Spring Cleaning Your Bedroom: Reasons to Get a New Mattress

Spring cleaning usually involves changing sheets and pillowcases but have you ever thought about how dirty are mattresses? Turns out, changing your mattress can not only get you that good night’s sleep you’re yearning for but also influence your overall health.

The average adult sweats almost 100 litres a year while in his/her bed. A warm and moist place is perfect for fungus and bacteria. In fact, swab tests from 7-year-old mattresses found more than 16 million colony-forming units of bacteria per square inch. What happens to a mattress after 10 years? It’s estimated that the accumulation of dead skin cells weighs more than an average 2-year-old child. The more years pass, the better that cheap mattress for sale sounds.

Still, the choice isn’t always that obvious. Sure, deciding whether you need a single, double, King, Queen, master bedroom, guest or kids’ mattresses are a no-brainer but what is the best material for mattresses? Is there one universal winner or should you look for what type of mattress is healthiest for your body type and sleeping position?

Foam mattresses are great for spare rooms, kids and students and all those who want no springs and just a high-quality firm foam supportive mattress. Made out of low-density polyurethane, they have a soft initial feel that makes a good first impression and is super easy to clean but is not that durable.

Memory foam, on the other hand, is made by treating polyurethane foam with chemicals to enhance its density and viscosity i.e. High-density polyurethane. Its nature allows it to mould to your body while providing pressure-point relief. In addition, memory foam is temperature and pressure-sensitive. Moreover, it’s resistant to motion transfer, making it great for couples or parents who sleep with their children, making sure that everyone is undisturbed and well-rested. Its downside is that it retains more heat.

Spring mattresses provide an underlying supporting layer through the numerous metal springs beneath the surface. In addition, they include plush material layers for extra comfort. Some find that spring mattresses are more supportive than foam.

In addition to support, what is the advantage of a spring mattress? Contrary to memory foam, spring mattresses allow for easy ventilation. Subsequently, less heat is accumulated and sleep is more enjoyable. Also, spring mattresses are usually less costly than memory foam. For anyone that’s on a budget, is a warm sleeper, wants extra support or all of the above, a cheap mattress for sale with springs is the right choice.

Last but not least, the natural resilience and rebound properties of latex have made it a luxury item in mattresses, walking arm in arm all grades of PU or polyurethane foams. Moreover, its innate mould and dust mite resistance make it great for those who suffer from allergies.

Align Your Spine

Chronic back pain is a serious disability and usually, no specific cause is found. But how do I know if my mattress is causing my back pain? Although innocent until proven guilty, if your morning starts with pain, you’ve been tossing and turning all night, your mattress is too soft or too hard or you feel like you’ll get “swallowed alive” during the night, besides being in a desperate need of a massage, you should probably take a look at some cheap mattresses for sale.

313 adults with chronic non-specific low-back pain while lying in bed were assessed. At 90 days, patients with medium-firm mattresses had better outcomes for pain in bed compared to patients with firm mattresses. Also, patients with medium-firm mattresses had less daytime low-back pain, less pain while lying in bed and on rising in comparison to patients with firm mattresses. To conclude, a mattress of medium firmness improves pain and disability among sufferers of chronic back pain.

Between memory foam and cotton mattresses, the former is recommended for back problems. However, cotton mattresses are superior compared to regular foam. In fact, one survey reported that many medical residents used to sleeping on cotton mattresses at home complain of mild to moderate back pain after sleeping on foam mattresses in the hospital.

Don’t Let the Bed Bugs Bite

Bed bugs (Cimex lectularius) are small, flat, parasitic insects that feed solely on the blood of people and animals while they sleep. Infestations with these reddish-brown, wingless bugs occur around or near the areas where people sleep. Hiding during the day in places like seams of mattresses, box springs, bed frames, headboards, dresser tables, behind wallpapers or any other clutter near the bed, bed bugs are small, flat, parasitic insects that feed on the blood of people and animals who are asleep. Most people have no reaction at all but some might have a severe one.

Getting a new mattress without freeing the whole area of pests is a big mistake. Even if it was a budget mattress that you got, there’s no need for it to go to waste. It too will get infected if you don’t nip the problem in the bud.

Next, we have the infamous dust mites. As creatures who lice off of dead skin cells, it’s understandable that they’d simply adore your old mattress. Yes, during our lovely times between the sheets, we share them with 100,000 to 10 million dust mites. Dampness, age and cleaning of the mattress, frequency of vacuuming the bedroom, mechanical ventilation, bedroom temperature and bedroom relative humidity all influence the dust mite presence.

What about all the other types of bugs? What else can live inside your mattress? Although fleas aren’t usually found infesting mattresses, if you neglect to wash and change your bedding for a while, the fleas can take up residence in your bed and feed off you and your pet.

Protect Your Lungs

Interestingly, it’s not the mites themselves that cause the issues, it’s their faeces. Each dust mite produces about 20 waste droppings every day which is around 20,000 particles of faeces in every cubic foot of air. So, can an old mattress make you sick? Definitely. By contacting the epithelium of the eyes, nose, lower airways, skin, and gut, the allergen-containing particles of dust mites can induce sensitization and atopic symptoms in those organs.

In fact, dust mites’ faeces put susceptible individuals at greater risk of asthma and perennial allergic rhinitis caused by allergies to dust mite faecal matter. In addition, there have been atypical cases of interstitial pneumonitis, scarring and inflammation of the tissue that surrounds the lung’s air sacs, blood vessels and airways.

House dust mite (HDM) allergy is a frequent cause of allergic asthma. Reduction of exposure seems to be the most logical way to treat these patients which can be done by encasing mattresses and pillows. In fact, in one study the use of mattress covers resulted in a significant long-term reduction in HDM allergen concentrations in mattresses and consequently, the need for inhaled steroids as therapy.

One study compared dust samples from foam mattresses with and without covers and spring mattresses. As spring mattresses were found to contain significantly less dust mite faeces. Thus, if you buy cheap mattress with springs and replace your old foam mattress, you may reduce the exposure to house-dust-mite allergens.