Tips for Choosing the Best Mattresses for Senior Citizen

Being a senior citizen is not easy, as with old age comes great struggle. From a weakened body to losing teeth, and from lost appetite to body aches, all problems become real and haunt a person as they age. And if you ask a senior citizen to make a list of their problems, every list will have a miserable point: “Sleepless Nights.”

Regardless of age, all life problems lead to sleepless nights or sleep-related issues. And, as we age, these issues worsen in every way, wreaking havoc on our sleep quality.

Sleep, as an important activity in our lives, promotes overall growth, from immune system boosting to healing and rejuvenation. When such issues interfere with our sleep, our very existence is put at risk, as are our health and social status.

Things that hamper sleep in older adults

When it comes to senior citizens, many things can hamper their sleep, such as

1. Chronic illnesses and pains,
2. Emotional breakdown and Stress
3. Mental disorders
4. Medications
5. Life transitions

However, we fail to consider external factors such as climate, sleeping places, or mattresses.

According to the research, a good mattress is essential for getting a good night’s sleep, especially for older adults. Older people are more susceptible than children

since their spine and body posture weaken owing to increasing fragility and require special care. A high-quality mattress allows elderly individuals to gain additional comfort and support for their spine, as well as swift change of sleep positions and pain alleviation. However, selecting a quality mattress is a tricky task since it involves the consideration of several factors.

Why should older adults look for a new mattress?

Before searching for a good mattress for senior citizens, it is crucial to find their exact requirements as sleeping needs vary from person to person, despite age. Therefore, it becomes vital to address the needs of older adults. The factors that we must consider while buying a mattress for older adults are,

Requirement for a new mattress

Before buying a new mattress, the first and foremost thing we must consider is whether we really need a new mattress or not. There are many ways to determine whether our old mattress is old enough to be retired, such as it’s been in use for 7-8 years and its life-cycle is over, or it is visibly weathered, sagging, broken springs and coils, and giving trouble while sleeping.

Person’s specific need

Sleep needs vary for every individual, such as different sleeping positions, comfort levels, health issues, and sleeping environments. It is also the same thing in the case of senior citizens. For example,

1. Weight

We must consider the weight of the senior citizen while buying a mattress. For example, if a senior citizen is heavyweight, he requires a mattress that doesn’t sag beneath them and allows them free movement.

2. Health Issues

In the case of older adults, various health issues can occur due to old age, poor sleeping conditions, and low-quality mattresses. Such as, Back, neck, and joint pain, Arthritis, Osteoarthritis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, and fibromyalgia. In this case, the mattress must provide enough support and relief from pain, such as the Sleep Company’s Smart Ortho Mattress.

3. Sleeping position

Every person sleeps in different positions according to their comfort, such as the back, side, or stomach, and every position creates different pressure points which need relief, support, and comfort. When it comes to senior citizens, find it difficult to sleep in their favorite position as Stress builds up on the pressure points over the period. Also, they find it difficult to change their work quickly due to slowed movement and weakened muscles. Therefore, the selected mattress needs to help ease the pain and allow them to change the position easily if required.

The Sleep Company’s patented Japanese SmartGRID mattresses are an excellent choice for any sleeping position because they contain a hyper-elastic polymer that acclimates to body curves like a pro by bending beneath the parts like hips, shoulders, and head and staying firm under the lower back.

4. Sleeping alone or with a partner

When buying a new mattress, it is vital to consider whether it is for one person or more. Most of the time, senior citizens prefer to sleep alone. However, they often fail to do so for various reasons, such as having a partner or pet who insists on sleeping by their side, and sometimes it becomes risky to let them sleep alone due to age factors and some mental conditions.

In both cases, it becomes primary to select a comfortable mattress to let them sleep alone or with partners. When a person sleeps with partners, their movements might disturb the others visa-versa, and for that, they need a mattress that has motion isolation just like the Sleep Company‘s SmartGRID mattresses. Once all these things are determined, the next step is checking and comparing the features of the mattress with senior citizens’ needs.

