Latex mattresses are quickly becoming the most popular mattress type on the market. Sleepers know they deliver a comfortable night’s sleep and they are the healthiest mattress on the market today. When you choose a natural latex mattress, you can also sleep well, knowing that your mattress is equally good for the planet.
The primary advantages of sleeping on a latex mattress can be broken down into five essential categories:
- Health
- Sleep
- Home
- Planet
- Budget
These are just a few of the advantages that you will experience when you sleep on a natural latex mattress.
- Health Advantages of Natural Latex Mattresses
Aside from the health advantages of a good night’s sleep, which we’ll discuss in the “sleep” section, there are many other health benefits associated with sleeping on a natural latex mattress. Natural latex is widely known for its unsurpassed support. This support helps to promote proper spinal alignment, providing outstanding relief from back pain, especially for stomach and back sleepers.
What many people do not understand is that natural latex also offers plush comfort to cradle or cushion pressure points, providing further relief from aches and pains in key pressure points (shoulders, hips, etc.), experienced by many side sleepers. Here are some of the other health benefits sleepers receive when sleeping on a latex mattress.
No Exposure to Common Mattress Allergens
Natural latex is naturally inhospitable to certain common allergens found in traditional mattresses. The three main allergens are:
- Dust mites
- Mold
- Bacteria
Dust Mites
The botanical foam used to make natural latex mattresses naturally repels dust mites, which is excellent news for you. Dust mites are huge problems for allergy sufferers, with nearly 20 million Americans suffering from dust mite allergies.
Common symptoms of dust mite allergies include:
- Difficulty breathing
- Sinus problems
- Itchy eyes
- Red eyes
- Watery eyes
- Asthma
- Rash
- Hives
- Itchy skin
- Sore throat
- Hoarse voice
Then there’s the “ick” factor. Who wants to sleep on a mattress filled with dust mites, and the “debris” they leave behind in your mattress? Yuck!
Mold
The open cell construction of latex foam creates an atmosphere that is also naturally resistant to the formation of mold. The open cell construction allows air to flow freely through and it does not retain body heat. This means you are less likely to be hot and sweat while sleeping.
However, if you do sweat, the moisture is quickly wicked away, and not trapped in the materials of your mattress. Latex mattresses do not have the moisture-rich environment that promotes mold growth, like other mattresses.
Bacteria
Bacteria trapped in the deep layers of traditional mattresses is public enemy number one, when it comes to odors in some mattresses. Natural latex is naturally antibacterial, which means it doesn’t harbor, or provide safe haven, for bacteria that could make it difficult for you to recover from an illness or cause new illnesses.
No Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)
VOCs will be discussed more in dept in the section set aside for the benefits to your home. However, it bears mentioning in the health section as well because of the symptoms associated with exposure to VOCs, which can include:
- Headaches
- Dizziness
- Nose and throat irritation
- Nausea
- Allergic skin reactions
- Fatigue
- Loss of coordination
In severe cases, VOC exposure can cause damage to your liver, kidneys, and central nervous system, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). When you think about the number of hours your family spends on your mattresses in a year, nearly 3,000 hours per person, you want a mattress that doesn’t contain VOCs.
No Harsh Chemicals
Exposure to harsh chemicals can cause a wide range of health conditions. Natural latex mattresses are made without harsh petrochemicals, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, heavy metals, prohibited phthalates, chlorofluorocarbons, formaldehyde, and countless other harmful ingredients commonly found in mattresses.
That means your family isn’t breathing in these harmful chemicals night after night while you sleep, which is a huge improvement for your health over traditional mattresses on the market.
- Sleep Advantages of Sleeping on Latex Mattresses
There is no denying the benefits of getting a good night’s sleep for your health. Long-term sleep deprivation can devastate your overall health, and has been linked to many chronic, even terminal health conditions, including:
- Obesity
- Type 2 diabetes
- Cardiovascular disease
- Depression
- High blood pressure
- Metabolic disease
Additionally, chronic sleep deprivation can severely weaken your body’s immune response to other conditions creating colds, viruses, and more, that keep you in a chronic state of illness and fatigue. It becomes a snowball nightmare for your health.
Other areas of your life where sleep has a profound impact can be greatly aided by getting more sleep, such as:
- Improved mood
- Better overall coordination
- Improved productivity and performance at work or in school
- Greater quality of life
While there is no magic mattress that will solve all sleep problems, natural latex can solve many, creating a more favorable atmosphere for you to get the sleep you need.
Because your natural latex mattress promotes a good night’s sleep in numerous ways, it can help you fight off the cumulative impact of sleep deprivation on your overall health, and help you feel more prepared for what lies ahead.
How does a natural latex mattress promote sleep?
One of the most important ways natural latex mattresses promote quality sleep is by removing the barriers many people experience that disrupt sleep. They include:
- Pain. Pressure point and/or back pain often prevent people from getting the quality sleep they need at night. Natural latex helps to mitigate both types of pain, preparing you to enjoy uninterrupted sleep.
- Temperature. People are more likely to wake up at night if they are overheated. The open cell construction of natural latex promotes the free flow of air throughout the mattress, keeping you cool, and causing you to wake up less frequently due to being overheated.
