At Last, Sleep

This is a sponsored post.

I don’t enjoy getting massages as much you’d think I would. I mean, I love the massage part. It’s the massage table that I hate. The truth is, as the owner of a bigger body, massage tables are horrendously uncomfortable. When I lie face down and flat, my belly pushes up hard into my lungs and rib cage making it hard to breathe. My large ass boobs make putting my face in that circle-face thing impossible – my neck simply won’t bend down far enough, and it doesn’t flex up high enough to make it comfortable. When I lie on my back, my lower back aches because my butt pushes up making my spine curve awkwardly.

Sometimes I leave a massage more sore than when I arrived.

Knowing all this, for some reason, I’ve still insisted on getting the firmest mattress possible these last ten years or so. I don’t know when, exactly, I heard that firm mattresses were better for you, but it’s been firmly (pun totally intended) entrenched in my brain that I need FIRM when it comes to my bed.

Oddly enough, for the last ten years, Charlie and I have suffered from a combination of both sleeping badly AND waking up with aches and pains. I cannot tell you the number of times Charlie said, “I have to get up, my back hurts” over the last ten years. I’d have pain in my hips (because I’m a side sleeper, most of the stress I put on myself sleeping is on my hips and shoulders) every day, making it difficult to want to exercise or do much at all. With our last mattress, it would take me more than an hour of sitting up in a regular chair to stop having an ache in my back and hips.

This SUCKED. I tossed and turned all night trying to get comfortable, and firm mattress often mean that I’d be bouncing Charlie around the bed while I tossed and turned, so I’d screw up his sleep too.

It’s been awful.

This is the state we were in when the folks from Sleep Number contacted me and said, “Hey, do you want to try our new bed?” And since I was hobbling around in pain and not an idiot, I said, “PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD YES.”

And I realize that this is going to sound totally fake because, yes, they gave me a bed, but people… it has changed our lives. I’m not exaggerating. I’m not blowing up the skirts at Sleep Number because if I didn’t like it, I’d tell you.

This is the bed we got:

Yep, that’s threeinches of memory foam on top of a traditional Sleep Number mattress.

I was worried about the memory foam because I’ve heard it can be hot, and I’m already someone that runs warm – and someone that needs to be cool at night (not Charlie, though; poor guy often has to sleep in a hat to keep warm enough in bed with me). But it turns out that this memory foam has a special “cool gel technology” so it’s not an issue and when we tested the mattress, I loved it; it really cradles you, and it’s been awesome for me because I don’t toss and turn as much – in fact, I often sleep for several hours without moving at all, and for me? That’s unheard of.

So we went to our local Sleep Number store to meet the manager Todd, who was totally game about this weird blogging family that came in and spent an hour learning about our future bed. He helped us find our sleep number. Basically, Sleep Number beds aren’t coiled spring mattresses; they are comprised of two big pockets of air that have a pressure setting of 1 to 100, with 100 being the most firm. At the store Todd showed us with some fancy technology (you’ll see it in the below video) how the 100 setting caused all kinds of pressure points on our bodies, and when we reduced the settings we reduced those pressure points. Charlie is a 45 and I’m a 55.

We’ve had the bed about a month now, and HOLY GOD PEOPLE. I cannot tell you how much better I feel. My sleep is better and I know I’m getting deeper sleep too because I wake up nearly every day remembering my dreams, and it’s kinda been years since that’s been true.

Know for what y’all really want to know: how’s it for sex?

Oh yeah, you know I’m gonna go there.

It’s GOOD. We’ve found that for some, er, festivities, we prefer to increase the pressure settings temporarily, but it’s great for other things as is (such as being on your knees for any length of time AHEM). Generally, it’s been awesome, although there is a much greater risk of falling asleep after any festivities because the bed is so damned comfortable (and with my mom living with us and Tori, we’re often grabbing time together during the day, so this is a serious risk. Heh.).

Overall, if you’re considering a new bed, I’d highly recommend giving the Sleep Number beds a try. From the research I’ve done, we’re likely to have this bed far longer than we’ve had our coiled spring mattresses, so I’d have to say it’s worth the money (our bed cost would have cost about $3,000 retail).

Next thing we have to do is get these incredibly funky sheets they have that stay cool to the touch. It’s some crazy NASA technology. WANT.

If you’re interested in the process of getting the bed, check out the video below. Tori is adorable in it.

Thanks, Sleep Number, for changing our lives for the better. And y’all be sure to go follow Sleep Number on Facebook if you are so sold on the bed you want to watch for sales and stuff. Heh.

Disclosure: I was given an M7 Sleep Number bed free of charge in exchange for writing about this here and chatting about it on other platforms.

Tagged as: #sleepnumber, beds for back pain, beds for side sleepers, sleep number beds