Many recent studies cite a good nights sleep as an extremely important component of a weight loss regimen. Why? A researcher from the University of Chicago says that not getting enough sleep can cause a hormone imbalance that leads to overeating! Another study from the University of Chicago found that people who are sleepy during the day due to a lack of sleep tend to consume a couple hundred more calories a day than people who are rested. And… if you’re tired it’s really hard to do a push-up!

So diet, exercise and good night’s sleep seems to be the total formula for successful weight loss. It’s not easy working out every day and dieting is tough… but if you have a bad mattress you’ll never get a good night’s sleep and you may never lose the weight you’re looking to lose. So do some squats, eat a salad and get rid of that lumpy mattress. I bet you never thought 8 hours of sleep could help get you into your old jeans.

Curious about how your mattress might help you lose weight? Read more at Sitnsleep.Com!

LINK: Is Your Mattress Making you Fat?

I get research from the various mattress companies we work with, sleep studies from universities and private researchers, and of course lots of anecdotal information from the thousands of customers who’ve visited our stores in the last three decades. But I wanted more detailed info about what you, the consumer, need and expect from Sit ‘n Sleep so we can help you get the sleep you so desperately need.

That’s why we commissioned a Consumer Sleep Research study from Harris Interactive to find out as much as I could about current patterns of sleep. Here are some of the study’s findings:

• Well over one-half (58 percent) of adults often feel sick or not rested when they sleep on an old or uncomfortable mattress.

• A recent study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, showed that those who slept less than an average of seven hours per night were nearly three times more likely to develop a common cold than those who reported eight or more hours per night in the weeks leading up to the experiment.

• Half of all respondents exercise less without a good night’s sleep.

• Almost 2/3 of full and part time workers feel that an old or uncomfortable mattress affects their performance at work.

• More than 50% of employed respondents are likely to be short or unfriendly to co-workers following a bad night of sleep.

Those are just six things we discovered from the study but they all indicate the same thing … a good night’s sleep is vitally important to a vibrant and fulfilling life.

At Sit ‘n Sleep, our goal for 2010 is to help you get the rest you need so you can feel healthy, avoid colds, get more exercise, and perform better at work.  And we’ll do that by offering you the largest selection mattresses in Southern California, bringing you the latest technology to help you pick the right mattress for the way you sleep, and making sure you receive tremendous savings so you can afford the quality you deserve.

I hope the next decade is a bit easier than the last one … and I’m sure it will be … if we all just get the sleep we need.

And, I know that as important as a comfortable mattress is for a good night’s sleep, it’s essential that I have a great pillow too … one that’s comfortable and not more than two years old.

Yes, because just like your mattress, your pillow collects dust mites and grows fungus due to perspiration and oil from your skin. Pillows also tend to lose their shape and firmness after two years so they’re not giving you the support you need. That’s why at Sit n’ Sleep we’ll give you two free anti-microbial Memory Foam pillows with every premium mattress purchase.

Another tip for getting a wonderful night’s sleep is one my mother taught me when I was a kid and I still do it today. It’s a kind of meditation and it involves visualization. She taught me to close my eyes, relax and imagine a feather falling slowly through the sky above a mountain. I follow the feather as it slowly makes its way down the side of the mountain, floating above the trees, past flocks of birds and waterfalls, floating in slow motion above valleys and fields. I generally end up falling soundly asleep well before the feather reaches the bottom of the mountain. It’s a way to relax and quiet your mind and body by shutting out all other thoughts and problems.

Oh, and my last suggestion for getting a great night’s sleep? Be lucky enough to fall asleep next to someone you love.

If it's After Eight, It's Time to Replace!

If you haven’t seen our new Sit ‘n Sleep commercial, I mention that over a period of eight years your mattress can almost double in weight due to (and I know this is a bit disgusting, but knowledge is power) sweat, dead skin and all the mites who move into your mattress to dine there.

Everyday, people I run into are in disbelief. They can’t believe the mattress they lay on every night has so much going on inside …  and not in a good way.  I feel badly that I’m the one who has to break the news to them but I feel obligated. That’s why the rule is: replace after eight!

And you shouldn’t wait for eight years if you’re not getting a good night’s sleep. You cannot believe the condition of the mattresses some people replace or trade in. Some have such a huge body depression on one side that the person must be holding onto the sheet while sleeping so they don’t hit the floor. I’ve seen mattresses with springs coming through the pillow top, mattresses worn to the threads, even mattresses with such large body depressions in the middle it must be like sleeping in a ravine!

I can’t begin to imagine how the owners of these mattresses can function during the day. I need seven to eight hours of sound sleep and I make sure I get it so I have a shot at staying healthy and productive. Weekdays I’m in bed and asleep by 10 p.m. because I get up around 5 a.m. to workout before going to the office.

And I’m fully aware that during those seven or eight hours of wonderful, restful sleep I’m sweating and shedding skin cells and creating a buffet for dust mites and other miniscule, uninvited intruders. That’s why I replace my mattress more often than most.

So if I’ve made you a bit uncomfortable with my new commercial, I’m sorry. But if I’m responsible for you replacing your old, worn out and dust mite inhabited mattress for a new one, and it helps you get a great night’s sleep and feel rested and happy in the morning…

Well … you’re welcome.

"Shogun" Influenced Sit 'n Sleep

I went on a trip to Japan in the late 1970’s and one night I ended up sleeping on something called a Futon. I’d never heard of one or seen one before. It was a soft mattress on a frame that you could use as a bed and then adjust to become a small sofa.

At the time I thought that was pretty neat.

I got back to California and the mini-series “Shogun” about Japanese warriors was a big hit, Americans were starting to eat sushi … so I figured maybe they’ll sleep on this bed/chair thing from Japan.

At the time there were only two other places in all of Los Angeles where you could even find a Futon. One was a tiny store in an area called Little Tokyo and the other was an even smaller store in a predominantly Japanese area of west Los Angeles. So I went ahead and imported a Futon from Japan and had the mattress part copied.  But I had an impossible time finding anyone who could make the adjustable frame. Finally, after many frustrating calls and trips, I found someone who could make the frame … in Brazil!

Meanwhile, my dad (who was also my business partner) thought I was completely nuts. He told me, “Nobody is going to sleep on that bag of cotton!”

But dad agreed to let me try selling these weird new beds because, at the time, we really had nothing to lose! We were just scraping by month to month trying to keep our little store open.

Well, thankfully the response to our Futons was incredible. Most days I’d be selling five or six customers at the same time! We sold thousands over the next few years. And because of those “bags of cotton,” and the mattresses we sold, the store was called Sit ‘n Sleep. By the time the Futon craze died down years later, Sit ‘n Sleep was a very established name due to our radio and television advertising.  And, look, it’s “business 101” that you don’t just change your brand name to keep up with trends.

Who knows? Maybe the Futon craze of the late 70’s and early 80’s will strike again someday and our name will make complete sense.