Choosing a Mattress
Finding the right mattress can be a puzzling experience
Most people are looking for comfort and support but are unsure about other important factors that deserve consideration.
How a mattress feels and performs is a function of its design and materials. At Søvn European Sleep Systems, we take a comprehensive approach to building a high quality, healthy, and comfortable mattress. From stability and durability to motion transfer and humidity, we look at all the pieces of the puzzle that affect sleep quality.
Deeper breathing, deeper sleep
It’s a little known fact that breathing is the most important factor for quality sleep. Adequate oxygen intake fully restores our bodies, enabling us to awaken refreshed. Shallow breathing and poor oxygen intake reduce the depth of sleep and negatively impact quality of life. Even a slightly reduced oxygen intake can cause daytime sleepiness and headaches, lack of focus, increased appetite, and other health risks. Dramatically reduced breathing due to snoring or sleep apnea can result in serious health issues, including an increased risk of stroke and cardiovascular problems.
Alignment affects oxygen intake
As we sleep, we naturally position ourselves in ways that allow us to breathe and swallow. We’ll often sacrifice a comfortable posture to achieve a deep breath. Some common adaptations include propping the head up with an arm and stacking or folding pillows.
For optimal oxygen intake, the body must lie in a supported position, with no misalignment of the airway or compression of the face. Torsional misalignment through shoulder or hip rotation can restrict the airway and reduce full lung capacity. Lateral misalignment in the spine further compounds the problem. Combined, these posture problems can dramatically reduce your quality of sleep and increase the incidence of breathing disorders, such as snoring or sleep apnea.
The Søvn Solution
Our mattress system is designed to provide stability, support, and comfort. It accommodates the curves of hips and shoulders to encourage optimal torsional and lateral spinal alignment. By promoting a neutral posture free from strain, deeper breathing can be attained for a more restful, restorative night’s sleep. To help maintain a breathable environment, we also offer a full line of natural bedding. Our Oxygen Pillow is designed to increase air intake, and our stretch cotton mattress pads, organic cotton sheets, and wool-filled comforters are Eco-Tex certified to be environmentally safe.
Comfort is subjective
We all want a comfortable mattress, but everyone defines comfort differently. Some of us choose a soft mattress that envelops the body, while others prefer a firmer bed. But softness and firmness aren’t the only defining factors when it comes to a comfortable mattress. Sleep temperature, support, motion transfer, and breathability are also important features that influence the comfort of a mattress. Finding the right mattress often requires balancing a number of personal needs and preferences.
The Søvn Solution
How can a mattress address so many comfort needs? It’s all in the design. Our customized mattress system puts comfort first with four style variations, each in a range from soft to firm. We use only high-quality European components chosen for their elasticity, durability, and cleanliness.
Stretch cotton, wool, natural latex foam, and independent carbon steel coils combine to create an inviting, orthopedically-sound mattress that reduces contact pressure, humidity, and motion transfer while providing even support. And you’ll breathe easy sleeping on our Eco-Tex certified mattress parts. All of our mattress components are tested for toxic chemicals and rated ecologically safe, and they are treated with natural Neem oil to protect against allergens. Our bedding line completes the system. The Oxygen Pillow provides proper support for deep breathing, and our organic cotton stretch mattress pads and natural wool-filled comforters promote drier, cooler sleep. We also carry our own line of organic, eco-certified cotton sheets from Europe.
Support and alignment in three dimensions
Many mattress stores display pictures of side-sleepers with straight spines, suggesting that a spine free of lateral movement is the key to sleeping well. But we’re not flat cardboard cutouts: our spines rotate multi-dimensionally, and misalignment of the spine during sleep can lead to musculoskeletal stress, muscular stiffness, and back pain in the morning. Maintaining torsional alignment in which the spine is not twisted or turned is more important to comfortable, pain-free sleep than simply maintaining a straight spine. Torsional alignment also impacts our oxygen intake, a key factor to a healthy night’s sleep.
Most mattresses fail
Most conventional mattresses have flat, inflexible surfaces that don’t accommodate the curves of the body. When your body meets that surface, your hips and shoulders are forced to rotate, resulting in torsional misalignment. This reduces the restorative properties of sleep by adding instability and stress to the body, causing reduced oxygen intake, and aches and pains in the morning.
