Tulsa Spine and Rehab

Where did you sleep last night? Question is what did you sleep on? your mattress? Because it has a big effect on how you feel the rest of the day. And for advice on one that will treat you right we turn to Dr. O’Reilly at Tulsa Spine and Rehab. Sean, I suppose there is a big impact a mattress makes in a person’s day, and how well they can get moving?

The most common question that I get here in the clinic.

Is it really?

Oh, daily. I mean I field that question multiple times, and throughout my history taking, or in consultation with patients, one of the questions that I ask them is, “Do you hurt more in the morning?”

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

And many times the answer to that questions is yes. So the first thing that I want to talk to the patient about is their sleeping environment. My job not only is to figure out what’s going on with them, and make the appropriate recommendations, but also if I can make environmental recommendations, whether it’s ergonomics or mattresses, that’s half the battle too. So I want to make sure that during that consultation it’s very comprehensive, and I’m listening to different things, and picking up on different things that might lead me down a path of, “Hey, what’s your sleeping environment like?” And many of them, I get so many patients, Charlie, that they, “Hey, my mattress, 12 years old.” Holy cow. That is old. And I don’t want to get backed in a corner, but I think they say that every eight to ten years you should be changing out your mattress.

And it’s just technology breaks down and that mattress does a really good job early on, and as we sleep on that thing every night, it starts to break down. It doesn’t provide the amount of support it did eight, nine, ten years ago. So I think, look at the timeframe, look how long you’ve owned your mattress. I think that’s the first thing.

And what about, again, you’re looking at this mattress, what about the type of mattress? You said support, firm? Medium? Light? What kind of support do you recommend?