Sleep is an important part of our daily lives. We all have our different routines, schedules and practices when it comes to sleep, but getting good quality sleep is something that's important for all of us. Many of us probably don't get as much or as good quality sleep as we would like. Reasons for poor sleep vary for different people and can be due to a temporary situation or more long-term issues. Over the past 18 months, we've all been put through, and are continuing to go through, the pandemic that has affected our lives in ways that we may never have seen before or may never see again. Unsurprisingly, a lot of people have had disturbed sleep during this time. I know for myself the worries of trying to avoid getting ill in itself was enough to have further impacts on my own sleep. Even though we all have different implications from poor sleep, one of the common effects felt by many is an impact on memory. I can say for sure I've experienced problems with my memory, and have had countless poor nights of sleep that has just made things a lot worse. I've been working with Tempur to look at the impacts of poor sleep and how this can have detrimental effects on memory.


Tempur is known for its mattress material which is designed simply to help you to 'sleep better, longer and deeper'. Having a good mattress is important, but you can't underestimate the importance of a good pillow, which is why the memory foam is also used in their pillows to help evenly distribute your pressure and weight to contribute to a more comfortable nights sleep. It has proven pressure relief that helps with minimising how much you will toss and turn, which is something I often struggle with. Tempur was first created by NASA in the 1970's to help the comfort of astronauts during lift-off into space - not something many products could boast. The Tempur Material is the original memory foam that is its own unique type like no other which is why their products offer supreme comfort.


Unfortunately, I'm one of those people who really struggle with their sleep and have done since I was younger. In more recent years I have developed a number of chronic illnesses which have an impact on my sleep for different reasons, however, my biggest hurdle to getting a good nights sleep is my pillow. When I say I've tried a lot of pillows over the past few years I really mean a lot. I have to take medication each day, and when I've not been well-rested the night before I find it much harder to remember when I need to take my tablets or that I need to take them at all. I'll sometimes also forget to go and get myself food and can miss mealtimes altogether. I'll speak to my partner in the afternoon once he's finished work and only then when we are talking about dinner I will realise I didn't have any lunch. When it comes to drinking enough, I normally had some bottled drinks next to me, but even then I will still forget to pick them up and drink during the day and can end up dehydrated because of this. I'll also really struggle to remember things I had planned to do that day, even if it had been planned to do on that day for a while. 


Having impacts on my memory can get really frustrating if I forget to do the things I needed to do, or even what I was saying. I can be in the middle of a sentence and forget what I was going to say and really struggle to recall what it was, sometimes not being able to remember at all. It can actually be quite upsetting, especially when it happens on multiple days when I have had a run of poor nights sleep. Some nights I have insomnia and just cannot get settled for hours on end however hard I try. Even if I'm getting to sleep at a normal time and wake up at a normal time, I often don't end up feeling that rested in the morning as my body hasn't been that comfortable during the night in order to rejuvenate and mend from the day before. Other times I will wake up much earlier than I was due to get up and cannot get comfortable again to allow me to drop back to sleep.


I've swapped out my current pillow with the Tempur Comfort Pillow Original that I was sent to test out and have already noticed the benefits. It's really comfortable and I find that even if I turn on my side during my sleep I won't wake up, which normally wakes me because not all pillows are suited to sleeping in different positions. I can also lie on my front and 'cuddle' the pillow and which is often a comfortable position to sleep with, especially at the start of the night. The pillow can also be shaped to the contours of your body to tailor it to what you need. Another benefit is that the soft fabric cover can easily be removed to wash at 60 degrees so you can ensure it's always fresh. I often end up waking up with neck and back pain from not having a good enough pillow to properly support me during the night. It can get into a negative cycle where I have a poor nights sleep resulting in aches and pains the next day, which then makes it harder to sleep the next day. I've had a run of bad nights sleep for a couple of weeks at a time where the knock-on impacts have become worse and worse. The pain from this alone is enough to affect my concentration so when you add in a 'sleep deficit' as my Dad calls it, it makes recall so much worse.


I'm really looking forward to using this Tempur pillow on a longer-term basis as I've already started to notice a difference with comfort improvements which is allowing me to get better quality sleep. It's really nice to feel more refreshed in the mornings and I'm hoping I can catch up with my sleep and be able to have a more consistent and good quality sleep routine. If you also struggle with your own sleep, it will definitely be worth checking out what Tempur have to offer. Don't underestimate the positive change that having good quality and properly designed products can do for your sleep. This will in turn give you other benefits, whether this is mentally such as improvements in memory, or physically such as a feeling rested and refreshed in the mornings.

This is a sponsored post in conjunction with Tempur and contains press samples but all thoughts are my own