Hidden Mattress Trap: Nervous System And Sleep

That mattress you trusted for recovery could be the hidden variable sabotaging your nervous system regulation without you knowing it, and most people never connect the dots. Professional mattress tester Derek Hales cuts through the marketing noise and matches real performance data to your body, sleep style and budget, not showroom spin. This episode gives you the clarity most shoppers never get, especially if caregiver burnout or a functional medicine approach has you treating sleep as the foundation of healing.

Because pressure relief, cooling, motion transfer and durability are not just specs on a tag, they determine whether your mattress supports your recovery or quietly works against it while you sleep. Derek has tested hundreds of mattresses, and what he found about where cheaper options backfire, when it is actually time to replace your mattress, and which materials promote nervous system regulation overnight will change how you shop forever. You will also walk away with simple sleep environment shifts that calm a restless mind and deepen recovery without another gadget.

By the time you finish this episode, you will know exactly how to match your mattress to your body's needs so you can stop guessing, stop overspending and start sleeping like recovery depends on it, because it does.

Chapters

• 0:00 The Mattress Price Myth
• 3:51 Why Sleep Drives Health And Resilience
• 6:24 Simple Habits That Calm The Mind
• 8:41 Creatine Light Dimming And Sleep Tools
• 13:43 Budget Mattress Picks And Natural Materials
• 16:55 When To Replace A Mattress
• 18:15 The Real Truth About Mattress Pricing
• 20:21 NapLab’s Data Driven Mattress Testing

If this helped, subscribe, share it with a friend who’s mattress shopping, and leave a quick review so more people can find practical sleep and mattress advice.

New episodes weekly.

NewNormalBigLifePodcast.com

DrStellaMD Marketplace
Immune-boosting protocols Premium all-natural supplements Telehealth + wellness consultations

BeRootedIn
RootedIn: Magnesium Cream. Shop Now With My Affiliate Link

Ready Hour & My Patriot Supply
Best price on US-based preparedness and long-term storable food. Shop now with my affiliate link.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Transcript

The Mattress Price Myth

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Mature mattress brands in the US have spent, you know, the last 30, 40 years convincing Americans that you've got to spend the price of a new car to get a quality bed. And that's just not true. You don't need to spend, you know, five to ten thousand dollars to get a nice mattress. Based on, you know, my years of testing, you know, we've seen mattresses in that sort of$1,500 to$2,000 range for a queen ends up being sort of the sweet spot where you're maximizing performance and quality while not spending any more than you need to. For the vast majority of consumers, I really don't think there's any need to spend more than$3,000. We we see diminishing returns really speed up after that point.

How A Mattress Tester Gets Started

SPEAKER_00 0:34

Welcome to the New Normal Big Life Podcast. We bring you natural and integrative health information and stories about nature that we hope will inspire you to get outside in adventure, along with a step-by-step plan to help you practice what you've learned to create your own new normal and live the biggest life you can dream. I'm your host, Antoinette Berafato, the wellness warrior. Let's get into today's topic. Welcome, Derek Hales to New Normal Big Life. Why don't you tell us who you are, what you do, and the one big idea you want us to remember from the expertise you plan to share today.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

So my name is Derek Hales. I'm a professional mattress tester. I've been testing mattresses professionally for a little over 11, pretty close to 12 years at this point. I've tested about 500 and I think up to 530 mattresses in the last 11 and a half years or so. And I run the platform naplab.com, where we do objective and data-driven mattress tests to help our readers and our viewers find the mattresses that are a perfect fit for them. And uh our one big idea today is simply the importance of sleep. And so much of that starts with making sure that you get a great mattress that that meets your needs, preferences, and budget.

SPEAKER_00 1:42

Well, I've never met a professional mattress tester before, and I'm really curious about this profession. How did you get into it and what what is it like to be a professional mattress tester?

