Fighting Flu Season Starts in Bed

Winter has arrived and it is getting colder.  If that is not bad enough, winter also means it’s the cold and flu season.

And for those suffering there’s no shortage of available health information, opinions, and debate about to the spreading of germs, over-the-counter-medicines, vaccines, grandma’s “tried-and-true” cold remedy, and the effectiveness of chicken soup.

What many people don’t talk about, however, is the key to restful sleep and its connection to fighting illness. This is not a subject to gloss over, and here’s why:

The importance of sleep:

Many medical professionals believe sleep helps your immune system produce illness-fighting antibodies.

As outlined in this article published by ABC News, sleep is “…going to help the immune system combat the flu.” In addition, the article says a study of college students showed that “…those who slept eight hours a night on average produced twice as many antibodies against the flu shot as individuals who got only four hours of sleep on average.”

In this article published by Inside Science, a recent study showed a special protein is developed during sleep that researchers believe speeds up recovery. The article adds that “Prior research has shown that sleep keeps the immune system healthy and is vital to the body’s ability to battle all kinds of infections.”

Despite mounting evidence pointing to the value of sleep  and the role it plays in helping the immune system, many of us don’t often put enough thought into it.

 For your best defense against illness, and your quickest path to recovery, restful sleep therefore needs to be at the top your priorities.

Following are our top tips to ensure the time you spend in bed is time spent getting better:

Quality mattress:

A mattress is much more than a big cushion that you sleep on. Especially thanks to a host of new technological advancements, today’s mattresses offer a surprising number of ways to keep you comfortable and pain-free at night. Here are some highlights:

• Support- prevents the heavier parts of your body from sinking into the mattress, which can lead to poor spine alignment and ultimately discomfort and pain
• Conformity- shapes itself to the contours of your body to provide uniform support for better comfort
• Weight dispersion- evenly distributes support to prevent excess pressure on a few areas of the body, helping prevent pain
• Motion separation- helps prevent you from being disturbed, such as when your bedtime partner moves in his or her sleep

Quality pillow:

A supportive mattress is only half of the battle. To fully achieve proper support and correct alignment of your head and neck, you also need a quality pillow.

 Without a quality pillow, your spine may be aligned but your neck won’t be. This can make you susceptible to neck pain, which will rob you of sleep.

 For the correct support and alignment from head to toe, think of your mattress and pillow as a “system,” and choose a pillow that works with your mattress to offer the right amount of support plus the correct shape for your head and body type and the way you sleep.

CHECK OUT our Perfect Pillows®.  Suiting all sleeping styles – stomach, side or back and all comfort levels – soft, medium or firm they are height customisable.  They also include our Miracle Layer™ ensuring a healthier night’s sleep with protection for allergens.

Proper sleep environment:

Maintaining the correct indoor temperature and humidity is vital for comfortable sleep, regardless how you feel. Typically, you should keep your indoor humidity between 30% and 50%, with the ideal ambient temperature for falling asleep in the high teens – between 15°C and 20°C.

Management of perspiration:

We’ve all experienced the discomfort of breaking into a sweat when we were sick. Thankfully, this is typically good news since it may be the start of your fever subsiding and you getting back to normal. To maintain as much comfort as possible, you can choose sheets that have moisture wicking properties.  We recommend Tencel® sheeting. 

You also don’t want your perspiration seeping through to the mattress or pillows causing yellowing.   

You can ensure this does not occur by using Protect-A-Bed® mattress and pillow protectors with their Miracle Layer® which although breathable for a comfortable night’s sleep ensures perspiration, skin flakes and other spills don’t penetrate your mattress and pillows

Allergen-free bed:

With all the coughing and sneezing you endure when you’re sick, the last thing you need is a bunch of allergens adding insult to injury.

Your bed, if left unprotected, can expose you to a wide range of allergens including dust mites (which is one of the most common causes of asthma and allergies), mould and bacteria.

What lives in an unprotected mattress.

 Also acting as an allergen barrier the Protect-A-Bed® Miracle Layer® will protect you and your family from any dust mite, mould and bacteria present in your mattress or pillows whilst also preventing any flu germs infecting your mattress or pillows.  

 The best news here is that practically all of these improvements can enhance sleep quality when you aren’t sick, helping to prevent illness in the first place.

 We’re confident these tips will help improve the quality of your sleep this winter…giving you a leg up on cold and flu season!

 Article adapted from a Blog by Protect-A-Bed® USA