How to end your restless nights? Here’s a comprehensive guide for better sleep at night.

# Build a sleep schedule.

• What time do you usually feel tired? Choose it as your bedtime and try to stick to the routine every day. Once your body has got enough rest, you will wake up naturally.

• We think weekends are for relaxation but it doesn’t mean we should sleep in. Two weekend days can mess the sleeping pattern you have maintained for a whole week.
• Napping is necessary if you have had a sleepless night. However, a short nap will be enough to get you through the day. If your nap lasts longer than half an hour, falling asleep at night will be a challenge.
• After dinner, you’re likely to feel drowsy with a full stomach. Let’s get off the comfy couch right away and keep yourself busy with some light activities. If you give in to the heavy eyelids, you can imagine yourself waking up in the middle of the night and having no way back to sleep.

# Exercise.

If you have a habit of working out, you will be less sleepy during the day and more susceptible to sleep at night. The harder you exercise, the better. But even simple activities are better than nothing. Exercising is a habit. You will see its benefits in the long run, so be patient!

Timing is important. Exercise in the morning or afternoon will compel the metabolism and stimulate your system, which is all positive effects. However, late exercises will make your body restless. In this case, yoga or soft stretching will suffice.

# Keep your bedroom in good condition.

• Sleep cool. When the room is too hot or too cold, it’s impossible for you to sleep peacefully.
• Manage the noise. Noises might come from multiple sources: traffic, household items, neighbors. If you can’t afford a soundproof system, earplugs and sound machines also help.
• Ensure your bed is comfortable! It’s very important that you sleep on a mattress embracing your body and a pillow supporting your head. Nowadays, the products for bedding have quality materials, allergen resistance, temperature regulation, and so much more.

Tip: If your mattress is old (average mattress lifespan is around 7-10 years), you should buy a mattress topper to add more comfort to your mattress.

# Expose yourself to bright light.

Where does sleepiness come from? In the dark, your brain produces a hormone named melatonin which regulates the need for sleep in you and vice versa.

During the day:

• Try to give your body some sunlight. For example, you can have breakfast outdoor and enjoy your coffee near a sunny window. The sooner you do it after waking up, the better.
• If you can, spend more time outside. Taking a walk or exercising a little is good enough.
• Roll the blinds up and open the curtains!

At night:

• Watching TV at late hours isn’t healthy. The light suppressing your melatonin is one thing, the kind of programs you watch is also something to be careful about. Things that give you tension should be avoided.
• Before bedtime 1 – 2 hours, you should start putting your smartphone, tablet or laptop away. However, if you need to finish something important, you can minimize the disruptive impact by installing a light-altering software or keeping the brightness low.
• Equip your bedroom with thick curtains if needed. The room should be dark or at least dimly lit.

# Alcohol, cigarettes, and heavy meals must be gone!

• No big meal allowed at night. Heavy, spicy or acidic food will churn your stomach up.
• Limit alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine. They have similar effects that will interfere with your sleep cycle.
• Reduce sugary food and refined carbs.

# Wind down.

• Try a breathing exercise: lay down, one hand on your stomach and the other on your chest, relax, inhale through your nose then exhale through your mouth. The hands will indicate whether you are doing it right or wrong.
• Practice a body scan exercise: lay down with all fours stretched and relaxed, concentrate on your breathing, imagine the air is flowing to your foot and focus on it for a few seconds, shift the “scanning” to every part of your torso and pay more attention to the tensed spots.
• The methods to relieve yourself from stress vary greatly. There are many more you can try: take a warm bath, listen to an audiobook, play some soft music.

# Distract yourself.

• Free your mind from thoughts. It’s not easy, for sure. Let’s start by focusing on your body and thinking of the simplest things, maybe a syllable.
• Do something peaceful. If you can’t fall asleep after a while, get up and try a non-stimulating activity. Reading is a good choice.
• What if you have some concern, and it’s preventing you from sleeping? Write it down on a piece of paper so you won’t forget it the next day but you can get it off your mind for now.