SPEAKER_01 1:53

Quite by accident. You know, the whole thing kind of really started when uh my wife and I got married. We we got married in 2014. Uh, shortly after getting married, we were sleeping on my sort of old inner spring full-size mattress from high school that I just happened to keep using. And so we were very quickly in the market for a new bed. So we did kind of the whole in-store mattress shopping thing, went into mattress specialty stores and we laid on a bunch of beds. We found stuff we liked, but you know, the models that we liked were four, five, and six thousand dollars. And we're a young, you know, newly married couple without a whole lot of money to speak of, and pretty frugal people at that, and just couldn't pull the trigger. So we ended up taking a chance on these online mattress brands that were just getting started at the time. So we ordered one, it was six hundred dollars, all foam, came compressed in a box. It was okay, not great for us. We ended up returning it. It's a really easy return process. And then we ordered another one and it was a little bit better. And we ended up keeping that one for a while and really just as kind of like a fun weekend project. I just decided, hey, I'm gonna throw up a website. I'm gonna review these two beds, I'm gonna compare them. I'll talk about my experiences in the store and what it was like sleeping on these beds, and just see if anybody cares and just kind of create the the resource, the reviews that that I was really looking for when I was shopping, and I just wasn't finding anywhere. The website just did great. Within just a few weeks, it was getting a lot of traffic and attention. My readers were asking me to test and review other things. And so we we kept getting other mattresses, kept testing them, kept reviewing them. I mean, now fast forward just a few months after the initial sort of first two mattresses that I had tried, we had tested, I think, you know, half a dozen or so. Um, and the site was doing well enough that I was like, okay, we could do this. And so I left my full-time job to start my career as a full-time mattress tester.

Why Sleep Drives Health And Resilience

SPEAKER_00 3:32

Wow, that's incredible. And you know what, Derek, you are proving my point. The point that I like to make is that the best innovations come from people who solved a problem that they wish they had answers to when they were looking for a solution. Great on you for doing that. And we'll get to the importance of sleep. But as part of our take back your health campaign, we emphasize building resilience in all areas of your life. So, how does good sleep contribute to being mentally and emotionally prepared for whatever comes next in these very uncertain times?

SPEAKER_01 4:07

I mean, good sleep is the foundation of our entire health. It is everything. Countless studies have shown this in recent decades. When we get good and full sleep each night, the body can heal itself, it can restore itself physically, mentally, emotionally. And when you're not getting good sleep, you're going to suffer in all of those same areas. The there was a recent study that looked at sort of longevity as it's related to all these different factors, including sleep and diet and exercise and genetics and social isolation and smoking and drug use and all kinds of things that impact our health. And sleep was shown to be the number two most impactful longevity factor. The only thing that was more impactful that was smoking. If you could stop smoking, that was more impactful. But it was, it was bigger than exercise, it was bigger than diet, it was bigger than genetics and socialization and all these other things. So it is just so critical to everything about just being a person.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

So in your research at NapLab, how what have you discovered in terms of how sleep helps with your focus and clarity and resilience? We talked about longevity, but what have you learned about these areas?

SPEAKER_01 5:20

So our research is really focused more on mattresses and less on sleep. I let the true sort of, you know, the PhDs and clinicians tell me like what's going on, you know, in that world. But, you know, speaking, you know, anecdotally from, you know, just the countless, you know, stories and conversations that I've had with my viewers and my readers over the years, you know, sleep is sort of a miracle game changer. You know, I'll have people come to me and tell me about all of the struggles and the issues, the pain points of their current mattress and it's its negative impact on their sleep, which then has a much broader negative impact on their overall well-being. And then when they are able to get to a mattress that actually meets their body's needs, creates the right support, creates the right pressure relief, the right cooling, it is sort of a night and day miracle worker because all of these things that were compounding on their body physically, mentally, emotionally are now solved because they've solved the root problem, which is that they just the mattress wasn't providing the right comfort and support dynamics, which was creating bad sleep, which then creates, you know, bad downstream, all these other effects on our health. So it's it's everything, in my view.

SPEAKER_00 6:24

Have your readers and in your own experience developed any nighttime habits that really work for people to get into that deep restorative REM sleep.

SPEAKER_01 6:35

I wouldn't say I've seen anything like sort of broad consensus, you know, sort of nighttime habits very widely. I've had, you know, some readers share their stories with me a very specific regimen, like I do this at this time, and this at this time, and this at this time. And then I've had others say, yeah, I just try to not watch TV 30 minutes before bed. And not like that was like the trigger for them. So I think it's one of those things you have to try stuff and see sort of what works for you. For me, I keep it pretty simple, like kind of the same way. I do try to sort of limit the screens within that last 30 minutes. But you know, one of the biggest things for for me was just I'm sort of mentally processing the day like several hours beforehand. So right after I get off work, I usually take the dog for a long walk. And it's just a time to sort of just be with my thoughts for half an hour so I can process what's going on, make my mental to-do list, and then I can stop thinking about that stuff. I I had a stretch of several years where I was really struggling with this. I would, I would lay down and then my mind would just like spin and spin and spin and spin and just crush me at night and really get in the way of my sleep. And so for me, that was, you know, a game changer. But I think it really depends on the individual sleeper. I wonder have you developed any sort of nighttime habits for for yourself that you've seen make an impact?

