Kiss It Good-bye? 7 Signs It’s Time To Replace Your Mattress

Kiss It Good-bye? 7 Signs It’s Time To Replace Your Mattress


LET’S SAY YOUR mattress is ten years old. Should you buy a new one? Not necessarily.

You can’t always make that decision based on the age of your mattress. Depending on certain factors, such as the mattress quality, frequency of use and your body type, some mattresses will continue to comfortably support you, while others will need to be replaced sooner.

Instead, pay attention to these 7 telltale signs, which can indicate that it’s time to replace your mattress and invest in a new one:

1. The mattress is sagging or dipping. This one seems pretty obvious. But if you’ve lived with the sagging for a long time, it may feel normal to you. Strip the mattress and look at the profile. If it’s sagging or dipping, it’s time to go. (Consider yourself lucky that you discovered the sagging before your back did.)

2. Waking up with a backache. If you have back pain in the morning that wasn’t there the night before, there’s a good chance your mattress isn’t providing the support your body needs.

3. Tingling in your extremities, or soreness in your shoulders or hips. The weight of these body parts creates pressure against the mattress. This pressure can restrict circulation and cause tingling. Normally, the padding on your mattress provides relief of this pressure. But through the years, the padding becomes compressed, reducing its ability to offer pressure point relief.

4. You’re going to bed at the same time but waking up tired. A night of tossing and turning can disrupt your sleep. You may be restless because you can’t get comfortable, or because your body is reacting to restricted blood flow from a lack of pressure point relief.

5. You sleep much better when you’re not at home. The travel industry has done wonders for the mattress industry. People often come home from vacation and realize they need a new mattress. Your mattress wears out so gradually that you aren’t always aware of it until you go away – much like not noticing how much your kids have grown until a visiting grandparent points it out.

6. You wake up every time your partner moves. If your sleep is disrupted when your partner gets up to go to the bathroom, checks on the baby, rolls over, etc., you may want to invest in a new mattress with technology that reduces partner disturbance. (Look for a foam mattress or one with individually-wrapped coils.)

7. You’ve outgrown your mattress. Or rather, you and your family have outgrown it. If you’re being inched out of your mattress with the addition of small visitors (two-legged) and furry guests (four-legged), maybe it’s time to spring for a bigger mattress so all of you can have more room and be more comfortable. (Speaking of kids and pets in bed, check out these adorable photos of Theo and Beau.)

Pucker Up
You may be able to live with one or two of these signs (depending on their severity), but any more and it’s time to pucker up and say, “Bye-bye old mattress, hello comfy new mattress.”

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