Who hasn’t gone to bed tired, dropped into a welcome sleep only to be wide awake three or four hours later? The frustration is doubled some hours later when, after failing to drop off, a drowsy feeling of comfort and well-being takes over – just as it is time to get up.
Sleep disturbance is attributed to many reasons, such as stress, lack of exercise, too much caffeine or alcohol before bedtime.
And it is difficult, as the years race by, to accept the long-held belief that you need less sleep as you grow older. Tell that to those of us, greying at the temples, who long to go to sleep and stay put in slumberland until it is time to get up.
The bed manufacturers would have us believe our bed and mattress are the wrong design for our anatomy or are just too clapped out.
NASA has come to the rescue with one of the latest creations, the Tempur mattress which can be teamed up with the Degree flexible slat bed with twin sleep zones and adjustable base - designed to take us on a journey of rest and relaxation.
With the flick of a switch, we can be transported into a sublime cruise to the stars of outer space – just like the astronauts which NASA developed the material for. It was designed to make them feel comfortable under extreme “G-forces” while being immobile on long space flights – not unlike the forces which overtake many of us anywhere between midnight and three in the morning.
Even more depressing is an “astonishing sleep fact” found by Australian scientists. It seems that just one sleepless night has the same effects on co-ordination, reaction time and judgement the following day as consuming up to the weekly limit of alcohol at one sitting. How unfair is that when we could have so much more fun over the beers and G&Ts.
But if new bed technology is not on the agenda at the moment there is another answer. Therapists advise that if you’re stressed, you’re probably furrowing your brow and clenching your teeth without even realising it.
