Sleep Newzzz

Information from "The Sleep Doctor" for better sleep and better health.

Michael J. Breus, Ph.D., is a Clinical Psychologist and a Diplomate of the American Board of Sleep Medicine. He is the author of Beauty Sleep. See full bio

September 2, 2009, Sleep

Do Not Try This at Home

It might be time for a new mattress.

...unless you've got the space and lots of willing participants...with a really good sense of humor.

If you haven't seen the spectacular display of Mattress Dominoes yet, check it out. In a mattress factory in England, 41 fellow Brits lined up dozens of mattresses on their ends and then stationed each person in front of one of them so they could play out a game of dominoes. As each one came crashing down, it (gently?) knocked the one behind it where another person was clinging to a mattress ready to go down with it. You can hear screams of laughter and the plunk of plastic-wrapped mattresses falling down one by one. The last mattress ends up on a conveyer belt where it is rolled into a truck and allegedly shipped off to a customer's home (with the customer and his wife tucked neatly inside, at least that's how I understood it).

Crazy? Well, not when you consider this group was trying to break some unusual world record. Not sure if they managed to do it but the video certainly became a viral hit on You Tube.

You gotta hand it to these folks for their whacky sense of humor.

And if you want to "try" this at home, I say the best you can do is one-two punch your own mattress. That is to say, dump your old one and get a new one. Ask yourself:

• Have you been sleeping on the same mattress for five years or more?
• Do you sleep better in a hotel bed than in your own?
• Are you tired of dealing with your bed partner's tossing and turning, and bed-hogging?
• Do you find your allergies kick up when you get into bed?

It's probably time. There are lots of new technologies in mattress-making now that guarantee a good night's sleep. And you don't have to go to England to get it.