# Seek medical treatments.

If you must, don’t hesitate to do it. Suffering sleeplessness for a long time means you are facing insomnia. It will leave a serious negative impact on your productivity, emotional control, your skin and weight, and energy. But even if you decide to see a doctor, these tips are still something you should consider following. They aim to create a healthy schedule that will benefit you long-term.

Your mattress is probably the most costly investment in the bedroom, thus it deserves and needs to be protected. If you choose the right products, they may reinforce the properties offered by the manufacturer, improving your experience and extending the life of the mattress.

Pad, topper, protector, cover and encasement all share the same function of defending your mattress against the damage factors outside such as dust, dirt, allergens and bugs. Meanwhile, mattress topper is a thick layer added atop and mostly for comfort. Despite how they are referred to as alternatives of one another, the definition and use of each differ if we look deeply into the matters.

Mattress Encasement

To start it off, encasement resembles a full-on shield with 6 sides to embrace your mattress completely, the other are 5-sided and hug the mattress like a fitted sheet. Yet, how does it benefit you?

Bed bugs: A worldwide concern. Bed bugs feed off human’s blood, as well as other warm-blooded animals, and you wouldn’t want to give them a chance to approach and reproduce anywhere near you and your family.

Allergens: Dust mites also enjoy making the inside of your mattress a hideout and feast upon the flakes of dead skin and pet dander. An encasement will block them as well as other allergens such as pollen and mold from getting into the mattress.

Waterproof: No matter how careful you are, accidents happen. Moisture seeping into the mattress will trigger mold and mildew. Sweat, oil, food stain cause unpleasant odors. Not only are they not good on the eyes, many mattress warranties are to be voided if you spill something over it.

Mattress Protector, Cover and Pad

Mattress protector

The name speaks it all. The focus of this product is protection in regards with spill, stain, bugs and allergens.

By protecting the mattress, you’re able to slow down the deterioration of the inner materials. Most protectors are installed as a sheet fitting over the top and four sides and act as a protective layer against spill and stain, with the comfort not being its main purpose.

While bed bugs and allergens aren’t a featured function, premium protectors are made from special fabrics and capable of absorbing moisture and sealing out causes of allergy.

Protectors deliver necessary protection for expensive bedding, enhance the performance and, more often than not, prolong the mattress lifespan.

Mattress cover

Even though with the same benefits of protection against bed bugs, water damage and longevity, many would recommend mattress covers because of several plus points.

Covers are thin, so they breathe well and don’t alter the comfort of the mattress, but the zippered coverings keep them protected. Moreover, mattress covers have no filler, hence they are friendly to people who suffer allergies or asthma, without leaving spaces for dust mites and allergens to hide.

Mattress pad

Light padding and quilted top visually identify a mattress pad. It’s placed between the mattress and the sheet. In addition to the primary purpose of padding, a typical pad will manage heat and moisture with its special materials and keep you cozy.

Most mattress pads also offer protection against stain to some extent, from inserting several layers between you and the mattress to offering properties of resisting stain and spill.

Thus, protection is a bonus feature of mattress pad, but comfort is its primary function.

Mattress Topper

Unlike the products enunciated above, mattress toppers are simply spread over your mattress and serve the ultimate purpose of enhancing the support and comfort. Through high-tech materials, a topper will conform to your body and distribute support evenly.

Toppers, too, have a secondary benefit promoted by special fabrics. With additional layers being installed, it might wick moisture away and manipulate heat, hinder stain and spill perhaps. However, a topper isn’t designed to provide real protection.

Do I need all of those?

Of course, too much is too little. With the amazing products on sale that offer multiple duties, you only need to consider carefully and decide on one or two amongst those.

You should start from determining your priorities. If you are simply looking for another layer of comfort for your mattress surface, consider a mattress topper. You want some safety methods without sacrificing the comfort? A mattress pad is for you.To protect your mattress from possible accidents or prevent the risk of suffering serious allergens? A mattress protector is the way to go.