- Partner movements. The natural motion isolating properties of natural latex mattresses insulates you from the movements of your partner, making you less likely to wake when your partner decides to tango with the sheets.
Because you’re getting a better night’s sleep, and you have a mattress that promotes proper spinal alignment and pressure point relief, you also wake up feeling more refreshed, along with fewer aches and pains.
- Home Advantages of Natural Latex Mattresses
If you’re like most people, you probably view your home as your personal safe haven from all the ills of the world. It’s the one place you go to escape pollution, noise, people, and, in many cases, work. Unfortunately, your home is not necessarily the safe place from pollution you expect it to be.
According to the EPA, “indoor levels of pollutants may be two to five times – and occasionally more than 100 times – higher than outdoor levels.”
In fact, the report goes on to indicate that in our efforts to create homes and buildings that are more energy efficient, we may be doing such an excellent job that we’re trapping things we don’t want to remain inside our homes along with the warm or cold air.
Poor indoor air quality can be caused by a wide variety of things including:
- Mold
- Mildew
- Pollen
- Bacteria
- Microbes
But the primary culprits, mentioned briefly above, are VOCs. They enter your home in many surprising ways, and are likely in your home already. The EPA lists these as common sources of VOCs inside the home:
- Paint
- Disinfectants
- Cleaning products
- Air fresheners
- Hobby supplies
- Pesticides
- Clothing that has been dry-cleaned
- Building materials
- Furniture
- Printers
- Glues
- Adhesives
- Mattresses
- Bedding
The more alarming news about VOCs is that while you may only experience the obvious symptoms of exposure in the first few days, the toxins remain in your home indefinitely once introduced, silently harming your family for years.
There are small steps you can take to reduce the levels of VOCs in your home, like switching to natural cleaning products, buying paint and other crafting products that are labelled as low VOC products, etc. Bigger moves you can make are to switch to furniture, flooring, and other materials that contain low levels of, or no, VOCs.
Natural latex mattresses are made from pure, natural, botanical sap from a rubber tree and no added chemicals. That is why you won’t experience the rush of off-gassing, noxious, odor released upon opening your mattresses that is prevalent with memory foam mattresses.
- Planetary Benefits of Natural Latex Mattresses
Not only does using a natural latex mattress help make your home a safer place to breathe the air, it also helps the planet. Natural latex is sourced from natural materials. It is made from the sap of the rubber tree, Hevea Brasiliensis.
Manufacturing
Latex is manufactured in one of two natural manufacturing methods, Dunlop or Talalay, without adding petrochemicals into the mix. Synthetic and/or blended latex add petrochemicals into the process to make the mattresses more cheaply. Natural latex, on the other hand, does not.
Natural latex uses natural methods for gathering the sap from the trees, processing the sap into latex foam, and for putting the mattresses together. Quality latex mattresses are made without adding chemicals and without using glue to fasten the layers together.
Longevity
Latex mattresses also benefit the planet by lasting much longer than traditional mattresses. The average expected lifespan of a coil innerspring mattress is 7 years. The average expected life span of a natural latex mattress is 20 years. This means they last nearly three times as long.
Why is that important?
According to the Mattress Recycling Council, U.S. landfills are overburdened with mattresses, receiving up to 50,000 mattresses every single day. Imagine reducing those numbers by one-third. Better yet, imagine what would happen if more people recycled their mattresses.
Recyclability
Traditional mattresses are notoriously difficult to recycle, if it is possible to do so at all. Many of them contain chemicals that are now banned. Disposing of them becomes a major problem, too, as they are notoriously difficult to recycle, and many states do not yet have recycling programs enacted for mattresses.
Most traditional mattresses, difficult to recycle, end up in landfills, where the chemicals in these mattresses, contaminate the soil and groundwaters nearby. Natural latex mattresses, on the other hand, are made with natural materials that are 100 percent recyclable.
Not only do latex mattresses last longer, but they can also be completely recycled at the end of their life cycles, making them much better choices for the sake of the planet.
- Budget Benefits of Natural Latex Mattresses
Sticker shock is one of the most common complaints of people who are shopping around for natural latex mattresses. The materials and process by which the mattresses are made do cost more than traditional mattresses made with endless petrochemicals. That is reflected in the price.
However, once you consider the value of the mattresses, you will find they are actually more budget-friendly than most traditional mattresses. One reason is the longevity of these mattresses. Quality latex mattresses last up to three times longer than the average traditional innerspring mattress on the market, and have warranties that reflect this longevity.
You must also consider the budget-busting health benefits of natural latex as well. Fewer visits to the doctor’s office, less missed time at work, improved productivity and performance; the financial possibilities are limitless.
The key is to find a natural latex mattress that offers the best of all worlds, by offering transparency in the materials, manufacturing, and making of the mattresses to ensure they are in fact 100 percent natural latex mattresses and not synthetic blends, and to make sure that the warranty is solid.
Latex For Less offers natural latex mattresses that offer all that and more. Our natural latex mattresses come with two comfort levels built into one mattress, (just flip the mattress over to see which side works best for you - medium or firm), a 120-night risk-free trial, a 20-year warranty, various purity certifications, and they are handmade in the USA.
