How to Choose the Best Mattress for Athletes
Train harder and improve your athletic performance by learning how to choose the best mattress for athletes. If you’re not sleeping on a bed that caters to your sleep position and active lifestyle, you are more likely to toss and turn as well as sleep hot. Night sweats can be a big issue for athletes, especially if you typically go to bed right after a workout.
Getting a good night’s sleep is essential for athletes because it aids in muscle recovery, sharpens your motor skills, and has a positive impact on your reaction time. Sure, proper nutrition and supplements can help you achieve some of your fitness goals, but you can’t underestimate the effect that sleep has on your body and your overall health.
Eliminate Pain from Pressure Points with a Firm, High-Density Mattress
Deep sleep allows you to recover each night and perform at your peak each day. To achieve deep sleep, you need adequate pressure relief. A medium firm mattress or firm mattress keeps your body elevated at the right height, alleviating pressure by conforming to your shape and allowing you to sleep cooler.
On the other hand, a soft mattress allows your body to sink uncomfortably into the foam layers creating excess heat. This sinking feeling can cause pain and discomfort around your hips and shoulders. Morning aches and pains can cause muscle stiffness and negatively affect your workouts.
Beyond shopping for the right firmness, evaluating the density of your mattress is also essential if you’re shopping for a memory foam mattress. A high-density mattress contours to the curves of your body, creating proper spine alignment.
Not all memory foam mattress brands will disclose the density of each foam layer on their website. If you’re unsure of how to find this information, contact the brand for more details or look at the weight of the mattress. The heavier the bed, the denser it is.
Some people mistakenly associate mattress density with firmness. The foam indentation load deflection value (ILD) determines the firmness of the mattress. Often, the ILD of the middle layer of a memory foam mattress is what is altered to create different firmness options.
Wake Sweat Free with Innovative Cooling Technology
Generally, athletes are more prone to sleeping hot because they have more muscle mass and are more active than the average person. Therefore, choosing a bed with cooling technology embedded into the top layer of the mattress is recommended to eliminate night sweats. Sleep experts say that a cool bedroom environment promotes deeper, more restorative sleep.
Using a phase-change material (PCM) as the mattress cover is the most effective cooling technology available. Muse Sleep is one of the only mattress companies that PCM yarns to weave their Diamond Breeze Fabric (a chemical-free textile). Other companies, like Bear Mattress, use Celliant technology, which is a phase-change chemical treatment that is applied to fabric and used to cover some memory foam mattresses. Celliant sleeps significantly less cool than a cover woven with PCM yarns.
Experience More Hygenic Sleep with a Removable and Washable Cover
Chances are if you’re an athlete, sweating in your sleep may be inevitable. Or there may be times when you’re so dead tired that you decide to skip the shower and head straight to bed. Whatever the case, you can wash your mattress cover periodically to create a more hygienic sleep environment. When shopping for a mattress, just look for a mattress with a removable, washable cover.
The Muse mattress cover zips off for easy removal. To wash, use a mild detergent and wash on a gentle cycle in cold water. To dry, air dry or tumble dry on low. Washing or drying at a high temperature can affect the PCM yarns.
To find the best mattress for athletes, begin your research on musesleep.com.