Leesa- Can The Right Bed Give You Better Sleep & Improve Your Quality Of Life? #HealthSeries

   

Health. It’s a subject that we all think of at various parts in life. For most of us, our health has been a concern since we were born; When our Moms and Dads were raising us to be “big and strong”. They used to ensure that we ate our vitamins, took our naps, and went to be at a decent hour to be ready for the next day. A lot of things revolved around eating right and sleeping well.  Then, somewhere in between our 20’s-30’s … we start taking health and rest for granted and began the “Work hard, Play Harder” mentality. And our sleep schedule slowly diminished. Then, our health became a little worse for some of us. The connection of quality “good” sleep to good health is tightly linked… and having the right bed for your body is a factor in that connection.

Horrible Sleep… Horrible Body Reactions.

Did you know that when you don’t get the quality of sleep you really need, your body suffers immensely from it? It’s true! Gaining weight gradually can be a result of not sleeping well over a  period of time. Why?

In the WebMD article, “Sleep And Weight Gain”  ,  Michael Breus, PhD  (aka “The Sleep Doctor“) explains the phenomena.

“It’s not so much that if you sleep, you will lose weight, but if you are sleep-deprived, meaning that you are not getting enough minutes of sleep or good quality sleep, your metabolism will not function properly. On average, we need about 7.5 hours of quality sleep per night, he says. “If you are getting this already, another half hour will not help you lose 10 pounds, but if you are a five-hour sleeper and start to sleep for seven hours a night, you will start dropping weight.

 Exactly how lack of sleep affects our ability to lose weight has a lot to do with our nightly hormones. The two hormones that are key in this process are ghrelin and leptin. “Ghrelin is the ‘go’ hormone that tells you when to eat, and when you are sleep-deprived, you have more ghrelin,” Breus says. “Leptin is the hormone that tells you to stop eating, and when you are sleep deprived, you have less leptin. More ghrelin plus less leptin equals weight gain. You are eating more, plus your metabolism is slower when you are sleep-deprived,”  the doctor says.

It’s True For Me

I believe that when your sleeping schedule is out whack, so is your body. I’m proof of it. I’ve had incredibly hard times sleeping over the 2-3 years, and my health has been affected. I gained a stupid amount of weight in a short period of time, and there was no obvious reason for it. I eat healthy and I exercise on the regular. But the weight kept coming. It affected me so badly that I scheduled appointments with my doctors numerous time concerning that one issue. She told me it was because I was “getting older”. I switched doctors after that. I refuse to believe that just because I’m older that I should be accepting of being fat.

NOTE: I’m not saying that being any size, big or small, is good or bad…. I’m merely saying that for me is wasn’t acceptable and the extra weight was affecting me physically, mentally, and emotionally. 

My next doctor was older, about my age. I discussed the weight issue with her… same answer, only more condescending. “We’re never gonna be what we once were in our twenties”. I’m thinking in my head, “B*tch, I don’t want to look the way I did in my 20’s, I just want to not have this extra 30 lbs on me that came from wherever!”. So… I switched doctors again. This new one, who I just met May 2017, seems genuine. She asked me about my eating habits, what I drank, if I smoked… and what my sleep schedule was like. She’s the one who pointed out to me that me getting 3-4 hours of tossing and turning sleep was contributing to my weight gain. I never even thought of that. Sigh.

My Quest To Get Better Sleep

Why am I telling you about my struggle with weight and insomnia? Because I’ve made a vow to myself to get myself healthier. My doctor basically ordered me to get more, higher quality sleep… so that’s what I’m going to do. The first step is getting a better bed. I’ve been trying to do my research on what beds are out there, and I see that there is an influx of the”Bed In A Box”. These are beds that have been individually made just for you when you order them (some can even be somewhat customized to your personal desires) and are delivered straight to your door. No worrying about going to the store and laying on every bed to see what’s right for you. The decision on whether or not to pay a high priced delivery fee is eliminated as well.

That Leesa Bed, Though

With doing the studying of beds in a box, I found the Leesa Bed. It’s sold online exclusively, it’s delivered to your door, and you get to try it out RISK-FREE for 100 days! Also, Micheal Phelps stands by the brand as an ambassador (I’m a huge fan of his)!

