Yes, I’m in the mattress business..
But, cleanliness aside, I have never considered myself to be a princess when it comes to what I am sleeping on. I travel a fair bit and when I do, you never know what you’re going to be sleeping on and I don’t remember ever thinking “This mattress is killing me!”
Until about four weeks ago when some good friends who live part time here in Victoria BC offered us their place for several months while we renovate our home.
I literally woke up the first morning with neck, back and shoulder pain like you wouldn’t believe. So bad in fact that I really had no idea what had caused it. I was trying to think of what I might have done on the previous day. I never in my wildest….dreams..imagined that this was caused by the mattress I was sleeping on.
So, on to night two, three and four.
It must have been around the fifth morning that it started to occur to me how directly the pain was related to the pressure points where my body was contacting the mattress. It was getting worse by the night. When I started to analyze the situation, I realized that their mattress had mountains and valleys in the sleep zones and the padding in the pillow top mattress was unevenly compressed.
What should I do?
Well, I immediately texted them to see how they would feel about me sending their mattress off to be recycled and offered to replace it with a brand new model nine mattress as “rent” for using their home. Apparently, they aren’t too attached to that mattress..
So, I got Duane to build a medium/firm model nine and had it delivered within the week.
One night and I was on the mend and by the third night, I was literally back to normal.
If this didn’t happen myself. I would literally not believe it.
I have a whole new perspective on chronic pain. We see a lot of clients at Fawcett who are dealing with all sorts of issues and this was as close to that as I can imagine I will ever come.
Will a good mattress fix you?
I think the answer is likely no.
But, what I now realize is that a bad mattress can do a lot of damage and by the time most people start looking to replace their old mattress, I have no doubt in my mind that it is long past overdue..
Part of the reason that this happens is because so many people dread the thought of shopping for a mattress. I read recently that in most peoples mind, the experience is right up there with buying a used car.