Major story on sleep misses bedding's key role
David Perry, Executive editor -- Furniture Today, February 8, 2004
We just don't get any respect.
That's the conclusion I've reached in the wake of a lost opportunity for the bedding industry. This sort of thing has happened to us before — too many times, in fact — but it's still alarming when it happens on a grand scale. Call it a wake-up call.
When I saw the cover story in the Jan. 26 issue of BusinessWeek titled "I can't sleep," I figured the authors would mention that the bed is an important element in sleep. This will give our industry some good visibility with the consumer press, I thought.
I thought wrong. While I hate to criticize a fellow writer (my foot certainly is on a banana peel when I encourage that sort of thing), I must confess to being disappointed with the stories. They managed to talk at great length about the problems of insomnia and other sleep disorders, with only the barest of mentions of something fundamental to a good night's sleep: A good bed.
By my count, the word "bed" appeared but three times in the cover story, and none of those mentions gave the bed its due. "Mattresses" appeared once. The word "drugs" appeared lots of times.
This was, to be honest, a story about what role drugs can play in helping people get a better night's sleep. And it's clear that several drug companies are working on the problems of "sleep debt and its ravages." That's a good thing, I'm sure.
But the article goes way too far down the drug road and neglects to make some fundamental points about the bed itself. Maybe, just maybe, the prescription for a better night's sleep is a better mattress, and not a bottle of pills, for many people.
We all know that too many consumers hang on to their old, worn-out beds for years, even decades. Today's beds offer incredible comfort and support, as consumers will find out when they give them a try on retail floors, and then later in their homes.
It's just common sense to tell consumers they should take a look at their mattress if they are having trouble sleeping. Isn't it obvious the bed plays an intimate role in the sleep process?
But our intrepid BusinessWeek editors somehow missed that obvious fact.
The perfect place to mention the bed would have been in a sidebar called "A Deep Sleep Without Drugs," where basic better sleep advice (beware of subtle stimulants, watch where you rest, etc.) was offered.
The Better Sleep Council has been doing a good job of getting its messages before the public. It's too bad our friends at BusinessWeek missed them.
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