Creatine Light Dimming And Sleep Tools

SPEAKER_00 7:43

I really have, and I knew you were one of my people because I do the exact same thing that you do in terms of the window from the day. I take my dog on a long walk. I live in a cabin in the woods, so we head out into the forest, either our own or out on the road or a nearby park. And that allows me to decompress from my day. And so later, when I try to go to sleep, like you, I'm not bothered by my to-do lists and creative ideas, because my creative ideas would keep me awake at night. My brain was so active, and I would come up with tons of ideas, and I would just say to myself, I'm just gonna write this down on a piece of paper for tomorrow and not think about it. But then the ideas wouldn't stop. So I had to figure out a way like you to process while I'm still awake well before bedtime, and then that frees my brain up for just relaxing. But I do have a nighttime routine and it starts immediately after dinner. One of these tips that I want to share with you and other wellness warriors, I got from board-certified neurologist Dr. Ryan Williamson, and he shared with us that recent research says 98, 90 to 98% of your health outcomes are a result of your life choices, like the ones that you and I are making with getting deep restorative sleep. And he also recommended taking five grams of creatine monohydrate in the morning with eight ounces of water and five grams at night with eight ounces of water, because not only does it support bone and brain bone and muscle health and recovery, it also heals your brain and helps your brain to recover. And so, as a brain injury survivor, that's really important for me. And I can tell you, since I've been doing this maybe for about three months now, I can definitely see the difference in my daily cognitive abilities, which is great. So I do use my creatine monohydrate after dinner. I also start dimming the lights in our home after dinner. It gets progressively darker until right before bed, we're just using electric candles.

SPEAKER_01 9:59

And interesting.

SPEAKER_00 10:00

Just one very dim light in our great room. And what that does is it starts to set your brain's circadian rhythms to okay, it's the end of the day, we're winding down, and now we're falling asleep. Once I did that, that became a game changer. I also have a diffuser running with essential oils like lavender or eucalyptus if I need a little decongestion help. And those essential oils both clean the air and it smells good and it also makes you feel sleepy. And then I use magnesium cream infused with things like chamomile to help you feel sleepy. And not only does it work for me, it works for my fiance who did two tours as a Marine Corps in combat in Iraq, and he sleeps like a baby now, also. So I hope that helps anyone who's struggling with sleep.

SPEAKER_01 10:55

That's interesting. Regarding the creatine monohydrate, I've only ever heard sort of creatine in the context of like pre-workout. Is uh the monohydrate like a sort of specialized version, or can you sort of elaborate on that?

SPEAKER_00 11:07

So there are multiple forms of creatine, and the creatine monohydrate is the one that most bodybuilders, and I'm a former competitive bodybuilder and power lifter, and that is the one that many of us took to if especially if you were a natural bodybuilder and you wanted to get strong and bigger muscles without other kinds of drugs. However, what doctors are realizing is that creatine monohydrate specifically can cross the blood-brain barrier, which means it can positively in this case impact your brain health.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

So my understanding was always it's sort of like a almost like caffeine, like it just gets you like amped up for your workouts you can go and like you know, throw around, you know, big whites and this and that and have a strong workout.

SPEAKER_00 11:51

That's a good question. And a lot of people have actually asked me this question. I I think when you hear bodybuilders talk about taking creatine and getting ripped, they're also taking it with things like ripped fuel that has caffeine in it. Other there are other brands of creatine that have things like caffeine and garana, which is a kind of a natural energy booster. But if you add those other supplements, natural like caffeine or guarana, that give you energy mixed in with your creatine, it'll keep you awake. If it's just pure creatine monohydrate, it doesn't. And I also add sea salt, a pinch of sea salt, and squeeze a half of a fresh lemon, and that supports your kidney and liver function as well.

SPEAKER_01 12:39

Interesting.

SPEAKER_00 12:40

So yeah, I hope you'll try it. I I can definitely see the difference in my brain. I could normally have one of these conversations per day. Now I can do three or four, which is huge for a TBI survivor.

SPEAKER_01 12:53

Absolutely, that's terrific.