Factors for Selecting a mattress for older adults

When purchasing a mattress for older adults, we need to pay more attention to certain things to make it easier for them. Such as,

Material

Nowadays, many variants of mattress material are available on the marketplace that can comply with your requirements, such as dawn-feathers, latex, memory foam, and the latest SmartGRID hyper-elastic polymer layer. But, when it comes to buying a mattress for older adults, the selection of mattress material becomes crucial.

The Sleep Company’s SmartGRID mattresses are an excellent choice as their material is made of hyper-elastic polymer, which is a hypoallergenic, food-graded material with 2500 air channels, motion isolation, and provides adequate support to body curvatures and luxurious comfort for quality sleep.

Size

Mattresses come in different sizes, and one can select according to their preference of body height, bedroom area, and bed size. We recommend that while buying a mattress for an older person, make sure that the size of the mattress is not too small as it might limit their body movements, further enhancing body aches and joint pain. When it comes to the size of a mattress, the Sleep Company offers the below options

1. Single size mattress
2. Queen size mattress
3. King size mattress

And,

1. Customized mattress

Firmness

Mattresses are further categorized based on their firmness level. Generally, measures are on a scale of 10, where 1 to 4 is soft, 5 to 7 is medium firm, and above is firm and extra firm.

At the Sleep Company, we have mattresses with different firmness, such as:

1. Soft mattresses

There are two varieties available in soft mattresses, which are Smart Luxe Mattress for luxury comfort and the Smart Luxe Hybrid Pocketed Spring Mattress for extra hotel-like luxurious comfort. However, we do not recommend Smart Luxe Hybrid Pocketed Spring mattresses for older adults due to their extra softness.

1. Medium firm mattress

Smart Ortho Hybrid Pocketed Spring Mattress is the best example of a medium firm mattress that provides the best of both worlds: comfort and support. We recommend these mattresses for older adults who do not suffer many orthopedic issues.

The Sleep Company’s Smart Ortho Mattresses are the best example of firm mattresses that provide enough support for spine and body curvature and attain orthopedic issues. We highly recommend Smart Ortho Mattresses for older adults with or without orthopedic issues for better sleep quality.

Durability

Older adults find more comfort in familiar places. Therefore, changing the mattress frequently removes their desired comfort and confuses them. To ensure that senior citizens don’t go through this trouble, again and again, we must buy durable mattresses with 8 to 10 years of warranty.

The Sleep Company’s patented Japanese SmartGRID mattresses come with 10 years of warranty that never fails to adapt to the body curve and still retains its shape without sagging, crumbling, and collapsing in the long term.

Maintenance

The primary factor we should consider while buying a mattress for older adults is its maintenance. The mattress must circulate the air and maintain the temperature to let senior citizens sleep peacefully and comfortably. Due to weak health and less energy, older adults can not flip the mattress to air it. Therefore, buying a mattress that comes with low maintenance is crucial.

The Sleep Company’s SmartGRID mattresses come with 2500 air channels in Grid texture, providing excellent air circulation and maintaining temperature.

Adjustability

Many other reasons cause sleepless nights during old age, and older adults keep tossing and turning because of it. Adjustable mattresses are better options for older adults who move a lot while sleeping to make their movement comfortable and struggle-free.

Budget

Another factor that we should consider when buying a mattress is budget. Often, the mattresses purchased for older adults are particular and come at high costs. However, there are many top mattress brands in India that sell different price range mattresses without compromising the core quality of the mattress.

Adjustable bed

Apart from adjustable mattresses, adjustable beds can also help older adults while sleeping.

Most of the time, various reasons like health issues, weak bodies, and reduced movements confine older adults to their beds. Also, they spend their maximum time in bed sleeping, reading, or watching television. Spending lots of time in bed makes their body stiffen, and shifting from one position to another becomes difficult.

Adjustable beds come in handy in such cases. The Sleep Company’s Elev8 Smart Adjustable Recliner Bed and Elev8 Smart Adjustable Recliner Bed with Frame are superb options. These Smart adjustable beds not only help senior citizens to stay in bed for a longer duration but also provide zero gravity mode and an anti-snoring position for comfortable and quality sleeping.

Bottom Line:

In the matter of older adults, getting enough hours of peaceful sleep is the greatest joy. Therefore, make sure that you consider their comfort and do not compromise on the quality of mattresses.