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Month: March 2018

How Often Should I Replace My Pillow?

Posted on by Shop Manager

If you think there’s a standard answer to the question, “How often should I replace my pillow?” you’re wrong. Some experts say you should replace your bed pillows every three years, while others recommend getting new pillows every six months or every year.

Without a generally accepted answer to the question, how can you know when you should replace your pillow? As a rule of thumb, remember this – if you think it’s time to get new bed pillows, it probably is.

Reasons to Purchase New Bed Pillows

While the timeline for getting new pillows may be up for debate, there are certain steadfast reasons that you should buy new pillows for your bed. Here are a few of the reasons you may want to consider purchasing new bed pillows sooner rather than later:

Your Pillows Are Causing You to Breakout

If your face is breaking out for no discernable reason, your bed pillows might be to blame. When you think about it, your pillow collects plenty of dirt, oil and dead skin cells. When you put your face on a dirty pillow, it can cause acne. If your pillow is causing you to breakout even after you wash it, it may be time to replace it.

Dust Mites Have Moved In

No one likes to think about bugs being in their bed, but they’re often there. They’re just too tiny to see in many cases. Dust mites are related to spiders and they feast on the things your pillows collect, such as oils and dead skin cells. Dust mites are widely considered the most common cause of allergies and asthma that last all year. If you’ve been sniffling non-stop for months and can’t figure out why dust mites may have taken up residence in your bed pillows.

You Haven’t Cared for Your Pillows Properly

If you’ve failed to care for your current pillows properly for an extended period of time, it’s probably time to get new ones. When you do get new ones, read their care instructions and follow them to make your new pillows last. As a general rule, you should plan to wash synthetic pillows in your washer while having down pillows dry-cleaned on a regular basis.

Your Pillow No Longer Provides Support

A bed pillow is supposed to provide support for your head and neck while you snooze. As you use and wash your pillow, its filling breaks down over time, which can affect the pillow’s ability to provide support. To see if your pillow is still able to support you, fold it in half and then let go. If your pillow doesn’t unfold on its own, you need to get a new one.

Ask Ben’s

As a leading discount mattress and furniture retailer, people ask us questions all the time. While we’re sometimes asked about the timeline for replacing a bed pillow, we’re asked certain questions even more often. Look through our list of frequently asked questions now. If you have a question that’s not included in our list, contact Ben’s so we can respond to your inquiry directly. We look forward to helping you with your mattress, mattress accessory, and furniture needs soon.

Is Your Mattress the Cause of Your Tiredness?

Posted on by Shop Manager

Would you play tennis without a racket or participate in a tackle football game without a helmet or pads? Even if you’ve never played a sport before, you probably know that many sports require participants to have certain gear.

Just like you need to prepare to play a sport by getting the appropriate equipment, you need to prepare your bedroom to get a good night’s sleep. Even though it’s recommended that people spend between 7 – 9 hours sleeping in their beds every night, few people give much thought to their mattresses. That’s unfortunate because a high-quality mattress is a key ingredient in the recipe for restorative sleep.

Getting more, better sleep should be a priority for you because getting even just a little more sleep every night can provide some meaningful benefits. Getting more sleep can help you lose weight, for example. It can also help you to remember things more readily and it can extend your life.

Signs Your Mattress Is Making You Tired

With a mattress being so important to your ability to fall asleep and stay asleep throughout the night, it’s critical for you to invest in a new one when it’s necessary. And it’s certainly necessary for you to get a new mattress if you suspect your current mattress is responsible for you feeling tired when you’re awake.

Here are some signs that your mattress is the reason you’re tired during the day:

  • You Wake Up Tired: If you’re sleeping through the night but wake up tired, your mattress is likely to blame. If your mattress doesn’t provide the right amount of support, it can affect the quality of your sleep even if it doesn’t wake you up. If the quality of your sleep is poor, you’ll feel tired when you wake up.
  • You Toss and Turn a Lot: Your body will naturally toss and turn to relieve pressure points while you sleep. If your mattress provides the right amount of support and is appropriate for your body type, you will experience minimal tossing and turning. If your mattress lacks support and isn’t right for your body type, you will probably toss and turn excessively which will cause fatigue the following day.
  • You Develop Allergies: Over time, mattresses collect things like oils, dead skin cells and dirt. These things attract dust mites. Many people are allergic to dust mites. Being tired is a common symptom of allergies. If it’s been a while since you replaced your mattress and you’ve developed allergies since you last replaced your mattress, it’s probably time to get a new one to prevent exhaustion when you’re awake.
  • You Experience Achiness: If you experience achiness when you wake up, it may be because your mattress is uneven. When you experience pain or soreness, it can make you feel tired during the day. If aches and pains are draining your energy, consider getting a new mattress that’s firmer than your current mattress.

