By Louise Allingham For Daily Mail Australia
Published: 10:50 EDT, 11 July 2022 | Updated: 19:22 EDT, 11 July 2022
An Australian adjustable bed business is spending $100,000 to gift its staff free mattresses and ensure they're getting enough sleep.
Sunshine Coast bed manufacturer Solace Sleep has given many of its employees a brand new $6,000 bed to ensure they rest easy and work their best the next day.
The company is also building a sleep clinic in its warehouse and will be offering pods for staff to nap in during the day.
Sunshine Coast bed manufacturer Solace Sleep has given many of its employees a brand new $6,000 bed to ensure they rest easy and work their best the next day
Solace Sleep specialises in electric adjustable beds which CEO and sleep expert Darren Nelson said can help you get into the optimal position for a rejuvenating rest
A study from the Sleep Health Foundation showed four in ten Australians have difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep or waking up too early resulting in a loss of productivity that costs the economy an estimated $66billion each year.
Solace Sleep specialises in electric adjustable beds which CEO and sleep expert Darren Nelson said can help you get into the optimal position for a rejuvenating rest.
'If you don't elevate your head and feet at night, you won't get the right comfort and right oxygen flowing into your body,' he said.
Solace Sleep is also building a sleep clinic in its warehouse and will be offering pods for staff to nap in during the day
Different people need different amounts of sleep. Eight hours and 15 minutes is the average for adults.
2. Sleep is an active state
Our brains are very active while we sleep. Some parts of the brain use more oxygen and glucose while asleep than when awake.
The first three hours of sleep have the deepest stages of sleep (Slow Wave Sleep). Later on in the night we have more of the sleep stage with vivid dreams (Rapid Eye Movement Sleep, REM sleep). Sleep changes across the night in cycles of about 90 minutes.
4. Our body clock affects our tiredness
How much sleep we need is based on two things: how long we have been awake and our body clock. If we stay awake all night, we will feel more tired at 4am than at 10am. Scientists call the time between 3am and 5am the 'dead zone'. It's when our body clock makes us 'dead' tired.
5. Falling asleep can be hard
Sleep onset is not something we can control. We can only create the right conditions for sleep – both in our minds and in our environment.
'We put so much effort and energy into work, but we don't feel that same level of achievement making sure we get the recommended amount of sleep at night,' he said.
'Sleep enables the body to prepare for the next day and it leads to improved performance and better health outcomes. We can function better in every area.'
Mr Nelson said he wants his staff to be able to go home each day and get a good night's sleep.
'It goes against my grain to have any staff with sleep issues,' he said.
'They don't expect to get a bed, that's the big thing.'
Mr Nelson said after 20 years in the industry, he meets people who struggle with sleeping at night 'everyday'.
❌MYTH : Looking at your phone or watching TV before bed will keep you up at night.
✅THE TRUTH : Elina said if looking at your phone 'helps you unwind' then it shouldn't affect your quality of sleep but to switch off if you're using your device for something that 'stimulates' you too much.
❌MYTH : You should go to bed at the same time every night, even on weekends
✅THE TRUTH : While our bodies like to have regular cycles, Elina said, life changes and demands can often make it difficult to keep a strict routine.
Having consistent sleeping and waking times trains our internal body clock and may help us fall asleep more easily but if keeping to a regular sleep schedule creates stress, for example, due to life demands, then having some flexibility in sleep schedules can be helpful.
❌MYTH : Medication will fix my sleep problems.
✅THE TRUTH : Sedatives only address the symptoms, not the root causes of poor sleep.
❌MYTH : What I do in the hour before bed will dictate how well I sleep.
✅THE TRUTH : It is actually both your daytime activities, and your night time physical environment, that determine the quality and ease of your sleep.
In other words, changing stressful thought and feelings to more positive ones, as well as having a supportive and comfortable mattress, are essential components to your sleep.
❌MYTH : Poor sleep is just something I have to live with.
✅THE TRUTH : It is your birth right to enjoy revitalising, sound, blissful sleep. Insomnia and poor sleep are real and legitimate struggles – but there is a solution, and you are worth finding it!
❌MYTH : Poor sleep positions are what cause my night time pain.
✅THE TRUTH : This may be true, but quite often people are sleeping on old or unsupportive mattresses. It can often be this, rather than their sleep position, that is causing night time pain.
'I've seen so many people unable to get a decent night sleep because they can't switch off, they are in chronic pain or just not prioritising sleep,' he said.
'Our staff, especially our delivery drivers, are lifting heavy boxes all day. It's a physically demanding job. They exhaust themselves during the day and need to rest and recuperate their body at night.'
Mr Nelson said people, on average, will have spent 220,000 hours sleeping by the time they're 70-years-old as opposed to 80,000 hours at work.
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