How was your Sleep last Night ?

One of the most common retorts I hear is “I must have slept wrong.” Well, let me put this to bed right now. Steps for sleeping not wrong: 1. Lay down 2. Close your eyes. That’s it. I don’t know what all you people are doing wrong to hurt yourself, but stop it. Now, it’s not covered by insurance and it’s creepy as all get out; but for a fee we’ll have Dr Hicky come over. He will watch you while you sleep and he can take notes on what you might be doing to get hurt. But here are a few pointers that might reduce your risk of injury from just lying there:

Mattress: At one point the thought was the harder the better. People would even put a door under their mattress to firm it up. But at one time your doctor used to recommend what brand of cigs to smoke too. The best mattress is the one that is the most comfortable. You want to Baby Bear it. Not too hard, not too soft, just right. You don’t have to buy the most expensive one on the market, but cheaper is not better either. With mattresses name brands are better. If you’ve never heard of it, you don’t want it. And no matter what they tell you, they don’t last as long as you think. Like tires, 40k mile tires are shot by 30, a 20 year mattress is only good for 15.

Pillows: If you’re throwing down 5 grand on a good quality mattress, you should invest more than $7 on a pillow. Pillows are specially made for either side or back sleeping. They don’t make stomach sleeping pillows because you should never sleep on your stomach. I’m sure they probably do make them, but they shouldn’t. It takes about 2 weeks to break in a pillow, and they last just a couple years, not decades. Pillows also come in sizes. If you are 5 foot and weigh 100 pounds your neck is not the same size as a 6 foot tall 250 pound person.

Now, if you have a good mattress, a good pillow and you didn’t over-indulge the night before; any pain or stiffness lasting more than an hour or two after rising isn’t because of the way you slept. It’s from one of the stressors (physical, chemical, emotional) in your life. And we can fix that. What is happening that you are suffering from micro injuries from the stressors in your life and that is the pain or stiffness you are feeling when you wake up.