The Søvn Solution
At Søvn European Sleep Systems, we understand that three-dimensional support is a critical factor in mattress performance. Our flexible mattress provides an adaptable surface that contours to fit your body, minimizing strain at the shoulders and hips while supporting the curves at your waist and back. Our adjustable slat system allows us to create an even greater depth of contour, with added support and lift where you need it. When your body is properly supported without strain, you can breathe more deeply, increasing your oxygen intake. For full-body alignment, our new Oxygen Pillow provides the support your head and neck require for deeper breathing—and a more restful night’s sleep.
Chemicals are common in U.S. mattresses
The bedroom is our sanctuary, and we count on our bed to provide a safe place for relaxation, restful sleep, and rejuvenation. Unfortunately, many conventional mattresses harbor chemicals and allergens that can adversely affect our sleep and health. Chemical substances, which can remain in the mattress from the manufacturing process or be deliberately added, reduce sleep quality by impairing breathing, and synthetic materials trap moisture in the mattress causing allergens such as molds, mildews, and dust mites to thrive. Adequate oxygen intake is essential to a good night’s sleep.
Most mattresses made in the U.S. are composed of polyester fiberfill, polyurethane, and tempered steel coils. A few are made of visco-elastic “memory” foam. Many of these mattresses contain chemical residues, which are the by-products of material processing or the use of solvent-based glues, dyes, and fire-retardant treatments during manufacturing. These chemicals can outgas over time and cause breathing problems for many people with allergies, asthma, or sleep apnea. Some chemicals found in beds pose serious health risks. PBDEs (polybrominated diphenyl ethers) are sometimes added to polyurethane foams as fire-retardants. PBDEs have been linked to numerous health risks, and California has banned their use beginning in 2008.
Mattresses and bedding can trigger allergies
As we sleep, the heat and perspiration we produce create the ideal environment for allergens like dust mites, molds, and mildews. Thus, the construction of a mattress should ideally consist of breathable, natural materials that allow air to circulate and moisture to evaporate. Mattresses comprised of synthetic materials trap moisture and become havens for such allergens, contributing to allergic symptoms, poor breathing, and worsening asthma in many people. And according to a recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, dust-mite covers for mattresses did not alleviate symptoms.
The Søvn Solution
Our system is designed and built with clean materials to promote deep sleep. Every component we use is tested and rated environmentally safe by Oeko-Tex, a German testing board with stringent environmental standards. We never use PDBE’s or chemical flame retardant, and we refuse to buy from companies that do. Our stretch cotton cover is quilted to wool for breathability and reduced humidity and is treated with Bioneem, a natural oil that dramatically reduces dust mites. And we offer a full line of natural bedding, including The Oxygen Pillow, stretch cotton mattress pads, organic cotton sheets, and wool-filled comforters that are Oeko-Tex certified.
Humidity affects heart rate
As the body's metabolism works throughout the night, perspiration is released as water vapor. Synthetic bedding and foam in mattresses trap and hold this moisture because air can't circulate. As body heat and moisture build up, your heart rate increases, which elevates blood pressure and causes shallower sleep. At a time when you should be resting, your heart isn't. You may awaken in a sweat, unable to return to sleep, or you may wake up in the morning feeling like you didn't get enough sleep. And you didn’t; you lacked the deeper delta sleep cycle that contributes to good health.
Humidity is linked to allergies
Because synthetic bedding environments are more humid and can take a long time to dry out, they provide the perfect climate for mold, mildew, and dust mites to thrive, all of which affect breathing and allergies.
The Søvn Solution
Our system components reduce humidity. Mattress covers are 100% cotton with a highly breathable lining of pure, lightweight wool. Wool conducts moisture away from the body, allows air to circulate, and evaporates water vapor. And our coils and micro-coils provide constant airflow. Together, these components make for deeper, healthier, and drier sleep.
Durability and use
Like automobiles, mattresses are durable goods with a useable lifespan. Over the course of ten years, we use our mattress almost ten times as much as our car. In fact, we use our mattress more than any other durable good we own, and we’re less able to tolerate its wear. While we accept a decline in performance in our car, we expect our mattress to perform like new for years despite extensive use.
