The Importance of Good Quality Sleep

If there is one thing I’ve learned over the last couple of years is that I need good quality sleep. It’s not about how many hours I spend in bed, but the type of sleep I get when I’m “in” bed.

Since you already know how much I love coffee, it should be a given that I love my bed too! Getting me out of bed in the morning is tough, and not because I didn’t get enough sleep, but because I truly love my bed -although it wasn’t always like this.

Getting a good night’s sleep when you have back issues can be a challenge. There is the tossing, the turning, and the worst part: waking up achy in the morning.

There are beds that claim to be the best mattress for back pain sufferers, but honestly, 30 minutes at the mattress store is not enough to convince me that it’s the best mattress for me long term. I know this because I’ve owned 4 mattresses in the last 3 years.  You might think I’m crazy, but I have been in a lot of pain and my body is desperate for quality sleep. 

I’ve had moderate scoliosis since my teenage years, and after my first pregnancy, my curvatures worsened by 18 degrees (I’m at a 52/51 double curve). My severe scoliosis also often produces nerve pain (from nerve impingement), disk pressure (trying to prevent any bulging disks that might lead to leaks), and muscle tightness that ultimately leads to spasms from time to time. You could say, my back is a wreck, but I need sleep!

For years, I’ve complained to my husband that we needed new beds. We’ve owned FOUR beds in the last 10 years, so you could say that we’ve wasted a lot of money tested a lot of beds. Check out the review of those beds here. 

I just wanted a bed from which I never wanted to get out of, the kind of bed we see in catalogs and admire. You know, soft sheets, cozy blankets… you get the idea.

For me, eating healthy and having an active lifestyle is extremely important since I want to avoid back surgery (reconstructive surgery for scoliosis is nothing to laugh at). I eat real food and exercise often. Sleep, however, is a necessity!

I knew I needed to change something, and it wasn’t the quantity of sleep.

Over the last decade, I’ve owned four different beds. Three of them, in the last three years alone. You could say, I’ve been on a mission to find a bed that allowed me to wake up restored and ready to tackle another day. Luckily, the search ended this last June (2015) when I decided to give intelliBED a try. You can read about the different types of beds I’ve owned here.

Something I’ve learned in this journey is that it’s not about getting 8 hours of sleep per day, it’s about getting the right amount of restorative sleep; where your body can restore and heal itself. To do this, we must get enough Stage 3 and 4 sleep. However, in the wrong mattress and conditions we often don’t enter these stages. With every toss and turn, we go back up the ladder (in simple terms).

When you spend years not getting enough sleep, you become obsessed with sleep solutions. I’ve been tracking my sleep with the Sleep Cycle app on my iPhone for nearly 2 years! This is my sleep record on a random night after my intelliBED.

On the particular night above, my 3-year old cried and I got out of bed around 3 am. Spending time between the “sleep” and “deep sleep” is ideal for me since I strive for spending the most time inside stages 3 and 4 of restorative sleep.

Here is what my sleep used to look like, nearly every night, prior to my intelliBED. I tossed so much the phone actually fell off the bed.

For a full post on the benefits of IntelliBED, click here. 

What Owning an intelliBED is really Like

The day our intelliBED arrived, I was struggling to stand more than 20 minutes and be able to sit. The day before, I had gone to my first kickboxing class, and I could barely stand from nerve pain and low back spasms. When our intelliBED arrived, I hoped the first night was all it claimed to be. So, to be honest, the first night was an adjustment. The second night I cried because I thought I had made a mistake. My back was so sore I couldn’t stand or sit.

It turns out that for many of us, the first week will be and adjustment. The gel is learning to distribute our weight, and our bodies are learning to sleep on a new surface. Now, nearly 6-months later, I wake up fully restored, and I haven’t taken any pain relieving medication in the morning since owning my intelliBED.

I often travel for work, and I miss my bed terribly. Getting home to sleep in my own bed is what my body craves most after a couple of days on the road. And my kids? They beg to sleep in my bed they love it too.

One thing to consider when purchasing your own intelliBED is that they offer the motion damping add-on. I did not buy it with my bed and sometimes when I have a kid sleeping in my bed; I wish I did! If you or your spouse move around a lot or there is a lot of weight difference between the two of you, this is a recommended option.

What I also appreciate from the intelliBED ordering process is that they have a staff dedicated to answer any and all of your questions. The above information is only based on my experience with severe back pain and scoliosis. It is not designed to offer medical advice. For more information on which bed might be best for you, I suggest contacting intelliBED directly.

Disclosure: I was not monetarily compensated to write this post. The statements above are 100% my opinion. This post may contain affiliate links at no additional cost to you, the buyer. From time to time, I team up with awesome companies, like intelliBED, to offer my readers discounts and offers of services I like and support.