Sleep Better with a Memory Foam Pad

If you have been having trouble with your sleep, you may want to double-check your bedroom environment before assuming that there is something wrong with yourself. Surely it's better than going straight to your doctor to pay for a prescription of sleeping pills. And it is certainly no fun to have the sleep specialist hook you up to umpteen monitors and machines to try and find out whether you have sleep apnea or some other sleep disfunction, either. Not to mention expensive.

So what do you look for to determine if there is something wrong with your sleeping environment? One of the first things to check is your bed. There are two questions you need to ask yourself:

• Is it comfortable?
• Does it provide you with enough back support?

In most cases, answering "Yes" to one question means answering "No" to the other question. If you are young and fit; a soft, thick, comfortable mattress that lets you sink down into it is not a problem even though it does not provide much support for your spine. However, if you are old *ahem* middle-aged and a couch potato *ahem* sedentary, you may well be sleeping on a firm mattress to gain the spinal support necessary to prevent you from waking up with a back ache every morning. Don't bother trying to fool yourself. No matter what you say, a firm mattress is not comfortable.

So what should you do? The simplest, cheapest way is to buy a thin memory foam pad to lay on top of your firm mattress. As long as you are not obese, a 1-3/4 inch to 2-1/2 inch thick memory foam topper is good enough. This has the advantage of being relatively cheap and light enough for you to set up without putting out your back.

What is this memory foam topper pad? It looks like a thin mattress, and it is made of a Space Age material called memory foam. What it does is conform to your body's shape when you lie on it. It deforms under the warmth and weight of your body, sinking down further under your shoulder blades and buttocks, at the same time remaining firm under the small of your back to support your spine. It is practically as good as a water bed or air bed, but much cheaper and without the disadvantages.

The next thing you want to do is to check out the level of noise in the night. Yes, yes, you know that if it is noisy you can't sleep and it is common sense that silence is golden. But have you ever considered that too much silence is not good for you? Keep in mind that we still have the same survival instincts as our cavemen ancestors in the distant past. In those days, silence is a signal of danger. When a big, nasty predator approached, all the small animals which contribute to the background noise will run away. Is your silent night causing your subconscious mind to scream out in fear every night?

Besides checking for noise, you also want to check for light. It is a common perception that a dark bedroom is better. But once again, do remember those damnable instincts we inherited from our cavemen ancestors. The survivors, i.e. those who lived long enough to have kids and propagate their genes, were those who had light in the night. Oh, not too much light, of course. But definitely enough to scare away that nasty saber-toothed tiger or pack of timber wolves prowling around outside the mouth of the cave. Your kids know this fear, of course. That's why they want the light on at night to scare away the boogey man. But while you may have repressed this fear as an adult, it survives in the background. Make your bedroom too dark and you will not sleep well.

The last point is simple. Is the temperature of your bedroom right for you? Most people sleep better in a bedroom that is slightly cool while they are warmly snugged under the covers. Is your bedroom temperature too warm or too cold for you? The only way is to experiment.

Many people like to shove their responsibilities off to someone else. But can you really afford to do that with something as personal and intimate as your sleep?