Long-Haul Truck Drivers Deserve the Best Truck Mattresses Money can Buy
Not all CDL drivers carry freight all over the country; some get to go home every day. But for those who don’t do local routes, they can be on the road for days to weeks at a time. Where do they sleep? Believe it or not, a lot of freight trucks have tractor-trailer beds in a sleeper cabin behind the driver’s seats. The living accommodations in a sleeper cab vary from a simple area for a small truck bed, to a compact, camper-style sleeping area with a sink, shower, toilet and storage areas.
But just like a lot of other non-residential beds, truck mattresses aren’t exactly made with the best materials. Sometimes drivers literally sleep on air mattresses. For weeks! For people who drive 10-13 hours a day, that’s not acceptable; it’s not healthy or safe. Something as simple as having a crappy mattress on your semi’s bed can lead to concentration dips, literal sleep driving, and terrible accidents that can cause loss of life, limb and cargo. Expensive. Scary.
And the “expenses” of those potential accidents aren’t just quantifiable; chronic lack of sleep has long-term health effects. It seems kind of awful that big rig beds are such an afterthought in the trucking industry. But once you know why mattresses for trucks need to be better, and how to find the best mattress for your truck, you’ll realize that these accidents don’t need to be such a reality anymore.
Why Semi-Truck Mattresses Need to be Better
A study done on long-haul drivers in 2008 found some pretty alarming results when analyzing the sleep cycles of truck drivers. Average sleep hours ran around only 5 hours per night, and several drivers in the study were found to have developed sleep disorders like sleep apnea. Some drivers also registered stage 1 sleep while driving during the day.
And if you’re wondering about naps? Nah. They averaged maybe 15-20 minutes of additional sleep time. That’s it. And when you consider the 5,000 deaths a year that result from accidents involving commercial trucks, it’s pretty obvious driver fatigue is probably a big factor in some of those incidents.
As we mentioned, chronic poor sleep, due to schedule, lifestyle, or a bad truck mattress, can have long-term mental and physical consequences. It leads to cognitive difficulties like slower processing, and increases your risk of developing dementia later in life. And poor sleep can also raise your risk of heart problems like COPD. Considering these people are vital to our national supply chains, it seems a bit unfair we aren’t paying attention to something as simple as the quality of their tractor trailer beds to help protect their health and well-being.
These drivers need more sleep. They need better sleep. And the most important place to start is with their truck’s bed. No question that getting a memory foam mattress for your semi-truck is going to give you way better sleep than that chintzy air mattress. But finding a good bed for a semi-truck is hard. The dimensions are usually weird, and there’s no room for a box spring.
Not to mention that if you do have a fancy sleeping cabin with extra amenities, your truck bed may have a strange shape, like a cut corner to accommodate adjacent counter space. But there is an easy solution: a custom size mattress made of high-end materials like memory foam or natural latex, made specifically for your semi truck’s bed.
No Question – The Best Truck Mattress is a Custom Mattress
Long-haul CDL drivers spend more time in their trucks than they do at home. And we all know how important having a great mattress is to people when it comes to their bedrooms. So, if you’re spending way more time in your semi-truck bed than your bed at home, it only makes sense to invest in a quality, comfortable custom mattress that not only fits your truck’s bed space perfectly, but helps you make the most out of your tight sleep schedule.
There are a couple important things to consider when speaking to a custom mattress manufacturer about your new big rig mattress:
1. What type of sleeper are you? There are so many options for truck mattresses now, you aren’t stuck with one kind – you’ve got to make a choice. Are you a hot sleeper? An innerspring semi mattress might be the way to go; they’re great at allowing airflow through. Do you have back problems from driving that truck all day? Buying a memory foam mattress for your semi-truck is probably your best option; memory foam contours to your body and relieves pressure points.
2. What’s the size of your sleeping area? Different brands and models of semis have different styles and sizes of tractor trailer beds. And the more recent truck models have semi bed sleeping areas with the driver’s comfort in mind. For instance, Peterbilt makes tractor trailers with several options for bed size – all the way up to 80” of sleep space. And the ever-famous Mack trucks have 70” sleeper spaces with tons of amenities like a workspace, dimmable lighting, blackout curtains and more. But don’t worry, even if you’re hauling cargo in an older truck model, just because your truck’s bed is smaller and less fancy doesn’t mean adding a custom memory foam mattress to your semi’s sleep space won’t do wonders for your quality of life.
Talk to a custom mattress manufacturer (like us!) that specializes in “weird” mattresses, like those for boat beds, plane beds, RV beds and tractor trailer beds. We create made to measure mattresses of quality foam, memory foam, pocket coils and more, because we know that sleep is extremely important to your health.
Other Things You Can do to Sleep Well in Your Truck Bed
While your semi-truck mattress is arguably the most important factor in your sleep quality on these days’ long trips, you’ve obviously got other factors to think about. Truck stops are noisy. And if you’ve been sitting for hours, sometimes crawling into bed is hard; not moving all day can make your body restless even if you’re exhausted.
It’s important to implement habits to make the most of your truck bed and your sleeper cabin. Keep a regular nighttime routine. Do something to help yourself relax, like reading. Need to block out noise? Get some earplugs. It’s also a good idea to have something to keep out all the light in some way.
The point is, you spend a lot of time in your semi-truck; you basically live there. So make sure you create as comfortable and pleasant of a space as possible, especially when it comes to the bed in your sleeper cabin. Do yourself a favor – get a custom truck mattress made so you can start making the most out of your sleep.
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