A comfortable mattress should improve sleep quality. In this study, we sought to investigate the specific sleep parameters that could be affected by a mattress and explore any potential differences between the effects felt by each sex.
A total of 20 healthy young adults (10 females and 20 males; 22.10 ± 1.25 years) participated in the experiments. A smart adjustable zoned air mattress was designed to maintain comfortable support, and an ordinary mattress was used for comparison. The participants individually spent four nights on these two mattresses in four orders for polysomnography (PSG) scoring. Sleep architecture, electroencephalogram (EEG) spectrum, and heart rate variability (HRV), which reflect the central and autonomic nervous activities, were used to compare the difference between the two mattresses.
An individual difference exited in sleep performance. The modes of influence of the mattresses were different between the sexes. The adjustable air mattress and the increase in experimental nights improved female participants' sleep efficiency, while male participants exhibited a smaller response to different mattresses. With an increasing number of experiment nights, both sexes showed increased REM and decreased N2 proportions; the N3 sleep proportion decreased in the male participants, and the heart rate decreased in both sexes. The performance of the EEG spectrum supports the above results. In addition, the adjustable air mattress weakened automatic nerve activity during N3 sleep in most participants. The female participants appeared to be more sensitive to mattresses. Experiment night was associated with psychological factors. There were differences in the results for this influence between the sexes.
This study may shed some light on the differences between the ideal sleep environment of each sex.