Budget Mattress Picks And Natural Materials

SPEAKER_00 12:56

So before we cover the next topic in this discussion, I want to introduce you to the adventure sports lifestyle with a micro story about an adventure that I've had. The adventure sports lifestyle and my deep connection to nature is essential to my good health. So here's the story. When you get out and explore parks near your home, it can feel like you've been transported to some far-off place. So, for example, last fall we took a road trip and hiked a Midwestern waterfall, and it really felt like hiking the northern Colorado foothills. It felt so remote, but it was just a short drive from our home. And I hope this inspires you to get outside and explore your local parks or even parks a little further away from home with friends, family, or the people you love most. Now back to this topic. So, Derek, many of our listeners are both health focused and budget conscious. What are some tips for choosing a budget-friendly mattress that really supports your good night's sleep?

SPEAKER_01 13:54

So I think when choosing a budget-friendly mattress, it's important to sort of get something that is high quality while also being budget-friendly. The challenge with the budget-friendly mattress is it's really easy to buy something that's just not great. Maybe maybe lower quality materials, maybe the trial, the refunds, the returns are just not great because of the cheaper price. So you want to be careful because there's just as you get particularly, you know, let's say$1,000 and less, the number of quality, trusted brands inside of that$1,000 for a queen size barrier is very limited. So it can be hard to find like good, good quality mattresses. So particularly if you are more health conscious. And when for a lot of people, that means they want something that's more natural, something more organic. That's probably going to be some type of latex mattress. Latex, all all foam latex or or latex hybrid. While those are, you know, healthier materials and they last a long time, latex is unfortunately expensive. So those beds tend to start around$1,000 for a queen and then kind of go up to, you know, you know, three to four thousand, with the a good chunk, I would say, in the sort of sixteen hundred to, you know, let's say two thousand dollar range. So depending on kind of what your budget and what is sort of, you know, reasonably affordable, you know, that can can be in it. But if you're towards sort of the the bottom of that budget where you can only spend a thousand dollars, you only have a handful of brands. I'm sort of the best sort of, you know, latex, latex hybrid, budget-friendly brands that I've seen is a brand called Latex Mattress Factory and Sleep Easy, just the letter E, the letter Z. Those two brands. They make a really, really nice, high-quality mattress, sort of a no-frills type brand, but it's still, you know, natural, organic, and healthier latex.

SPEAKER_00 15:37

For those who are allergic to latex, would a simple mattress cover be a good barrier over a latex mattress?

SPEAKER_01 15:46

Really, that's a question that kind of only you and your doctor could answer on like the degree of your latex allergy. I know for many sleepers, definitely that's that's an option. But for some, the allergy is so extreme. Sort of having latex anywhere near is a problem. And then, you know, God forbid, you know, something happened to expose the latex or that's something happened with the cover, and now you have like a big problem. So I think it really just depends on severity. But in all cases, it's worth a conversation with your doctor to understand sort of the risk of doing so.

SPEAKER_00 16:14

Are there other natural mattress materials if someone can't use latex?

When To Replace A Mattress

SPEAKER_01 16:20

There are, but they are limited. So we'd be looking usually at wool if you're not going to get some type of uh latex mattress, and you want something that's organic and natural. The the challenge with a wool mattress is it takes a lot of wool and uh in addition to other materials to sort of make a mattress. And so they tend to be quite a bit more expensive to get something that's that's going to last. Usually in the world of sort of wool mattresses, you'll often see those sort of mixed with organic cotton or cashmere and and often with coils as well to provide sort of the foundational support layer. So if you can't get latex, that's going to be your next best option.

SPEAKER_00 16:55

So some people struggle with knowing, and I know I am one of those people, knowing when to replace your mattress. What are some of the signs and benchmarks to know it's time for a new one?

SPEAKER_01 17:06

So I the one thing that I always tell people is to listen to your body. That is the biggest signpost above all else. If you're waking up and you're not well rested, you're sore, you're in pain, you have low energy during the day, it could be the result of your mattress. So really think about, you know, is the mattress sort of creating these problems for you? It could be other stuff going on too or compounding those issues. But if if you are waking up low energy, tired, sore, good chance it's the mattress. It's also worth thinking about how do you sleep at other people's houses on their mattress? How do you sleep when you're at a at a nice hotel? If you're sleeping well there and not at home, well, it's probably the mattress. Most quality mattresses should last around 10 years. Doesn't mean every mattress will. Doesn't mean, you know, your mattress that's 15 years old has to be replaced. This is why I always think it's just more helpful to really consider what's going on with with your body to decide if it's time to change or not.

