or a Waking Nightmare?
For most of us, our beds is where we voluntarily cast adrift into a sea of restorative sleep. Paralysis is a natural state of REM sleep to stop us acting out our dreams, but for Helen, she experienced this feeling while awake, merging reality into dreams. For insomniacs, narcolepsy may seem okay – but being imprisoned on a mattress and in beds, a narcoleptic can feel like they're missing out on life, and it can be difficult to live a normal routine – to study, work or run a family. And there's the fear that a narcoleptic carries that they won't be near their mattress or in their beds when the urge to sleep overwhelms them – Helen talked of being able to sleep anywhere, even on hard seats in a loud, packed airport. In her youth, she even resorted to cocaine to try and keep herself awake. As Helen wrote, “Narcolepsy is like being plucked out of the world only to be dropped back in it, hours later. I am constantly trying to catch up with my life.” Luckily, for the majority of us, our mattress and beds are places of restorative sleep, not a waking nightmare.

Snug memory foam mattresses are designed and manufactured with your best night’s sleep in mind. All the mattresses are available online and direct from Snug only and our aim is to give you the best-performing mattresses and the best customer service available. Our memory foam mattresses are hypo-allergenic, temperature sensitive and come complete with 5 or 15 year guarantees. You can shop online straight away, or call us on 0800 0277017 if you need help with anything.


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