Making The World Better One Mattress At A Time

A good night’s sleep.

Did you read that and relax a little bit? Tense up? Try to remember the last time you had one? Long to curl up in your jammies and snuggle under the covers? All of the above?

Sleep is one of the most important aspects of good health. It’s something we spend a third of our lives doing – in an ideal world, anyway. Sleep helps us renew and recharge; it gives the subconscious time to work and the body time to heal. It’s regenerative and restorative, yet it’s often one of the last things we think about.

Dan Cicero wants to change that, one bed at a time.

Dan is Ashley Furniture’s Regional Sleep Director. I recently had the opportunity to meet him at my local Ashley HomeStore to get my “Beducation.” I thought my husband and I would get some quick pointers on picking a mattress and we’d be on our way, but it ended up being much more than a standard “here’s our product and why you should like it” pitch. Dan is not just selling mattresses; he’s changing lives.

We started by standing in front of a mattress and a wall of names. You know how you’ll donate at the bank or the store and they’ll put your name on a tag and hang it? Ashley does this when you take one of their “Test Rests.” To take one, you lie down on a medium firmness mattress in your normal sleep posture. The bedding expert will then ask you where you feel pressure and by how much on a scale of 1 to 10. Based on your answer you’ll move to a softer or firmer mattress until they find the one that’s best for you. 

This whole “Beducation” process is simple and quick. When you’re done they’ll thank you by name over the store speakers and then donate to the Hope To Dream Foundation, which provides beds for children in need. If you know of a child who needs a bed, you can fill out an online application with the child and parent’s name and contact information.

Now through November 14, if you purchase a Tempur-Pedic mattress at a Chicagoland Ashley Homestore, they’ll donate a twin mattress set to SOS Children’s Villages Illinois, a non-profit, child-welfare agency that serves at-risk youth and children in foster care.

That should certainly help you sleep better.

There are fifteen Chicago area Ashley HomeStore locations participating in this program. Stop in, get Beducated, and change lives. Not a bad way to spend a weekend.