Can a Non Toxic Mattress Save Your Health?

This post on non toxic mattresses is proudly sponsored by Naturepedic. The best place to get a comfortable mattress, without the harmful chemicals.

Your most restorative and healing internal work happens while you rest. When you are sleeping your body works to repair, restore and even allows you to burn some extra body fat stores in the process. Sleep is consider the most critical element of human health. That’s why I’m partnering with Naturpedic to show you why it’s important to consider what you’re sleeping on every night.

So many people still struggle to get a good nights sleep when they don’t have to. In fact, sleeping medications are some of the top prescribed drugs in America {1}. So there is no denying we have issues sleeping.

Personally, I’ve never had a sleeping problem, well other than the three children I’ve had that have kept me up on numerous occasions. Outside of that I sleep and I sleep well. But what I didn’t realize when my health took a 180 degree turn and I was left trying to put the pieces back together was this; just because I was sleeping doesn’t mean I was in restorative deep sleep mode. In other words just because you’re “sleeping” doesn’t mean you’re healing.

Get More Deep Sleep

There are a lot of factors that can interfere with our body’s ability to sleep. Some include; blue lights, and electromagnetic radiation {cell phones and wifi}. But, the one that hit home with me was toxins coming from chemical exposure and even things like dust mites and mold.

Through the year-long health battle we searched high and low for where my mold-illness was coming from. We wanted to get to the bottom of it and that we did. My washing machine was the main culprit, but what we know about mold is it is a living and active organism. Which also means it is extremely difficult to kill. In fact, as the mold grows it releases spores into the air and begins to spread ten fold.

So when you think about a washing machine transferring mold onto every fabric surface you would ever wash, there was a lot of potential fabric mold happening in our house. This mold was extremely destructive to my health and my sleeping patterns. Throughout the journey as I dug even further into this, I realized that the place I lay my head every night, my bed was one of the top places for mold growth in a home.

Mind blown.

Yes, your mattress could be a home to millions of mold spores and it could be making you sick, preventing you from getting better, reaching deep sleep and even losing weight. So let’s dig into mattresses for a minute and look at mold but other toxins lurking under your sheets. This is a big deal in health and one we often just gloss over.

Toxins in Your Mattress

There is no denying that our mattress takes a lot of abuse. If you’re anything like me you’ve probably never actually followed through with any of the care instructions your mattress came with. Instead you just pop sheets on and take them off only to do a quick wash. But if you really start to think about the amount of time you lay in bed, it’s quite a lot. In fact, you most likely spend more time in bed than any other place in your home with up to 1/3 of your life being spent there.

So it must be a safe place.

Think about when you sleep, you are breathing out gasses that contain small amounts of water. You may perspire which leads to dampness and who knows you have a kid who dumps an entire glass of water on your mattress and there you have step number one for mold growth, moisture.

As that water seeps into your mattress it then starts the incubation period of massive growth. Depending upon what material your mattress is made of, it has the ability to grow and expand and off gas these harmful and allergenic mold spores that start affecting how you sleep and how your body heals.

Vulnerability During Sleep

When we look at mattress toxicity from the toxins used in manufacturing to the potential mycotoxin growth, we can see it turns into a vicious cycle that is hard to escape.
In our body, our nervous system has two states: sympathetic and parasympathetic. Sympathetic mode is our flight-or fight response that allows us to react quickly to life or death situations. Parasympathetic mode is our rest and digest state. It allows the body to focus on detoxing, growth, digestion, hormone synthesis and repair.

Toxins have the ability to take our body from the rest and digest state {the state needed to reach deep sleep} and move us into fight or flight mode. This means we don’t do all of the jobs we are supposed to be doing at night and instead start hoarding fat cells, toxins and other things as a means for survival.

flame retardants

Mattress are required by law to be flame retardant. That law states, a mattress is required to withstand a two-food wide open flame of a blowtorch for 70 seconds. To meet this standard most mattresses are doused with toxic fire retardants. Some of these flame-resistant chemicals include:

PBDE – Which are linked to hormone problems and even certain types of cancers {2}. These chemicals are found in almost every mattress in 97% of adults tested in the US.
Formaldehyde – A known carcinogen found in many mattresses {3}.
Polyuretheane Foam and PVS – These are highly flammable on their own and often the reasons that flame retardant chemicals are used.

Off gassing is one of the biggest potential problems with many mattresses, especially newer ones. Unfortunately the only way to fully eliminate the is problem is using a mattress that doesn’t contain the chemical in the first place. However, when that isn’t an option, a mattress encasement, not just cover may help reduce the off gassing.

