In theory, we live in a civilized world. Unfortunately, being civilized also seems to mean being stressed out. Both at work and in our private lives, we face a great deal of worry and tension. Many of us do not get enough sunlight in the morning. We do not get enough chances to exercise in the day, and we do not have time to relax before we go to bed. As a consequence, many of us do not sleep well at night.
For good or for ill, there is an inextricable link between physical tension in our bodies and mental stress in our minds. On the one hand, it means that having your boss yell at you would not only cause you to feel mental stress, that mental stress will also cause you to feel physical tension, e.g. a stiff neck and shoulders. On the plus side, the converse is also true – if you can relax away that physical tension, your mental stress will also fade away.
A simple way to do this is through stretching exercises. Another faster option is to use Progressive Muscle Relaxation or autogenics, both of which were specially designed to relax a person’s mind by relaxing his or her body. Unfortunately, an effective session of relaxation takes half-an-hour, and can be even longer if we are feeling extreme amounts of stress. The simplest way is to listen to slow music (for example, most New Age stuff as well as the adagio and largo sections of Classical music) but this normally takes an hour of our time.
All the above methods work to help us sleep better at night. The trouble is – they either need effort, practice or time. They definitely need privacy with no interruptions. If you are single and live alone, this is probably not a problem. But if you are married and/or have kids, your chance to be undisturbed only comes when you lock your bedroom door and lie down on your bed. So what can you do?
One answer is to switch to a more comfortable bed. Good choices are water beds, memory foam mattresses and air mattresses. Unfortunately, the good ones are very expensive. Besides, your significant other may not want to change the bed. Fortunately, there is a reasonably affordable alternative that you can apply to just your half of the bed – a memory foam pad. There are various sizes – all the way from singles up to king-sized. There are various thicknesses – from 1 inch up to 6 inches (or even thicker).
These memory foam toppers are meant to be placed on top of a regular (preferably firm) mattress. In general, the thicker the memory foam mattress pad the better but is also more expensive. In addition, if you do not sleep alone, your bed partner may have something to say if you suddenly add an extra 6 inches of height to your side of the bed.
A memory foam topper is not made from regular foam. It is made from a special material developed for NASA. This material was officially specified to absorb the intense physical forces faced by pilots ejecting from fighter jets. Used in a mattress or topper, this memory foam absorbs the physical tension caused by our muscles fighting against gravity as well as the physical tension caused by the mental stress we feel. Through a process of biofeedback, when our physical tension melts away, so does our mental stress. Obviously, this helps us relax and fall asleep faster.
If we work in an office and have to do a lot of unpaid overtime, adding a memory foam topper pad on top of our mattress can be an easy and affordable way to get a good night’s sleep. It cannot replace our daily dose of morning sunlight. Neither can it replace our need for physical exercise. Nevertheless, a memory foam topper can definitely help us fall asleep faster and stay in deep restful sleep longer.