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The Great Mattress Debate…Put to Rest
Over the years there has been much speculation around mattresses and how often you should replace them. In this article we aim to give you some answers to help you get your best night’s rest every night!
Although some top quality handmade mattresses we sell are guaranteed to last up to 25 years this life span is unusual and in actuality the average mattress will last between five and ten years. Most experts agree that after this point you could potentially be jeopardizing your health and quality of sleep. With time the materials inside any mattress will begin to break down and become unstable for sleeping on. Even though you might not see this from the outside, foam layers are potentially crumbling and turning to dust, or harboring microbes, manmade fillings like polyester will be flat as a pancake by then and offering no support, and even natural fillings like wool or cotton will have shifted and will be contaminated by naturally-shed skin cells and dandruff. Springs may be beginning to rust, border wires may be bent and creaking and things may be getting generally a bit ‘funky’ in older mattresses due to the likes of dust mites, spilled or exhaled fluids, atmospheric dust and other potential allergens. Some studies suggest that over the course of 10 years a mattress can double in weight!
Though regularly cleaning your mattress with a bed vacuum (check with your manufacturer first, no need to suck out all those lovely fillings which make the mattress soft and sumptuous!) always using a mattress protector and changing the bedsheets frequently may help to extend the lifespan of your mattress to the 10 year lifespan marker, it is important to remember that even regular housekeeping does not prevent a natural buildup deep within a mattress and you are still advised to replace it every ten years.
Replacing your mattress is something to seriously consider doing sooner than the maximum suggested lifespan especially if you or a loved one suffer from allergies, asthma or other respiratory conditions. We also recommend investing in a hypoallergenic mattress protector keep you and your loved ones’ sniffle free.
Over the course of ten years our bodies can change significantly with weight loss or gain, injuries, new aches or pains, health conditions, having children or pets. All of these elements will affect how you sleep and the way your mattress wears. That being said, if you are older or have an injury that is pressure sensitive, you may need to replace your mattress a bit sooner, as you might be more sensitive to the effects of mattress wear.
Your sleep style and the amount of use your mattress gets will also effect the lifespan of your mattress so the key might be not to just looking at the amount of time you’ve had the mattress but also look for signs that the mattress is towards the end of its life. Bumps, lumps, indentations, any sort of major staining, rips or tears, or noisy springs are all indications that your mattress is on the way out.
The Technology in the mattress industry is constantly improving and evolving to accommodate for more comfort and support issues that people face, so by the time you hit the ‘ten-year marker’ you will likely be able to find a new mattress which can accommodate any new comfort concerns you previously had.
Buying a new mattress may seem like a major investment. Especially in times like these, we may be considering whether or not we really need to buy a new mattress, or can the old one struggle on for a few more years?
We would ask you this - How much is good sleep for the next 5-10 years’ worth? Is there any other item of furniture in your home which plays such a direct role in how you feel when you wake each and every morning and how energized and motivated you are to face that day’s challenges!
Sleep is one of the major ways to aid your body in healing and repairing itself on a nightly basis. While price ticket anxiety can set in, when you consider that you will be spending around eight hours a night, 365 days a year for up to 10 years benefiting from a great mattress, at a grand total of approximately 29,200 hours, even a thousand-pound mattress costs about 3p per hour – or 27p per night! In our opinion, with a third of your life spent in bed a good night’s sleep is definitely worth investing in.
And after you have made the big purchase here are a few things you can do keep your mattress in tip top shape.
- Don’t allow children to jump on the bed
- Rotating your mattress at least once a month or flipping it if double-sided
- Vacuuming your mattress periodically (preferably with a specialist vacuums made for mattresses!)
- Avoiding having food and drinks in bed
- Keeping pets off the bed
- Be sure to use a couple of mattress protectors – one on the bed while one is in the wash!
At Peter Green Furnishers we have been in the business of a good night’s rest since Peter opened our very first specialist bed shop in 1956. We sell industry leading mattresses at industry leading great value prices! As well as mattresses from all the major brands, our decades of expertise and hundreds of thousands of customers means we also create our own beds, using the same technologies as the industry leaders but without the big brand name price tag.
Our team of experienced Consultants would be happy to demonstrate our comprehensive range in store, where you can test everything out and make the best choice for your greatest night’s rest ever
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Posted by Wendy Martin
18th October 2022
