Investing in sleep pays dividends for health

I(This story is sponsored by Lunazen Sleep Inc.)

f there’s one thing that babies, Europeans, and much of the animal kingdom have in common, it’s the value they place on sleep. Call it a nap, a siesta, hibernation; there is something to be said for a good bit of shut-eye.

Despite spending approximately one-third of our lives in bed, the importance of sleep in our overall health and well-being can sometimes be overlooked. Particularly as we enter the New Year and we vow to eat better, drink less, and exercise more.

But the most wonderful thing about sleep is that it can be done— literally—with our eyes closed. And that’s got to be easier than saying no to dessert or mustering up the energy to get on the bike at the gym, right?

And yet, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about a third of people aged 18 to 60 are not getting the recommended seven hours of sleep per night.

A healthy sleep cycle can decrease your risk of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease—not to mention benefit your mental health. After all, it’s while we’re snoozing that our bodies really set to work healing damaged cells, boosting our immune systems, recovering from the day’s activities, and recharging our hearts and cardiovascular systems for the next day.

Climbing between freshly cleaned sheets at the end of a hard day’s work can surely go down as one of life’s greatest, simple pleasures. Of course, that’s based on the assumption that you have a comfortable bed, or more specifically, a good mattress.

We can’t be the only ones to have suffered the consequences of having a bad one. If you’ve ever found yourself unintentionally face to face with your partner as you both sink into the central divot, you’ll understand. Or worse still, enduring the sleepless nights that come with the tossing and turning caused by—and we hate to use this word—a lumpy one.

And yet, really, how much thought do we put into finding a mattress that works? Walking around the showroom only happens every decade or so. And it can be an overwhelming task, usually undertaken on a Sunday when we might prefer doing something else.

We’ll wander around flopping backward onto the various options— fully clothed, feet on the floor, arms crossed. Too firm, too soft, too bouncy, too expensive?

Ironically, we need a nap after all that decision making.

But thankfully, locally based Lunazen Sleep Inc. offers a solution that makes choosing a new mattress, well, a dream.

After seven years working in the family’s furniture business, Bindy Baidwan, cofounder of Lunazen Sleep, saw the increased demand for beds. It was from there that he decided to branch out and specialize in mattresses with the goal of delivering the very highest in quality at an affordable price.

By cutting out the middle-man, Baidwan and his business partners are able to go directly from factory to consumer, meaning they can offer a luxury product at a far lower cost. A queen-sized Lunazen mattress, for example, is $1,099, and it will last you about 10 years. We did the math and it equates to 30 cents per day—less than your daily cup of coffee which you might not even need after a good night’s sleep.

But the real difference is in the technology. It took eight months of hard work, research, and prototypes to come up with the final product. And now, Baidwan tells us with confidence, that there is nothing else like it on the market.

The Lunazen Sleep mattress has been reduced down to three essential layers—a bi-level pocket coil system, Ecotex™ soy foam, and Zenm memory foam.

The eight-inch, bi-pocket coils, made with locally sourced Canadian steel, provide the ultimate in individualized contoured support, with no motion transfer and excellent pressure-point relief for an undisturbed sleep.

The advanced three-inch Zen-m memory foam technology quickly responds to body weight and temperature. By conforming to every curve of the body for better support and even weight distribution, there is less of the “sink in” feeling found in more traditional memory foam. Infused with a 100 percent gel infusion, Zen-m memory foam also reduces your sleep surface temperature by an additional one to two degrees, providing a luxurious, cool sleep in an ultra-superior product.

And, even better, all foams are ecofriendly and health-conscious Ecotex soy bean–based. The foams are also CERTIPUR-US® certified, and tested by an independent laboratory to meet specific criteria for physical performance and environmental stewardship.

Lunazen Sleep mattresses are 100 percent Canadian, handmade, and, most importantly, never compressed. For that reason, every mattress is shipped whole. For $49, the company offers a five-star, white-glove delivery service that includes installation and removal of your old one.

Baidwan is so confident in his product that he offers a 100-night trial. And since opening on December 18 last year, he has personally contacted every customer after two weeks and has received fantastic reviews. Engineered to perfection to every last detail.

Now, it seems that the only problem will be getting out of bed.