A good night's sleep promotes health

Written by Judy Finman on 2007-11-20

Getting a good night's sleep is a serious matter. The National Sleep Foundation reports that adequate sleep is essential to health and wellness. Barbara Phillips, MD, MSPH, of the University of Kentucky, a foundation board member, offers a medical perspective: "Both long and short sleep are associated with several bad outcomes, including heart disease, obesity and death. Most investigators have found that people who sleep seven or eight hours a night fare better than those who sleep fewer than six or more than nine hours a night. Recently, a large study of nurses found that those who were sleeping seven or eight hours a night in 1986 had gained much less weight by 2002 than those who were sleeping five hours a night in 1986!"

So what can we do to ensure a good night's rest? The foundation's 10 healthy-sleep tips include maintaining regular going-to-bed and waking times, creating an environment conducive to sleep, and making sure your mattress is comfortable and supportive.

Custom-made beds
Here's where Dick Sumerfield, owner of the Boulder Verlo Mattress Factory Stores, comes in. "We make a bed just for you," says Sumerfield. "All our beds are custom-made here in our factory. You try out the beds here in our showroom, and we tailor your bed to your needs for comfort and support. We even have different pillows you can try. Our purpose for being here is to make you comfortable, to find out your sleep preferences." Sumerfield and his staff, who guide you in the showroom, will also help to build your bed.

"Let's say a couple comes into our showroom, and they try a firm mattress, then they try the soft. We have 22 different beds, each available in a range of firmness options, and once they choose, we tailor it to their comfort level. We make it just for them." If a couple has different preferences for a bed's firmness, Verlo handles it easily. "In our construction methods, we can change the firmness or softness with foam and firming pads. Our 60-day comfort guarantee means that if you decide that your mattress isn't quite right in the first 60 days, we'll pick it up, bring it back to the factory and adjust it," Sumerfield explains.

Since 1958, Verlo has combined the finest materials with local craftsmanship and a commitment to customer satisfaction. With 61 stores nationwide, Verlo has the cooperative buying power to purchase the best materials and pass the savings on to the consumer. Each Verlo store is locally owned and operated, creating a direct-to-the-customer experience that saves money and ensures high quality.

Sumerfield opened the Boulder location in 1989. Five craftsmen are kept in the busy factory area, turning out hundreds of custom mattresses and futons each year. They also supply many hotels.

"We want to build a long-lasting, durable bed. At every point in creating our product, we use the best quality we can, and it's better than any competitor's. Other manufacturers will cut down on materials. For every product we build, we do more - the density of the foam, the fabrication of our insulator pad, the long-fiber cotton we use, which holds together and won't bunch up. Our 660-coil innerspring has more heavy-duty border rods, and we put more turns in our coils, so there is more steel, and it lasts longer. We build each futon under 500 pounds of pressure, and then we put an 8-ounce twill cover on it, tuft it more times than our competitors do, then tie on the inside of the mattress - not on the outside - so there are no bumps.

A good night's sleep is a kind of health-insurance policy. Since about one-third of our lives is devoted to sleeping, why not spend that time as comfortably as possible?