Shop at Bens.com

When you shop at Bens.com, a better night’s sleep and days without fatigue caused by your mattress are just a click away. If you need financing for your purchase, we offer financing and lease options on the mattresses and furniture we sell.

5 Common Effects of Sleep Deprivation

Posted on by Shop Manager

Have you ever experienced a poor night’s sleep? If you’re like many other people, you have and you know the consequences. Moodiness. Crankiness. Feeling tired and like you’re just not yourself. While none of those things are pleasant, they’re normally temporary and only last as long as it takes you to get some quality sleep.

If you sleep poorly often enough and fail to get the recommended 7 – 9 hours of sleep every night, it can have some very serious, lasting consequences that are significantly more dire than feeling sluggish or cranky. Keep reading to learn about some of the effects that prolonged sleep deprivation can have.

Increased Risk of Accidents

If you want to understand how sleep deprivation may increase your chances of being involved in an accident, you simply have to research some of the most significant disasters that have taken place in recent years. Three Mile Island, the Exxon Valdez and Chernobyl have all made headlines for disastrous accidents that were due, in part, to sleep deprivation.

You can also take a look at some statistics about driving to understand how sleep deprivation can increase the chances that you’ll be involved in an accident. Drowsiness can slow a driver’s reaction time as much as being drunk. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, drowsy driving is a factor in as many as 100,000 automobile accidents every year in the United States alone.

You don’t just need to worry about sleep deprivation putting you at greater risk on the road. It’s also a factor in work-related accidents. Research shows that a lack of sleep can cause a greater number of accidents at work.

Reduced Interest in Sex

If you’ve lost interest in sex, sleep deprivation may be to blame. People who have trouble sleeping or suffer from low-quality sleep often have lower libidos and a reduced interest in sex.

Health Problems

Missing out on a good night’s sleep every once in a while is one thing. Missing out on restorative sleep regularly is quite another. If you suffer from sleep deprivation for an extended period of time, it increases the chances that you may experience the following health problems:

  • Heart Disease
  • Irregular Heartbeat
  • High Blood Pressure
  • Stroke
  • Diabetes

Depression

If you suffer from sleep deprivation for too long, it can make the symptoms of depression worsen. One study showed that individuals who suffered from insomnia, which is the most common sleep disorder, were 500 percent more likely to suffer from depression compared to people who don’t have insomnia.

Premature Aging

You can often recognize someone who’s missed a few nights of sleep by their puffy eyes and ashen skin. While those signs typically only last until the person gets some restorative sleep, sleep deprivation that continues for a long time can cause your skin to age prematurely. More specifically, lasting sleep deprivation can cause your skin to look dull, dark circles to appear under your eyes and fine lines to develop on your skin.

Ben’s Specials

Having a high-quality comfortable bed is one way you can help yourself get a good night’s sleep consistently. At Ben’s, we make getting a comfy, durable bed affordable. Check out Ben’s specials, which can help you save on our already discounted prices, now.

5 Things to Keep in Mind When Shopping for a Pillow

Posted on by Shop Manager

Why do people keep bedding in their bedrooms? To get a good night’s sleep, of course! While you need a great mattress to get a solid night’s sleep, your pillow can greatly influence the quality of your sleep, too.

A pillow is supposed to support your head and neck while you sleep. It’s also supposed to promote the proper alignment of your body when you’re in bed. If you’ve woken up with an achy neck or sore shoulders in recent days, it may be time for you to replace your bed pillows.

As you look for new pillows, you should keep a few things in mind, including your sleeping position, a pillow’s firmness, size and filling and any needs you have that may require you to get a specialty pillow. Now that you know what to consider, let’s look at each factor individually.

