By Sola Ogundipe,

Do you know that  in order to obtain adequate sleep an average of 6-7 hours of  restful slumber, your mattress is the first step of the sleep equation? Are you also aware that the better the quality of your sleep, the better you are as a person?

Experts say getting a good night’s sleep  depends on a number of factors including comfort, stress level, room temperature, but  to get it right, you need  to start with the basics and your mattress is the first building block to a restful slumber.

Findings by Good Health Weekly of the sleep habits of   highly successful people attests to the importance of sleep and good health.

For instance, one of the world’s richest men, Bill  Gates; the CEO of Apple Inc., Tim Cook, and American President, Barrack Obama, all managed to get up to an average of seven hours sleep daily.

Recently, Nigeria joined the rest of the world to mark this year’s World Sleep Day with the theme “Good Sleep is a reachable dream”.

Speaking on the importance of adequate and quality sleep on regular basis, the Chief Medical Director, Caribbean Health Limited, Dr Patrick Ijewere, remarked that an adult requires an average of six to eight hours sleep everyday while younger ones should sleep longer.

Ijewere, who was  guest speaker at a forum organised by Vitafoam Nigeria Plc.,   to mark the World Sleep Day, argued that people often misconstrued the concept of sleep, assuming that they regard the time they wake up as the beginning of the day rather than when they sleep.

“Our company’s motto is health is by choice. Every animal on earth has a circle of sleep. But the concept of sleep is underestimated. Your day starts when you sleep. The quality of your sleep determines who you are the following day. If your sleep is good, you are a better person,” he argued.

Also speaking at the forum, the Group Managing Director of Vitafoam Nigeria Plc, Mr Taiwo Adeniyi said good sleeping habits were essential for promoting healthy living.

With reference to the Mckinsey quarterly report of February, 2016, that states: “The organizational cost of insufficient sleep” shows that sleep-awareness programmes can produce better leaders, Adeniyi said Nigeria’s current economic challenges which can be traced to years of bad leadership, would have been averted if the nation had better sleep awareness programmes for the public.

“This is why Vitafoam Nig. Plc will continue to support  World Sleep Day in creating awareness for sleep and also provide quality products that enable Nigerians achieve a good night’s sleep, in order to produce better leaders for our beloved country Nigeria,” Adeniyi stated.

Continuing he said,“Our spring mattress is posturpedic, orthopedic and therapeutic, this mattress help to support your body in a neutral position, one in which your spine has a nice curvature while your buttocks, heels, shoulders and head are supported in proper alignment.”