Natural Versus Synthetic Mattresses & Bedding

Everybody has a natural sleeping pattern of warming and cooling cycles. For example, mostly everybody cycles a warmer trend from about 2:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. Then the body starts its cooling off cycle. By the time a body reaches the coolest temperature, it is around 2:00 a.m. At this point, the mind and body rest and sleeps better when cooler.

Most people are aware of the importance of rapid eye movement sleep, commonly known as R.E.M. This is very important to each of us. But most people aren't aware of benefits of pre- and post- R.E.M. sleep. The pre- and post- R.E.M. sleep is where the body fully relaxes and rests. This is where the natural fibers can help you "sleep like a baby." Sleeping on a foam or synthetic fiber mattress will retain body heat and act like an oven. This will raise the body temperature and make sleep lighter. People will tend to kick off the covers when they are too hot. Then, during the night, they will get colder and get up to get the covers. This disturbs the pre- R.E.M. sleeping pattern.

By sleeping on natural fibers, moisture will be wicked away, which will help keep the body at a more even temperature. This will help you get a better night's rest and stay in the R.E.M. sleep cycle longer.

Another benefit of natural mattresses is that they can last longer. For example, when we weighed one of our natural beds 20 years later, not including the cover, it lost about 2 pounds over the 20 years: from 60 pounds to 58 pounds. When you weigh a foam and Dacron bed after 10 years, it's weight is cut in half: from 20 pounds to approximately 10 pounds. And most of this material is inhaled while people are sleeping. The age of synthetics, for the past 50 years, generated bedding products which do not 'breathe.' Optimal sleeping conditions provide a breathable surface to the sleeper. Natural fibers are breathable. Synthetic fibers are basically not. Synthetic fibers, therefore, do not benefit from sunning and airing. They are instead, gradually destroyed by these elements while natural fibers benefit from them.