Sleeping Position

The position you sleep in most often will have a big influence on the type of pillow you should purchase. If you sleep on your side or stomach, you’ll need a different kind of pillow than someone who sleeps on their back, for example. In general, back sleepers often do well with a medium-density or a contour pillow. Side sleepers tend to sleep well with a medium-density pillow as well while stomach sleepers usually fare best with soft and low-density pillows.

Size

Bed pillows are typically made so that their size matches a given bed size. Bed pillows usually come in three sizes, standard, queen, and king. A standard king pillow is 20” x 36” so that two of them will equal the 72-inch width of a standard king bed. Queen pillows measure 20” x 30” while 20” x 26” is the size of a standard pillow.

Filling

The filling in a pillow is an important consideration because it will determine how your pillow holds up night after night. It’s also what provides support for your neck and head. Here are some common fillings you’ll have to choose from when you’re shopping for a new bed pillow:

  • Foam
  • Memory Foam
  • Down
  • Feathers
  • Polyester
  • Cotton

Firmness

Pillows come in different levels of firmness, soft, medium soft, firm and very firm. A feather pillow is the softest pillow available while memory foam is the firmest pillow you’ll find. Soft pillows are normally ideal for back and stomach sleepers. Medium soft pillows are often great for back and side sleepers. Side sleepers are also commonly drawn to firm pillows. If a side sleeper has neck pain, the person may want to get a pillow that’s very firm.

Specialty Pillows

Specialty pillows are made to provide support when you’re in a certain sleeping position and to alleviate pain at certain pressure points. Specialty pillows are made in several forms to provide custom support that helps people sleep better. Here are a few kinds of specialty pillows:

  • Pregnancy Pillows
  • Contour Pillows
  • Leg Support Pillows
  • Wedge Pillows

Shop at Ben’s

If you’re looking for mattress accessories like pillows, we invite you to look through our mattress accessories now. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, contact Ben’s today!

Can Calming Music Help Me Sleep Better?

Posted on by Shop Manager

Do you struggle to get your young children to go to sleep at night? If so, you may want to try lulling them to sleep with a tried and true technique – singing them a lullaby. If you have a hard time falling asleep yourself, you might want to try the grown-up version of this technique and listen to some music before you turn in.

The Verdict Is In

Studies conducted throughout the world have repeatedly confirmed that music can help people fall asleep and enjoy a higher quality of sleep. A meta-analysis of 10 highly reputable studies revealed that music can facilitate sleep for people who suffer from either short- or long-term sleep problems. It’s also been revealed that music can even help people who suffer from schizophrenia get some sleep.

It doesn’t matter how old you are. Music can help people fall asleep regardless of their age. Newborns, toddlers, teens, middle-aged adults and senior citizens can enjoy the benefits that listening to music before bed- or naptime can provide. These benefits include the following:

  • Falling asleep faster
  • Waking up fewer times during the night
  • Feeling more rested upon waking

Your Choice of Music Matters

While no one knows exactly why listening to music promotes sleep, it’s speculated that it does so because music can have a relaxing effect on your body and brain. Music may also cause your brain to release chemicals that help you feel good. As you listen to music, it can lower your heart rate and slow your breathing as well.

Of course, for music to have those positive effects, you have to pick the right kind of music to listen to before bedtime. It’s generally advisable to select soothing music with a relatively slow beat when you’re looking for music that will help you fall and stay asleep. More specifically, you should look for tunes that have a rhythm between 60 – 80 beats per minute. Folk, jazz and classical music are often wise choices.

If you’re unsure how many BPM a given song has, you should visit songbpm.com. You’ll just need to enter the name of the tune and the artist who performs it and the website will let you know how many beats per minute the song has.

Beats per minute aren’t the only thing that should influence your choice of bedtime music. You should also make sure you don’t pick music that evokes powerful emotions.

Spotify recently examined its users’ playlists to find the top 20 songs people listen to before bed. The music streaming site reported that Ed Sheeran is a popular musician to listen to at bedtime. “Weightless” by The Marconi Union has a BPM of 60 and it’s widely considered the “most relaxing song ever.” “Blue Room Hotel” by Joni Mitchell and “Blue in Green” by Miles Davis are also great tunes that are often successful at inducing sleep in many listeners.