The Real Truth About Mattress Pricing

SPEAKER_00 18:03

That makes perfect sense. I don't know why you never thought about that. Sometimes it it helps when someone else tells you a truth that you probably already subconsciously know, but that makes perfect sense to me. So what are some of the biggest misconceptions about people when it c people have when it comes to finding the right mattress for them?

SPEAKER_01 18:23

I think the biggest one is just price. Um major mattress brands in the US have spent, you know, the last 30, 40 years convincing Americans that you've got to spend the price of a new car to get a quality bed. And that's just not true. You don't need to spend, you know, five to$10,000 to get a nice mattress. This isn't to say that mattresses that are five,$10,000 are bad mattresses. They usually aren't. They're usually, you know, very high quality, good mattresses. But, you know, based on, you know, my years of testing, you know, we've seen mattresses in that sort of$1,500 to$2,000 range for a queen ends up being sort of the sweet spot where you're maximizing performance and quality while not spending any more than you need to. For the vast majority of consumers, I really don't think there's any need to spend more than$3,000. We we see diminishing returns really speed up after that point. So definitely don't, while price is, I think, a relevant factor and can often communicate a certain level of performance and quality. We we reach a point, particularly with more of your like traditional kind of like legacy, like in-store brands, where that stops being true and you're just paying for the brand, you're paying for like the privilege of you know owning whatever brand name. So you do not need to spend an exorbitant amount of money to get a high quality mattress.

NapLab’s Data Driven Mattress Testing

SPEAKER_00 19:34

Well, I did what you did. I went to several mattress specialty stores and I laid down on a lot of mattresses. I spent a lot of time laying on those mattresses, and I thought I chose the right mattress for me, considering I also broke my back. And so choosing the uh quality mattress is very important. Got the mattress home, and after spending$1,500 and seven nights of sleeping on it, I felt like I was sleeping on a Fred Flintstone rock mattress. It was just so hard, just so firm. But you've made it really easy with a great innovation at NapLab. Tell us how you've created a powerful tool to make sure that people like me don't buy the wrong mattress.

SPEAKER_01 20:21

So at Knap Lab, you know, everything is data. I'm a big believer in trying to create as much objective and quantifiable data and information about everything that we test. I don't want my reviews to just be my opinion. I just say, oh, that feels soft or oh, that pressure feels good, or the cooling feels good. No, which we try to bring as much data as possible in about the mattresses. Um, so you know, when we're testing for cooling, we're using thermal cameras to take surface level temperature measurements. When we're testing for motion transfer, we're using an accelerometer to understand exactly the peaks and valleys of the acceleration on the mattress and also the duration. And we have different types of measurements for you know the 10 tests that we do. The whole idea being that we want to create as much, again, data-driven information about the mattresses as possible, but especially use that information to then compare that one mattress to everything else that we've tested so that we can say things with confidence like, hey, this mattress performs in the top 10% in terms of cooling from everything we've tested, but it's in the bottom, you know, 20% for motion transfer. And then you can easily then align your priorities and preferences with the mattresses that are performing best for the things that you care about the most. Ultimately, I just want to help connect my readers and my audience with mattresses that meet their needs, preferences, and budget, and the sort of circle of data that surrounds each mattress uh is uh is a really easy way to make that connection.

SPEAKER_00 21:48

Well, as a former tech CEO, I love that people are able to use Nap Labs to make data driven decisions about their sleep setup. That's a genius idea. What more do you want listening?

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Listeners to know that we're going to be able to if you're in the market for a new mattress, we're we're here to help and we try to make it as simple as possible. At naplab.com, N-A-P-L-A-B.com. We have our reviews, comparisons, guides, and a whole lot more. But we also have our mattress finder quiz. Uh you answer a few questions about your needs, preferences, and budget. That goes straight to me or a member of my team. And we send you back a personalized and free recommendation within 24 hours.

Free Personalized Recommendations And Wrap

SPEAKER_00 22:23

Wow, that's great. And you know, we have a renovation coming up. When our bedroom is done with the renovation, I will be connecting with Knap Labs so that I can choose the right mattress for our new bedroom. Thank you so much for joining me, Derek. This has been such an insightful conversation.

SPEAKER_01 22:41

Well, thank you so much for having me. It's been an absolute pleasure. The information in this podcast is not medical advice and should not be treated as such. Always consult your physician or healthcare professional before pursuing any health related procedure or activity.