The truth about mattress lifespan
Mattresses don’t last fifteen years. Most don’t function well past ten. Conventional mattress warranties reflect this truth and often don’t cover wear at all. At Søvn European Sleep Systems, we consistently see customers replacing a “premium” conventional mattress that is less than five years old. Many mattress companies sell expensive mattresses made of substandard materials that just don’t hold up well over time knowing that consumers believe a more costly product is a better one.
Mattresses have a normal arc of wear
Mattresses do wear with use—and they should. If the weight of your body doesn’t cause the mattress to yield, your body will experience increased pressure in the shoulders and hips (think crumple-zones on a car). This yielding leads to the mattress’ gradual breakdown. Put another way, either the mattress wears out—or you do. A well-built mattress with durable, flexible components will generally last about ten years. Wear should occur gradually without dramatically affecting comfort or function.
The Søvn Solution
At Søvn European Sleep Systems, we are mattress designers and builders. Our mattress is designed for function and built to last with components that we select and buy from the European market. Our all-natural latex foam and independent carbon steel coils are more durable—and more comfortable—than those found in conventional mattresses. And we offer a full ten-year warranty on every mattress we sell.
A stable mattress is a comfortable mattress
The surface of a mattress should contour accurately to allow the body’s curves to be fully supported, and if the mattress functions well, movement on the surface is absorbed rather than transferred from side-to-side. Most conventional mattresses are covered in a tightly woven fabric and contain an interconnected coil construction. This construction reduces flex and increases pressure on the joints while also causing surface movement to travel across the mattress.
The Søvn Solution
Our mattress features a stretch cotton cover that reduces surface tension and provides give. It is assembled with free-floating layers for minimal bounce. Every coil works independently, providing maximum flexibility and superior contour while dramatically reducing motion transfer. And our mattress is built to last with durable, elastic, all natural latex foam cushioning and German steel coils.
Under pressure
Beyond simply causing discomfort, the pressure that most mattresses exert against your shoulders and hips can rob your body of much-needed rest and rejuvenation. Pressure-point stress at weight-bearing areas of the body can also impair circulation, disrupt cellular respiration, increase your heart rate, raise blood pressure, and cause restlessness that leads to shallow sleep.
Additionally, most U.S. mattresses have pressure ratings at or above levels that can cause circulatory problems to develop.
The Søvn Solution
Søvn European Sleep Systems mattresses are designed to reduce pressure from the top down. Our stretch cotton mattress cover, elastic natural latex foam, and independent coils combine to create a uniquely comfortable surface with dramatically reduced pressure ratings that are well below those of conventional mattresses. And we don’t stop there. Our flexible, adjustable slat systems yield at weight-bearing points, providing greater give and increased pressure reduction. Our stretch cotton mattress pad protects your mattress without adding surface tension. It all adds up to lower contact pressure, improved circulation, and lower blood pressure for deeper, more restorative sleep.
Modular Design & Upgrades
The Søvn European Sleep System is extremely versatile – built in a modular manner to facilitate adjustability.
Our mattresses have zippers on the covers which allow us to enter the mattress in order to exchange components if necessary.
This allows us to offer you:
- 60 Day Comfort Exchange (see Warranty section)
- Upgrades to the components – you can purchase components, mattress covers, etc., when necessary.
Personalized/Custom Fitting
Mattresses are NOT "one size fits all". So, why do we expect couples to be perfectly comfortable on the same mattress when they are usually built quite differently and sleep in different positions?
At Søvn European Sleep Systems, we are trained in the ergonomics of sleep and body mechanics in order to understand proper body alignment. What that means to you is that we are able help you and your partner find the proper mattress for your size, weight, weight distribution and how you sleep.
The Søvn fitting process can make a huge difference to your overall comfort and health!
Warranty & 60 Day Comfort Exchange
The Søvn mattress carries a full 10 year warranty. This means it is not prorated over time.
The 60 Day Comfort Exchange works this way. Once you receive your new bed, you have 60 days to determine if the firmness level of your mattress is appropriate for you and your partner. If it's too firm or too soft, you may request a change in firmness level. Simply call Sovn European Sleep Systems and speak to a representative and they can guide you through your options as well as arrange the comfort exchange for you.