About Ben’s

Just like listening to calming music can help you fall asleep and improve the quality of your sleep, knowing where you can buy high-quality mattresses, accessories and furniture at discounted prices can put your mind at ease. And you can find all those things at Ben’s. Learn about Ben’s now!

How Menopause Can Affect Sleep

Posted on by Shop Manager

Let’s face it. Women are busy, and that’s particularly true for women who are raising kids, caring for their aging parents, working or all of the above. In general, women are responsible for a wide array of things that add stress to their lives. Any one of those things may be enough to cause you to have problems sleeping. When you add the effects that menopause can have on sleep to the mix, it’s no wonder why so many women in their 40s, 50s, and 60s are so darn tired.

Even before a woman enters menopause, she may experience problems sleeping that are hormone-related and tied to her menstrual cycle. These problems may become more severe as a female enters perimenopause, menopause and the post-menopausal phase of her life.

How Estrogen, Progesterone and Testosterone Influence Sleep

As you approach menopause, your estrogen, progesterone and testosterone levels will fluctuate, sometimes wildly, before they decline during menopause and thereafter. As you probably know, these hormones are what regulate a woman’s menstrual cycle and reproductive functions. They also affect many women’s ability to sleep.

Estrogen promotes restful sleep by helping your body use neurochemicals like serotonin, which help you fall asleep faster and stay asleep throughout the night. When your estrogen levels drop during menopause, you may start to experience disrupted sleep. In fact, you may experience insomnia, which is a very common sign that menopause has begun.

Progesterone assists in regulating your mood and it guards against anxiety and depression. Progesterone helps women to feel good, relaxed and calm, all of which can facilitate sleep. Progesterone also increases your body’s production of a neurotransmitter that can enhance sleep which is known as GABA.

When your progesterone level drops leading up to menopause, it can cause you to experience sleep difficulties, such as waking repeatedly during the night. Because your body will stop producing progesterone when you enter menopause, your sleep issues may continue post-menopause.

While women have lower levels of testosterone than men, the hormone still heavily influences females’ sex drives. Testosterone also helps women produce estrogen. While your body will continue to produce testosterone even after you experience menopause, your body will make less of it as you age in your post-menopausal years. As your testosterone levels drop, your body will have less of the hormone to help it make estrogen, which may augment your sleep difficulties.

The stage before menopause is referred to as perimenopause. This phase generally begins when a woman hits her forties, but it can start as early as your mid to late 30s. Perimenopause typically lasts between 3 – 5 years, but it can go on for as long as a decade in some women.

No matter what stage of menopause you’re in, you should talk to your doctor if you’re experiencing problems with falling asleep, staying asleep or both.

Shop with America’s Fastest Growing Mattress and Furniture Discounter Now

While we can’t help alleviate the symptoms of menopause for you, we can help you get a comfy mattress that may help you sleep better. We invite you to shop with the country’s fastest growing mattress and furniture discounter, Ben’s, today. If you don’t live near one of our Atlanta-area retail locations, you can shop at Ben’s online now!

5 Bedtime Snacks That Can Help Promote Better Sleep

Posted on by Shop Manager

If you’re tired throughout the day but simply can’t get a good night’s sleep, it could be that your biological clock may be out of sync. Luckily, resetting your biological clock may be as easy as changing what you eat before you go to bed.

Research shows that eating something that’s rich in carbohydrates may be helpful when it comes to resetting your circadian clock. Researchers discovered that insulin affects your PER2 gene, which regulates sleep. As a result, it’s thought that foods that promote the secretion of insulin may help reset the circadian clock in humans. With carbohydrates increasing the secretion of insulin in the human body, it’s possible that they can help regulate your PER2 cycle so that you’re sleepy at bedtime.

While carbohydrate-rich foods may be helpful when it comes to falling asleep at night, they’re not the only snacks that can promote improved sleep. From carbohydrate-laden foods to fruit, nuts and more, you’ll find tasty bedtime snacks that can help you sleep better below.

