Monday, April 20, 2009

Microbead Pillows -- An Alternative to Traditional Types

If you are serious about your pillows like I am, you should look into microbead pillows. Their popularity is on the rise. See our detailed microbead pillow review.

A Dark Colored Bedroom Can Mean Better Sleep

Many people like brighter paint colors for the rooms of their house, including their bedroom. This can be an obstacle to good sleep however, especially if you are in your bed when the sun is out such as in the early morning.

Light coming through the windows will be reflected or amplified by brighter colored paint. This means that your room will be brighter, and a bright room is more difficult to sleep in than a darker room. This is because light tends to "activate" the brain while darkness tends to "deactivate" it.

Therefore, choose a darker paint color for your bedroom. It will absorb light and make your room darker. Your sleep may improve as a result!

See sleep and darkness for much more information on this and related issues.

Latex Mattress Toppers -- An Alternative to Memory Foam Toppers?

Based on our memory foam mattress topper research, the toppers tend to have high customer satisfaction. However, they do have some downsides, most notably off gassing.

Based on our latex mattress research, there is every reason to believe that latex toppers would have at least as impressive customer satisfaction as memory foam. Latex does not have most of the disadvantages of memory, including off gassing. Latex, however, can be more pricey than memory foam.

Friday, April 17, 2009

Sleeping Pills -- The Good, Bad and the Ugly

If you are on Ambien or Lunesta or know someone who is, be sure to look at our sleeping pill research based on data from hundreds of actual users. Granted, this is not a scientific study, but the results, especially for Ambien, are a bit unsettling.