There is nothing more refreshing in the world than a great sleep. Even when we don’t fully understand the benefits of sleep, we know that going without good sleep for a few days in a row makes us feel dreadful. Once we have that good night’s sleep, no matter how rough life is, we are ready to conquer the world with all our energy the next morning.

In numerous studies on humans and animals, scientists have discovered that sleep plays an important role in metabolism, immune function, learning, memory, and other essential functions. Therefore there is no denying the fact that sleep is one of the most important pillars of a healthy lifestyle.

On average, adults require 7-8 hours of sleep every 24 hours. Young children and teenagers need a minimum of 10 and 9 hours of sleep every day,  while babies require sleep of more than 15 hours per day.

Inadequate sleep and how your lifestyle impacts your mental health
While occasional insomnia isn’t a cause of too much concern, chronic insomnia - a minimum of 3 nights per week for more than a month can cause a great concern. The anxiety that comes from not being able to fall asleep further worsens the conditions of human bodies and minds.

Inadequate sleep can have serious negative consequences on our bodies. There can be serious physical and mental health issues that people may have to go through if people are short on sleep. It starts from short-term issues, but takes a bigger toll on our health in the long-term.

Such short term issues include inattentiveness, excessive daytimes sleepiness, microsleep, memory impairment, restlessness, relationship stress, irritability, and a hampered overall quality of life. These issues can cause serious trouble if someone is into a job that requires consistent alertness and where lack of attention can have devastating consequences. For example, people who operate heavy machinery and are constantly on drives can’t afford a lack of sleep.

In the long-term, lack of sleep can cause some chronic health problems that can force people to remain on medications for their entire life. Some of these problems include heart strokes and failures, diabetes, high blood pressure, and impaired immunity. Other potential psychological problems from prolonged sleeplessness include anxiety, depression, and reduced sex drive.
If not corrected on time, sleep deprivation can cause changes in physical appearance too. Apart from getting obese, people develop premature wrinkles and dark circles.

All of this leads to a tremendous deterioration in the quality of life and a drastic reduction in confidence. Therefore, sleep deprivation always has to be dealt with soon as it is discovered, without much delay.

Restorative Functions of Sleep
Undoubtedly, our bodies and minds go through a lot throughout the day. We burn a ton of physical and psychological energy while we are awake, and sleep is a fascinating restorer of that energy.

While we are asleep, our breathing rate, heart rate, and blood pressure rise and fall, something that’s very important for cardiovascular health in humans. Our body also releases hormones that help control the body’s use of energy and also repair cells. Other critical functions like protein synthesis, muscle repair, and tissue growth also happen during sleep.

In infants, sleep plays an important role in the development of the brain, which is why infants require more than 15 hours of sleep. Even in adults, sleep is responsible for neural reorganization and brain structure growth. Neural reorganization is essential because the brain reorganizes itself by forming new neural structures to compensate for injuries and diseases, and maintain the cognitive health.

Memory, Learning and Mental Well Being
Brain and mental health are often less talked about areas of human health. Mental conduct is much more difficult to control than physical conduct and that’s where people struggle to put their lives together.

A well-functioning brain grasps new information, stores information, consolidates information, and processes information to produce an optimum result. These results can be as trivial as taking a left or a right turn while driving or as hard as choosing a career or a partner.

Therefore, most of our decisions depend on the normal functioning of our brains - our mental well being. A normal functioning brain helps our ability to reason well, to overcome challenges, and even to keep away dementia in the later years of our life. Even a feeling of having a purpose in life enhances your cognitive ability and reduces the risk of dementia by up to 20%.

An unrested brain of a sleep-deprived person struggles to function properly and increases the chances of loss of cognitive ability early in life. Sleep-deprivation causes loss of ability to focus optimally and hence learn efficiently in humans. Without enough sleep, consolidation of memory also stops, resulting in poor recall of information when it’s required.

What causes sleep deprivation
Sleep deprivation can be a result of numerous things starting from excessive caffeine intake to incompatible mattresses. Distractions from the use of electronics that emit light - computers, mobiles, tablets - before going to bed can cause sleeplessness. Other causes of deprived sleep can include medications and sleep disorders like sleep apnea and narcolepsy.

Few other sleep-deprivation culprits include:
- Lifestyle issues like excessive eating, drinking alcohol before bed
- Tough work schedules like late working or excessive traveling
- Constant worry about personal, academic, or work-life

Our sleeping environment also matters quite a lot for a good sleep. If the environment is too noisy, or there is too much light or the temperature is just not right, sleeping can get disrupted. When the environment remains such for a prolonged time, it starts impacting your sleep hours and ultimately our life.

