An Extra Hour Every Day

There are at least two reasons to think about our bed and its accessories. Sleep represents about one third of our life’s. Secondly a good sleep has high impact on our well being and productivity. In order to get most out of our time management techniques we need to be fresh. I therefore want to share a few thoughts on our sleep and the related equipment.

1) Get the best bed you can afford:

Buying a good bed can be a major investment. Considering the negative impact of bad sleep on your productivity and its eventual negative impact on your income I recommend buying the best bed you can afford. Many manufacturers offer a complete package including the frame, the mattress and other accessories. This of course is very convenient but it will rarely entirely fulfill your individual requirements. I therefore deal with each component of a bed one by one, so that you can made a comprehensive decision when purchasing a new bed or just some components.

2) The bed frame:

One of the first questions to be answered is the size of the bed frame. This depends on the number of people to sleep on it, the size of your bed room as well as the space you need to feel good. Part of this of course is also the length, which mainly depends on your body size. When two people sleep in the same bed you disturb each other less the larger the bed is. You can check how space you need by taking your typical sleeping position next to each other in the shop.

Another basic decision is if you want to have one large mattress or if you plan having two in order to accommodate different needs of two persons (e.g. two people with a strong difference in weight). In case you want to have two the frame must allow having two separate box springs.

Is it important to you that the head and or feet sections can be elevated (for the entire bed or separately for each person)?

Do you want to use the space under the bed as storage with drawers or do you want to have open space?

Depending on how often you move your household an important criteria might also be how easy it is to assemble and disassemble the frame.

3) The mattress:

When buying a new mattress you must look for comfort and support. Whereas comfort is important in order to relax, support is important to keep your body in a healthy shape over your eight hours of sleep.

Test the mattresses available in the shop by laying down on it for a while. Play particular attention to areas of your body such as shoulders, hips and the lower part of your back. You can test the support when laying flat on your back. Put your hand under you back. If you have a gap the mattress might be too hard. If there is no space for your hand the mattress is probably too soft.

Buying a new mattress is not the most exiting thing and most of us tend to push this back as much as possible. Investing into durability will therefore give you a longer freedom until you have to renew it. The durability is determined by the material the mattress is made of and you should ask the sales clerk to spend a lot of time explaining the differences to you.

Never buy a new mattress without exchanging the box spring. When your mattress is due to renewal normally the box spring is due too.

4) Pillows:

Your pillow is the accessory requiring the highest frequency for replacement. Since we all are unique this is a very individual decision. A few questions shall help finding out what best works for you, mostly depending on your sleeping position.

• Sleeping on your stomach: try a low and soft pillow
• Sleeping on your back: try a firm or medium firm pillow
• Sleeping on your side: try a firm or extra firm pillow

If you suffer from allergies you should ask the sales clerk to show you suitable offers of synthetic material.

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