Health and Injury

• When your mattress is too firm, too soft or otherwise too uncomfortable for you to get a good night's sleep, it can have serious health consequences. Not only can lack of sleep affect your alertness, mood and ability to process information, it can also increase your chances of diabetes and heart disease. Insufficient sleep is linked to obesity, depression and substance abuse problems. Your chances of serious injury also increases, especially if you drive while sleepy. In fact, there are almost 100,000 car crashes every year directly related to driving while tired, according to the National Sleep Foundation. Sleeping on a comfortable and supportive mattress can help you get enough sleep and avoid health problems and injury.
  
  

Pain

• Sleeping on a mattress that is old, worn out or uncomfortable is likely to cause you pain in your neck, back or shoulders. In fact, more than 50 percent of the people who reported pain in those areas noted a decrease in pain when they replaced their beds, according to the Better Sleep Council. The Better Sleep Council also notes that this type of pain often prevents people from engaging in exercise, which can have more long-lasting health consequences.
  
  

Relationships

• Sleeping on a bad bed also can affect your relationship. If your bed is uncomfortable, you and your partner are more likely to toss and turn, keeping each other awake. When your sleep is interrupted, you don't get the full amount you need and are more likely to be grumpy and sluggish in the morning. If you share your bed with a partner, make sure it is big enough for the both of you. Beds that are too small can have the same effect as an uncomfortable mattress; for example, if two adults share a double mattress, each person has a sleeping area equivalent to the size of a crib mattress. Choose a queen-size mattress or larger to avoid kicking and bumping into each other all night and disturbing each others' sleep.
  
  

Work

• When your uncomfortable bed disrupts your sleep, it also can affect your work performance. A 2008 Better Sleep Council survey found that poor sleep leads to decreased productivity, attitude problems, poor judgment and memory problems at work. These problems cost business almost $150 million due to lost productivity. Replacing a mattress that is more than 5 years old with a new one can significantly improve sleep quality and prevent some of these problems, according to a 2008 University of Oklahoma study.