Cherries

Cherries contain about 24 grams of carbohydrates per cup. They’re also a natural source of melatonin, which is a hormone that influences your circadian cycle. You don’t have to worry too much about cherries adding to your waistline because they only have about 100 calories per cup.

Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes may not automatically spring to mind when you think about bedtime snacks, but they should. Sweet potatoes have potassium, magnesium, and calcium which can have a relaxing effect on your body.

Almonds and Pistachios

If you like nuts, you’ll be happy to learn that certain nuts can promote better sleep. Loaded with magnesium, almonds are a great choice if you want to eat some nuts before you go to sleep. If you’re not a fan of almonds, try pistachios before you hit the hay because they have plenty of magnesium, too. Want another reason to each some pistachios before bedtime? They’re a good source of vitamin B6.

Whole Grain Crackers

Do you currently eat chips before you go to bed? If so, consider making the switch to whole grain crackers. Whole grain crackers contain a good number of carbohydrates. They’re also a good source of vitamin B, which may help to prevent insomnia.

Dairy Products

If you’ve struggled to get a good night’s sleep for a while, you probably heard that drinking a warm cup of milk may facilitate sleep. Even if that’s your go-to choice for a snack that promotes sleep, you should know that just about any dairy product can improve your sleep, including yogurt and cheese. It’s the calcium in dairy products that make them smart bedtime snack options. The calcium in dairy products helps your brain process the tryptophan in the products to produce melatonin, which induces sleep.

Shop at Ben’s

Just like eating certain things can help you sleep better, so can having a comfortable mattress and mattress accessories. And that’s what you’ll find at Ben’s – comfortable mattresses, accessories and furniture at the most affordable prices around. To improve your ability to fall and stay asleep, shop with Ben’s online or visit one of our Atlanta-area retail locations today.

Understanding the Difference Between Bed Sheet Thread Counts

Posted on by Shop Manager

If you’re in the market for new sheets for your bed, you’ll need to know a bit more than the size of your bed and the color of the sheets you want. That is, you’ll need to know more than that information if you want to make sure you’re getting comfortable sheets. You need to know what thread count is and how it influences the comfort of sheets, for example.

What Is Thread Count?

The term “thread count” refers to the number of threads it takes to make one inch of sheet fabric. Horizontal threads are called weft while vertical threads are referred to as warp. Both a sheet’s weft and warp are counted to determine the sheet’s thread count. So, if a sheet has 300 horizontal threads and 300 vertical threads per square inch, the sheet’s thread count is 600.

An Explanation of the Differences between Sheet Thread Counts

Many consumers believe that bed sheets that have a higher thread count will be softer than sheets that have a lower thread count. While that’s sometimes the case, many sheets with lower thread counts are still quite comfortable and pleasing to the touch. While sheets with higher thread counts sometimes wear better than those with lower thread counts, they are typically more vulnerable to rips and snags.

Retailers often charge more for sheets that have a higher thread count. You’ll normally pay less for sheets that have a thread count of 150 than you would for a set of sheets that has a thread count of 1,000 or more, for example.

While sheets with a higher thread count may cost more, it doesn’t mean you’ll get more for your money. Some sheet manufacturers inflate the thread counts of their sheets by using several yarns that are twisted together in the sheets’ wefts and warps. This deceptive tactic can actually have a negative effect on the quality of a sheet despite its reported high thread count.

Many experts consider “good” sheets to have a thread count somewhere between 200 and 800. You don’t necessarily need to look for sheets at the high end of that scale to find a comfortable sheet because many 200-count sheets may feel just like sheets that have a higher thread count.

Thread Counts and Weave

If sheets aren’t sold with a certain type of named weave, they’re often made with the same number of threads in the weft and warp. These sheets normally have a low thread count and they’re usually inexpensive.

The two most common labeled weaves are percale and sateen. If you go with percale sheets, you should choose sheets with a thread count between 200 – 400 for a lighter sheet and 400 – 600 for a heavier sheet. If you prefer sateen, you should look for a thread count between 300 and 600 if you want soft sheets that are also strong.

Shop at Ben’s

Now that you know all about the differences between bedsheet thread counts, it’s time for you to buy some comfy sheets and shop with Ben’s for a bed to put your new sheets on. Visit one of our Atlanta-area retail locations or shop at Bens.com today!

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