Over 60s, stiff mornings, bad backs
A better night at any age.
Getting up in the night, a hip that aches on its side, a back that takes twenty minutes to get going in the morning. A good mattress does not fix any of that on its own, but the wrong one makes every bit of it worse. Here is what to look for, in plain English.
Your day
The mornings tell you
You do not need a hard bed. You need a supportive one.
If you wake up stiffer than you went to bed, the mattress is doing something to you overnight. Usually one of two things: it has sagged in the middle so your spine spends eight hours in a curve, or it is so firm your hips and shoulders take the whole load and go numb.
Sleep also changes with age. Less of it is deep sleep, and it breaks more easily. That makes the mattress matter more, not less: every time a pressure point wakes you to turn over, that is a stretch of deep sleep gone. A surface that lets you stay put is the single best thing a bed can do for you after sixty.
Why it matters
What better sleep does after sixty
Getting out of bed
Strong edge support and a firm base mean you can sit on the side of the bed and push up without it giving way. The Garscadden is hand side-stitched for exactly that.
Joints
Pressure relief at the hips and shoulders is the difference between sleeping through and turning over every hour. That is what the Zero Gravity layer is for.
The head
Deep sleep is when the brain does its housekeeping. Memory, mood and patience all run better on a full night, at any age.
Plain English
What “orthopaedic” actually means
People come into the showroom every week asking for an orthopaedic mattress, usually because a doctor, a physio or a neighbour said so. Here is the honest version.
There is no standard, no test and no body that certifies a mattress as orthopaedic. Any manufacturer can print the word on the label. In practice it has come to mean one thing only: firm. And firm on its own is not what a sore back needs.
You want support, which is the mattress keeping your spine level, plus pressure relief, which is it giving way under the hips and shoulders. Firm alone gives you the first and not the second. That is why so many people buy an orthopaedic mattress and wake up with a sore hip instead of a sore back.
- Firmness
- How hard the surface feels when you lie on it. Personal preference and body weight, not a medical measure. Heavier people need firmer to get the same support; lighter people sink less and can go softer.
- Support
- Whether the mattress holds your spine in a straight line on your side, or its natural curve on your back. This comes from the spring unit underneath, not the feel on top. Pocket springs give it; a cheap open coil can sag in the middle within a year.
- Pressure relief
- What the top layers do for the hips and shoulders, the two points that carry most of your weight on your side. Too firm and they go numb and you turn over all night. The Zero Gravity layer is built for exactly this: it gives under the pressure points while the springs stay firm underneath.
- Zoned
- Springs of different strengths in different areas, firmer under the hips, softer under the shoulders. Useful on paper, hard to feel in practice, and pointless if two people of different sizes share the bed.
- Medium-firm
- What most back-pain research and most physios actually recommend, and what most people who ask for orthopaedic end up happiest on. Firm enough to support, soft enough at the surface to lie on your side.
- So what should you ask for?
- Tell us how you sleep, side or back, roughly what you weigh, and whether anything hurts in the morning. Then lie on a medium-firm pocket-sprung mattress with a pressure-relieving top for ten minutes in the showroom. That tells you more than any label.
The Zero Gravity range
Built for deep sleep, not just hours
Our own Signature Beds range, made in Britain. Four mattresses that share one idea: take the pressure off, keep you cool, keep you level, so you stay in the deep stages of sleep where recovery actually happens.
The Zero Gravity layer spreads your weight across the whole surface instead of loading the hips and shoulders, so you shift less and stay in deep sleep longer.
Zero Tex and gel-infused tops are built not to hold heat. Core temperature has to drop for the body to go into deep sleep; a hot mattress fights that all night.
Pocket springs move independently under you. Whatever you did to your back today, it is not being held in a bend for eight hours.
Made to order in around two weeks. Every one is on the showroom floor in Clydebank to lie on for as long as it takes to be sure.
Our pick for you
Two to start with
Both on the floor in Clydebank. Prices are for a single; doubles and kings are on each product page. Every mattress in the range is made to order in around two weeks.
Garscadden 3400
Medium to firm, 3400 pocket springs, hand side-stitched edge so you can sit on it to get up. This is the mattress we point most people at when they ask for orthopaedic, and most of them go home with it.
- 3400 pocket springs, hand side-stitched
- 2nd generation Zero Gravity layer
- 27cm deep, hand tufted
- No-turn, flag-stitch handles
Ted 1000
Medium, encapsulated edge, Zero Gravity pressure relief. For lighter frames or anyone who found the Garscadden a touch firm on their side.
- 1000 pocket springs, encapsulated edge
- Zero Gravity plus recyclable comfort layer
- Micro-quilted finish
- 5-year guarantee
Try before you buy
Ten minutes on it beats any review
Lie on each one, in the position you sleep in, for as long as you like. Family-run showroom above the Co-op in Clydebank, Monday to Saturday 9 to 5. 0% finance over up to 12 months.
Struggling to get in and out of bed at all? Have a look at our Adjust-A-Bed electric beds, and our lift and rise chairs for the daytime. VAT relief may apply to both.