How to Pick the Best Mattress for Athletes
An athlete’s body requires special care. Once the day’s strenuous activities come to a close, it’s essential to sink into a welcoming, soothing mattress that prepares your active body for the next day’s challenges. In this guide, we’ll help you pick the best mattress for recovery from athletic activity, and we’ll update you on the best practices you should follow when sourcing or replacing a mattress.
Can an athlete sleep on any mattress?
After a long day of pushing your body to its limits, you might feel like you could fall asleep easily on any surface—even the couch. Failing to choose the right place to sleep after exercising strenuously could, however, negatively impact your athletic performance the following day, and sleeping on the wrong mattress could even harm your overall potential as an athlete.
Numerous studies have definitively proven that full, healthy sleep is absolutely essential to an athlete’s health and performance. Failure to get enough sleep, or enough of the right kind of sleep, as an athlete can result in slowed reaction time, reduced strength and endurance, and decreased cognitive function. Both your body and your mind need to be in perfect shape to excel in the gym or on the field, and the only way to maintain your athletic prowess is to sleep deeply and fully every night.
To this end, some mattresses for athletes are better than others. Sleeping on an uncomfortable mattress will naturally make it hard to rest properly, but even the comfiest, coziest mattresses might not provide the factors necessary to enjoy full rest and recovery. The right mattress for an athlete will have a few key characteristics that optimize recovery and prepare you for the following day’s challenges.
Why a cooling athlete mattress is essential
Recent research indicates that cooling mattresses have a directly positive impact on athletic performance. These types of mattresses have structures that draw heat away from the body during sleep to facilitate proper muscle recovery. Traditional spring mattresses do not have cooling characteristics, and many foam mattresses and mattress toppers fail to properly cool an athlete’s body during sleep.
Modern technology has made it possible, however, to produce mattresses that properly cool the body during sleep, leading to optimal recovery. PandaZzz mattresses and mattress toppers, for instance, feature proprietary AirCell technology, which regulates your body temperature regardless of the ambient temperature in the room where you sleep. Our mattress toppers feature two layers of AirCell memory foam that remove excess heat from the core of your body, allowing your natural recovery systems to properly prepare you for the coming day.
Cooling mattresses won’t make you cold when you sleep. They will, however, draw excess heat away from your core, making you feel more comfortable while sleeping and reducing tossing and turning. As an athlete, sleeping on a cooling mattress will prepare you for continued athletic excellence better than practically any other recovery technique.
Characteristics of the best mattress for athlete recovery
The average person needs 7-9 hours of sleep per night to stay healthy, and athletes may need to sleep even more while in training. As a result, you’ll need to pick a mattress that you feel comfortable spending up to 10 hours laying on every day, which can prove challenging.
It’s an accepted fact that memory foam mattresses are more comfortable than traditional spring mattresses, so you should start by excluding any mattresses with springs from your considerations. The best memory foam mattresses include multiple layers, and PandaZzz mattresses feature a layer of active cooling gel memory foam which further regulates your body temperature, resulting in deep, restorative sleep.
While an athlete’s mattress shouldn’t be too soft, it shouldn’t be too hard, either. PandaZzz mattresses are not firm, and their soft-to-medium structures are great for spine and back support. As a result, your PandaZzz mattress molds to your body while still being firm enough to properly support your recovering muscles.
We understand that you want the best of the best, but as an athlete, you have better things to expend your resources on than the world’s most expensive mattress. PandaZzz mattresses are affordable while still containing the best vegan, organic, and sustainable substances available within the industry.
Athlete mattress best practices FAQ
When should you buy a new mattress, and what can you expect from your new mattress once it arrives? Find the answers to these common questions:
1. How long does a mattress last?
Traditional spring mattresses last for around 7-10 years before they start to break down due to internal stress. As a result, these conventional mattresses provide less value over time than memory foam mattresses, which can last 15-20 years. Memory foam mattresses made with high-quality materials could potentially last even longer with the right care and protection.
2. How often should you replace your mattress?
Chances are that your existing mattress isn’t made with the most cutting-edge or long-lasting materials. If you’ve owned a spring mattress for more than five years, it’s time to start thinking about a replacement. Memory foam technology has evolved significantly over the last decade, so it might even be time to consider upgrading your existing memory foam mattress even if you’ve only had it for a few years.
3. When is the best time to buy a mattress?
Before the rise of e-commerce, mattress retailers often ran sales during the winter and early spring. Conventional mattress manufacturers also usually release new models between June and September, making May the best month to pick up a mattress from a mainstream brand. Next-generation mattress producers, however, offer great pricing all throughout the year, so there’s never a bad time to upgrade your nightly sleeping experience with PandaZzz.
4. What is the best mattress topper for an athlete in the dorm?
Working your body to the limits is hard enough, but good sleep is even more important when you’re flexing your academic muscles every day as well. PandaZzz mattress toppers are available in every size from twin to king, accommodating the size of your dorm’s bed. Our mattress toppers also feature the breathability, cooling, and body-molding factors that are so desirable when getting full, restorative sleep every night is vital to both your athletic and academic goals.
Choosing the best athlete mattress for adults: The bottom line
Your mattress will be your ally as you shoot for the top and shatter your current limits. A truly dedicated athlete can’t make do with a helper that doesn’t keep up, so the mattress you choose will either hold you back or propel you to greater heights than ever before.
At PandaZzz, we design mattresses and mattress toppers with the express purpose of improving your health and well-being to the greatest extent possible. As a result, we don’t compromise with inferior designs and materials.
Instead, we use the best resources on the planet to craft revolutionary sleep tools that support your body, regulate your temperature, and deliver satisfying, rejuvenative sleep that will help you achieve your personal goals. We can relate to your ceaseless drive toward excellence, and with PandaZzz at your side, you’ll never be met with a wall too high or a road too long to conquer.