Jason shared his story of being in the natural and organic bedding world for over 10 years.

He originally imagined focusing on sustainable businesses helping them create more eco-friendly policies. But when he started working with Soaring Heart Natural Bed Company while at the same time realizing the personal health issues their mattress was causing him and his wife, he realized just how important a safe mattress really is.

Then when the opportunity to take over Holy Lamb Organics presented itself, they jumped at the chance.

Jason shared his experience of hearing from clients. People who couldn’t figure out what was going on with their health. Visiting all types of doctors and naturopaths who couldn’t give them any advice. Eventually they would decide to try and swap out their mattress.

A common conversation would be, “you’re sleeping on formaldehyde, something you shouldn’t be around and you’re spending eight hours a night sleeping on it.”

Jason also shared the environmental impact of conventional mattresses. They’re not built environmentally friendly, they’re not built to break down, and there’s no “end of life plan” for mattresses. They’re the number two item in landfills by volume, following carpet.

While latex beds will last up to 30 years without needing to be replaced, when they do break down, you don’t have worry about it impacting the environment because it will break down over time. Same with the natural wool that is used as a flame barrier. Most companies use rayon, a petro-chemical derivative, or formaldehyde. The most common flame barrier today is a powder that clearly rubs of the mattress and is likely inhaled when you sleep on the mattress every night.

“if you’re rolling around on your bed in a dark t-shirt, you’ll see that (flame resistant) powder all over your shirt. That’s a hard reality that you’re breathing that in. At the same time none of that is designed to be broken down.”

Jason shared that a lot of big mattress sellers sell air filters to use along with your mattress, to filter out the off-gassing of the mattress. But is that really the right solution? I don’t think so!

In terms of comfort, the rayon barriers are designed to block all air flow to prevent fire. When sleeping in that bed, there’s no air flow “it’s like running in a polyester suit”. As soon as your body temperature increases you start to sweat because there’s no place for that heat to go. Yuck!

Jason also shared ways to repurpose and recycle mattress. The Springback Network can take a mattress in decent shape to donate to families in need or break down the pieced of the mattress and recycle the materials in different ways. What can you do if you don’t have mattress recycling near you? Contact your local authorities and request that they set up a program to deal with the problem of mattresses.

I wanted to get Jason’s take on tips for better sleeping and he had some great ideas:

1. No screens for at least 30 minutes before bed time.

2. You don’t need over 500 thread count sheets. The ideal thread count is between 220 and 500. Over 500 it feels nice, but the tight weave doesn’t allow air flow.

Jason also gave some tips on mattress shopping. He said to ask to see the law tag to find out what is in the mattress - all contents will be on the label. If they don’t provide a label, that’s a red flag! Look for and avoid formaldehyde or a rayon barrier. What you want instead is wool and natural latex.