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Statistics Canada reports as many as 3.3 million Canadians – one in seven – suffer from insomnia, a difficulty falling or staying asleep.
Insomnia can lead to mood changes, difficulty focusing, loss of productivity and e severe functional impairment in a person’s daily life.
Dean Halstead sees the effects of insomnia first-hand every day.
“People come in and tell me they’re at the end of their rope” says Halstead, the craftsman behind The Mattress Maker in Calgary.
“They’ve gone months or even years without proper sleep and the chronic insomnia is causing them to make serious mistakes at work, at home and even behind the wheel,” he says.
“They are desperate for a solution.”
A study in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry (September 2010) based on the analysis of 14,000 Canadians concludes that taking medications to treat insomnia and anxiety increases mortality risk by 36 per cent.
Individual treatment for insomnia can be complex and involve cognitive therapy and other measures, but having the right mattress is an important part of promoting a better night’s sleep.
“Customers come to me because they can’t get comfortable on conventional mattresses,” says Halstead. “Sometimes it’s the chemicals in them, and often it’s the fact that other mattresses are mass produced and unable to really accommodate an individual’s needs.”
Halstead doesn’t use any chemicals in his hand-tied, custom built-mattresses. They are made of natural materials including wool from a farm in Carstairs and certified organic cotton felt from California. He uses recyclable steel from Ontario for the springs, and each and every mattress is equipped with a zipper so parts can be replaced and recycled as needed.
Halstead has been in the mattress industry for 25 years. As owner of Halstead Mattresses, a successful mass manufacturer of conventional mattresses, he sold 65,000 mattresses over 14 years and created custom beds for the Canadian Sleep Institute and the Calgary Regional Health Authority.
He sold Halstead Mattresses in 1999, sailed off the west coast of Canada with his family before coming back to Calgary to begin crafting all natural mattresses at The Mattress Maker.
For more information about chemical free mattresses, contact Dean Halstead at 403-247-2990 or dean@themattressmaker.ca
Stephanie Jackman
President, REAP Business Association
(Respect for the Earth and All People)
p. 403-862-2874
f. 403-503-1114
“Be the change you wish to see for the world.” – Mahatma Ghandi
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