I recently purchased a new mattress. Ahhhh, how wonderful it is to sleep to well! The thing is, though, I didn’t really recognize that I wasn’t sleeping well until about a month before I decided it was time to buy a new bed. I was waking up feeling stiff. I was having some trouble falling asleep. These were symptoms that are unusual for me.

So, I thought about it. Was I stressed? Not particularly. Was I exercising too hard? No, consistently the same. What else could be going on? … Oh. My mattress was 15 years old!

When I went shopping with my husband for a new one, I asked how long a mattress normally lasts. I was told that it depends on the quality, but probably 7 to 12 years. Well, even new, our old mattress was not on the top quality list, that’s for sure! So, how did we manage to get 15 years out of that thing?

I think that part of it was staying healthy. Eating right. Exercising regularly. Getting tune up treatments.

It makes sense that a body that is well cared for is going to be able to handle stressors more readily. Does it cost money to be healthy? Yes, but in the long run it’s probably saving me lots of money too. No pharmaceuticals. No trips to the hospital. Very few sick days off of work. Few injuries. And a cheap mattress and box spring that lasted us for 15 years!