The products can also be used in synchronization. A fine encasement paired with a quality mattress cover will bring the ultimate protection to your mattress.

Protection is necessary

Cleaning agents and tips are in abundance on the internet, but some stains might be a challenge to remove completely. Protecting your mattress from the start is a wise and easy choice, as these products are pretty much affordable and washable. Mattress protection is highly recommended to sleepers with sensitive skin or chronic allergies.

The integrity and the surface of the mattress ensures you only long-term benefits.

Good and long lasting heath will require consecutive sound and restful night sleep. Bedding accessories are in the list as external factors delivering more add-on value to sleeper’s health improvement and power.

The best mattress topper should be selected in the manner that it will satisfy the physical requirements of sleepers and others supplementary related factors. In accordance with these concerns, preference of sleep partners or budget can affect the process to select.

Therefore, any sleepers should be knowledgeable to select their own choice with range of mattress topper types available in different stores made by various manufacturers.

Things to pre-consider

Knowledge on different types of mattress topper is compulsory. Available alternatives of mattress topper can range from classic, modern-plus to highly technological applied pad.  In this part, sleepers will face with some challenges related to:

+ Types of materials: The basic mattress topper can be made of cotton or wool which is offered at average price while more advanced substances are down and memory foam. Obviously, discrepancies in price will verify the level of firm and soft capacity of the topper. Memory foam tops the list in elasticity to move according to the shape and motion of the sleepers’ body. However, its drawback is heat retaining which can disturb the sleepers with hot feel.

+ Brand names: Popularity of similar products of different names is essentially anti-monopoly which will benefit the customers the most, still at the same time giving them headache on their choice. As a good customer, you are advised not to shop with bias that reputational brand name is overweighing than low ranking manufacturers. A thorough look at all on hand brand name will help to obtain comprehensively good comparison leading to best option. However, it can not be denied that there is convincing excuse for such a good reputation.

Understanding of physical requirements is extremely needed. You should take control of your own health status and sleeping habits such as:

+ You are identified as stomach, back or side posture sleeper. There are even in the market mattress toppers which will be tailor-designed for a specific posture. It is indeed useful for patient.

+ Frequency of your motion. If much, anti-motion mattress topper should be chosen especially in the terms that you will not obstacle your partner’s sleeping.

+ Body physical status will includes factors of sweet releasing level, pain with back or neck and so on.

Preparation of budget is required to make your budget balanced and efficiently spent. You may aware of the average price of the mattress topper you are going to purchase, then a respective amount of budget should be spare for, i.e. the amount which you are willing to pay should be identified clearly in advance.

How to test mattress topper?

It is recommended to have a look at several stores. To save time and effort, online reviews should be researched for time-saving and costly plan of visit. You are even free to pass by the store whose mattress topper is on your favorite list as going back is always the option.

Testing your to-be-purchased mattress topper is vital as discomfort feel in the showroom will result in similar feel at home.  It is smart to test the highest quality and most expensive mattress topper for initial try as you can be able to compare the quality of the rest correctly in order to find the most suitable in quality and cost in your ultimate decision. It is noted that sleepers should be patient to spend some minutes to rest on the mattress topper rather than hand touching or pushing plainly otherwise lack of test will be signal of being disappointed at actual home use.

Purchase notes are checking of warranty conditions as well as some promotion or plus service such as free delivery, return service, disposal of old mattress topper, etc.

How do you feel at home?

It takes time for sleeper’s body to get familiar with the new mattress topper, therefore for some first few days sleepers are going to real test the product. Criteria will consist of physical and visible factors such as the too hard or too sunk surface of the mattress topper, the ache and hurt of some body parts, especially the back.

After some days of use, if all of these signals fail to come then you can enjoy your comfort with new “partner” for a long time ahead, however, if problems are. Sleepers should return the mattress topper back but the exact problem should be clearly verified for better purchase afterwards.

After all, choosing the most in either quality or cost towards a mattress topper is not really a challenge to any sleepers provided that sleepers are confident with their shopping skills and knowledge on the mattress topper product.