We spend roughly 8 hours a night on a bed. That is 56 hours a week and 2912 hours a year. That is a third of your day. If you lived until you are 90 and slept on average 8 hours per day, you have spent 30 years of your life on a bed.

So how do you know if your mattress is supporting you when your sleep?

Firstly, there is not a universal mattress that supports everyone. We all have preferences due to our height, weight, how many people are in the bed and existing injuries or trauma. This means there is a right mattress for everyone, you just need to find it. Ultimately, it is about support.

I am about to give you 2 ways you can check your mattress to see if it is giving you enough support.

The first way:

1. Take off your sheets and have a bare mattress. Now I want you to grab something that is long, light and straight. (I find that a broom works well here, just take the head of the broom off)
2. Place your long, light and straight item across the diagonal of the bed. Corner to Corner.
3. What you are looking for here is any gaps between your item and the mattress. If there is a gap showing greater than 1cm between the mattress and the item, there is an extremely high chance that your mattress mat need to be replaced.

The other way is to check out someone laying on the bed.

1. The best position is laying on your side with your lower back showing.
2. What you are looking for is a straight back all the way up to the neck
3. Too soft and we start to see your hips fall into the mattress and create a bend in the lower back.
4. Too hard and we start to see a bend a bit further up through the rib cage - kind of like a volcano.

Have a look at your mattress today and work out if it is giving you enough support or if it is the culprit for pain. If you need help, feel free to contact us - Fully Activated Osteopathy in Hoppers Crossing on 0413 078 633.

Watch out for our next blog post where I will go through the most common questions I get when purchasing a new mattress.