Another important part of the sleep equation is the mattress we sleep on. If you can easily doze off on your sofa but not on your bed, your mattress is the culprit. If you have to roll to a specific place in a specific posture on your mattress to fall asleep, it’s surely your mattress that’s the trouble.

Your mattress spoils your sleep in many more ways you can imagine. Even when you buy the most expensive of them, there is no guarantee that you can sleep like a baby on those mattresses.

That’s because each body type requires a different mattress. There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to mattresses. Some may prefer a firm mattress while others may prefer a softer mattress or anything between the two. Then there are mattress materials, sizes, and various technologies behind mattresses that one considers before choosing one.

You can easily fix this part of sleep problems by choosing the best bed mattress for yourself. Here is the short description of the major kinds of mattresses that exist and what kind of body support they provide for a good night’s sleep.

Types of Mattresses

Memory foam Mattress:
Memory foam mattress has Viscoelastic as its primary material. The most important property of memory foam is that it is slow-moving. Therefore, when you press the foam and release the pressure, it remains in that shape for a few seconds before coming back to its original shape. It essentially forms a foam around your body helping ease aching points and pressure joints.

Memory foam mattress reduces tossing, supports the bodyweight properly, distributes your body weight evenly, and is resistant to allergens.

Latex Foam Mattress:
Latex mattress is made of natural latex harvested out of the rubber trees. Some latex mattresses may also use synthetic mattress that is made of a plastic called Styrene-Butadiene Rubber or SBR.

The mattress has rubbery characteristics and adapts to the body posture more generally than the memory foam. These mattresses can be firm and soft as per your liking and are highly comfortable. It is best for people who move a lot at night as the foam does not take much time to spring back up after you move your body.

Inner Springs Mattress
Innerspring mattresses have existed a long time and were first developed in 1871 by German inventor Heinrich Westphal. These mattresses have springy characteristics as they have spring and coils at the core. The top is made up of latex, foam, or any other material, and the bottom is usually made of wool. Innerspring mattresses offer a firm bed, which can be ideal for some sleepers.

Back Support Mattress:
Back support mattresses are specially designed mattress to provide support to natural curves and alignment of the spine. They are made up of chiropodist coil and highly resilient foam with an orthobond core. The support provided by such mattresses helps sleepers avoid muscle soreness the next morning.

Orthopedic Mattress
Orthopedic mattress is designed to provide a firmer surface, providing targeted support for your joints and back. Orthopedic mattresses are especially supportive to your spine and other joints and are the best mattresses for people with back problems.

The mattress can be made using any of the material mentioned above with added support layers for orthopedic comfort. They provide maximum support while sleeping, even-weight distribution, right spinal alignment, and a healthy sleeping posture.

Where to look for the best mattresses
Mattress is certainly not something you should buy in a jiffy because what you buy will decide how you sleep for the next decade or more. Therefore, it best to trust the brands that have been around for not only years or decades but centuries.

When you buy your mattress from a century-old brand, you can be sure that you are buying years of experience and know-how that has gone into designing the best bed mattress for you.

King Koil, one of the best sleeping mattress brands, offers just that to its customers - the best mattress suited to the individual body types. To give the customers the best buying experience King Koil hand-holds the customers to figure out the best mattress type for them using SleepID - an exclusive technology that analyzes the way you sleep to help find the right mattress for you.

So which one is for you i.e. How to Choose a Mattress via SleepID
Mattress is an extremely personal investment. We spend all our sleeping time on it and it pains when the mattress you have is not the best fit for you. You feel like living with a stranger who you can never be friends with, no matter how much time you spend together.

Therefore, you must get to choose the right sleep partner - of course along with your loved one - with just the right due diligence. That’s where King Koil SleepID helps. It tells you what you need - a foam mattress, a latex mattress or an ortho mattress or any other mattress.

By answering just a few questions on your body type, sleep positions, and ortho conditions, you can generate a sleep ID, that will get you the best mattress for quality sleep every night.

About King Koil
A pioneer in the mattress industry, King Koil has been in the industry for over 120 years. Over the century, King Koil has developed cutting edge mattress technology to give its customers the best night's sleep. With a presence in over 100 countries, King Koil strives to give its costumers nothing but the best and the company has, quite literally, created the best night sleepers in the world.

With its robust online and offline presence, King Koil is also extremely easy to find and transact with. The mattress best suited to you is just a click away with King Koil.

Conclusion
The benefits of good night sleep is irrefutable in today’s hyper-competitve world, where you can’t afford the ill-effects that come with sleep deprivation. Lack of sleep can bring major setbacks in life that can be avoided just by giving your brain the downtime it needs. If the solution for this large problem is as simple as changing the mattress, then you should do it as early as possible. Even when you are venturing out to buy a new one, take your time to understand what you need. Know your SleepID, before you zero in on your mattress, as it can change your life in unimaginable ways.