Non-Toxic Mattress Options

Now that I’ve scared you from sleeping in your own bed. The place you actually look forward to each day, let me tell you there are some safe alternatives that don’t just eliminate the toxins and bacteria growth, but perform well in comfort.

As with most things, there isn’t much regulation on marketing terms when it comes to mattresses, so there are a few good things to look for:

Certified organic = Must meet the Standard of the Global Organic Textile Standards.
Tested for Chemical Emissions – This is third-party testing for emissions from consumer products and materials.
Formaldehyde Free Verified
Made Safe Certified – Made Safe means a s product has been made with no ingredients not know or suspected to cause human health harm.
Natural flame retardants {such as wool}.

My Mattress Choice

After my health scare, I was ready to do anything and everything to feel like myself again. Knowing that I was struggling to heal and fighting daily to maintain my health we knew we had to do something with our $199 big box special mattress. So we started digging in and doing our own research. Through countless hours of research we found one company we were really interested in, Naturepedic.

We continued to learn more about the company and how they made their mattresses and felt comfortable to reach out to them. I mean, their certification and honors list is pretty stellar. The mattress was shipped right to our house, which still blows my mind. It literally came in four boxes I could move my self {and we got a king}.

The installation was beyond easy and completely fascinating even for us adults. It took just under 15 minutes to get it all put together and the real test was about to happen.

How comfortable would it be to sleep in night in and night out? I was slightly nervous, one because we came from a $199 big box mattress to a much more expensive option. I was very surprised, it was way more comfortable than that cheap mattress, even though we hadn’t even broken it in yet.

The Specifics

The mattress we choose was the Naturepedic Essentials Collection. It has a 12” profile including an 8” support layer of poly-wrapped encased coils and 3” of organic latex. We even got to customize it to our preferred liking with the hubs choosing extra firm and me just sticking with firm.

Here are some of the amazing features of this mattress:

3” Organic Latex – Which latex is one of the main materials to prevent mold growth. It is also well-known for its comfort.
8” breathable encased coil support.
Organic cotton fabric and filling.
Organic wool batting – Which is its own natural fire-retardant also helping to wick away moisture and provide temperature regulation. Keeping you warm in the winter and cool in the summer.
Non GMO PLA Comfort layer – Working to improve moisture wicking.
No flame retardant chemicals.
Free of chemical emissions – Unlike memory foam and some latex mattresses, Naturepedic helps you avoid harmful chemicals and unnecessary additives.

Plus, to relieve the worry of whether you will like it or not, Naturepedic offers a 90 Day Comfort Money-Back Guarantee. Also included is a 10 year limited warranty.

I mean they do stand behind the products and their customer service is spot on!

My Review

It’s been just over two months since getting the new Naturepedic bed and we couldn’t love it more. I’ve suffered from back pain for years, while it is linked to my mold-illness, I have to say I wake up without the same stiffness that I used to. What’s even better is I’m not just maintaining my health but fully recovering. I feel more alive than I have in years, because a good night sleep can make all of the difference.

Some things both my husband and I have noticed:

More energy
Better mind function
Weight loss {for me personally}
More even mood
Feeling rested and waking up vibrant

The only downside is you never want to get out of it. I mean is that a downside?

Get Your Own Mattress

At the end of the day, or maybe I should say first thing in the morning, I couldn’t recommend Naturepedic enough. Buying a mattress can be a big scary investment you may find yourself avoiding. We were in the same boat. But you break down how many hours you actually sleep in your bed I’ve come to learn the investment is worth every penny, especially for your health.

The better news is, even if you can’t agree on firmness, Naturepedic lets you choose your own level of firmness for each side and every bed. You can also get mattresses for your kids or a safe crib mattress because like mentioned earlier, the off-gassing of mattress is a bigger deal than we’re giving credit to.

Yo learn more about Naturepedic and pick out your own mattress click here. You won’t regret this decision. In fact, it could be the best decision you make. Remember, the most vital functions of the human body happen during deep sleep. Are you achieving that?

Additional Resources

I’m sure you’ll have just as many questions as I did as I started researching mattresses, so I thought I’d share a few that Naturpedic has put together to help put your mind at ease the way they did with me.

This post on non-toxic mattresses is proudly sponsored by Naturepedic. I was given a mattress in exchange for a review. All opinions and thoughts written above are my own and are not influenced in any way by Naturepedic.