When I ordered my Leesa, it only took 2 days to be delivered to me. The UPS guy was 3 hours late bringing it, but it came nonetheless, and I was very excited to test out my new bed. Per my doctors orders, being in bed was sleep and sex only, so I had to do both right? Bow Chicka Bow Bow!! Ewww. Okay, I’ll stop. In the next paragraph or two, I’m going to try to document for you how my experience with the Leesa bed is going. Be mindful that this is my bed that I will be having for a long time, so there will be updates on my sleep progress. Let’s do it. But first… an intro video!

 Day 1 (First Nights Sleep)

Okay. So I received my Leesa late Thursday night May 25,2017. I set up the bed Friday, May 26,2017, and had my first night of sleep that same Friday night. Of course, I tested the bed out before sleeping in it…. I was excited! After 2 hours hours when it fully puffed itself out I laid in my new Leesa. I say “puffed out” because basically that is what the bed does. It arrives compressed in it protective box, so when it has to re-inflate itself after being loosed. And it fills out into a real, mattress… not a blow up one or some thin futon thing.

The mattress is firm, yet soft. To me, it felt like what you would think I cloud will feel like. Soft,but dense and just … ooooohhh. I can’t put it into words. But I can tell you what happened sleep wise for me. I slept. WELL. My sleep status was on ultimate. The bed formed to me; hugged me. I fell asleep in minutes, I believe. And I stayed asleep. No tossing and turning, no waking up 2-4 times. None of that. Want to know what I did do? Snored. And slobbered… gross. Lol.

What Does It All Mean?

If my tale of snoring and slobbering all through night does anything, it is proving to me that a quality bed will help in gaining better sleep. I’m now a testament to that. I slept through the night with no TV and no fan on for “white noise”. It was just me, my pillow, and Leesa. Truly divine. OH… one more thing. When I woke up, I didn’t ache. My back didn’t hurt, and wasn’t sore… I was rested and ready to go. That rarely happens with me. I look forward to seeing how my body reacts to more sleep time with my new Leesa. I’m going to give you updates on whether or not the Leesa experience is real and not just a thing I feel because I have something new. We shall see!

An Update

Well, I for the first 2 weeks of June, I wasn’t able to sleep in my Leesa. Instead, I was in Texas for an urgent family matter (my brother passed away). While I was out of state, I was able to sleep in 3 different beds, which proved to be a helpful test for this article. All of the beds were older coil mattresses, I think. And, they were all uncomfortable to me. Each day I awoke hurting or sore and not feeling rested… even after taking a sleeping pill.

I also stayed in a hotel room in Denver whilst coming back home to MD, and my sleep was still not good. But when I did get back home Friday, June 16,2017, and slept in my Leesa… I awakened feeling more refreshed than I had in the whole 2 weeks. Now, again, maybe it’s just a mental thing with me feeling this way because I have a new bed, but I highly doubt it. My body and back don’t lie to me, and I really do feel better and ready for the day after sleeping in my Leesa. If you’re in the market for a new bed, I recommend Leesa. You can try the mattress free for 100 days… just visit here for details! Also, save $75 off your purchase when you use code -TRICIASLIST- !

 Key Points About Leesa

• · Innovative direct-to-consumer online mattress brand challenging the traditional mattress industry
• · Through the Leesa One-ten program, donate one mattress to a shelter for every ten we sell (10,000 mattresses donated and counting)
• · B-Corp™ Certified, Shopify Build-a-Business Winner, Forbes’ Top 20 Startups to Watch, Internet Retailer’s Fastest Growing e-Retailer in 2015
• · Available exclusively online and at the Leesa Dream Gallery in SoHo NYC
• · 100% American-made mattress ships compressed in a box to your door
• · Includes a 100-night risk free trial with free shipping
• · Leesa’s Universal Adaptive Feel™ includes 3 premium foam layers:
•  2-inch Avena™ foam top layer for cooling and breathability
•  2-inch memory foam middle layer for body contouring
•  6-inch dense core support foam for durability and edge support
• · Available in the US, UK, Canada and Germany