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EPISODE #875

Mattress Smarts 101 for High-Performance Sleep

Jack Dell’Accio

The next generation of natural memory foam mattresses avoids chemicals, wards off EMFs, and helps you build a stronger body and brain.

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In this Episode of The Human Upgrade™...

you’re going to learn how to revamp your sleeping environment and get awesome sleep. 

If you aren’t hacking, tracking, and prioritizing your sleep, it’s time to start.

Sleep is a pillar of high performance that affects pretty much everything you do. If you want to perform at your best, you have to get deep, restorative sleep. You know that, but are you doing it?

I’ve interviewed many sleep experts on my podcast. (Psst… I even created a 14-Day Sleep Challenge that teaches you how to hack your sleep.) 

This interview, however, is a bit different. I’ve invited a new kind of sleep expert on the show.

Jack Dell’Accio spent the past 16 years studying mattresses. He set out to hack every aspect of mattresses, from pressure relief to posture support to toxin-free materials. 

You know that plastic, chemical smell that fills your bedroom when you get a new mattress? That’s caused by off-gassing—a combination of volatile chemicals that turn into gas and fill the air in your bedroom as you break in your mattress. Research has found that many off-gassing chemicals are respiratory irritants and can cause you to develop chemical sensitivities[*][*]. They’re nasty compounds and you don’t want to spend eight hours a night breathing them in. 

That’s where Jack comes in. 

After years of research, Jack created a new type of memory foam a natural rubber latex-based foam that provides support and pressure relief, without the off-gassing irritants that you find in old-school memory foam. 

Jack founded Essentia, the first mattress company that uses materials that are good for your body, your health, and your environment. It’s a major upgrade over memory foam, both in terms of sleeping experience and chemical content. 

Essentia manufactures its mattresses and sleep products in its own GOLS (Global Organic Latex Standard) and GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) certified organic factory. These are the two most important certifications when it comes to organic mattresses and organic mattress manufacturing. They’ve also had their mattresses tested by experts at Johns Hopkins.

“We realized in our testing that everything is recovering faster, cells are recovering faster,
and that was the case with concussions, as well.”

Jack Dell'Accio, Founder of Essentia

In today’s episode, you’re going to learn the science behind building a better mattress, and why upgrading your mattress will improve almost every aspect of your body and brain. Jack and I also cover:

  • The many chemicals hiding in cheap mattresses 
  • Why, thanks to a backwards California law, most mattresses contain several pounds of flame retardant chemicals (and how Essentia makes their mattresses without those chemicals.)
  • Why 25% of NHL players use Essentia mattresses
  • The connection between cheap mattresses and chemical sensitivities
  • How Essentia created a proprietary EMF barrier foam formula.
  • How a high-quality mattress makes your brain work better

A sleep surface has to have six key elements to establish a sleep environment that regenerates the body during sleep. Essentia mattresses score at the top of all six. Here’s what to look for:

  1. Temperature Control (natural thermoregulation/ active cooling)
  2. Allergy Friendly (allergen-friendly materials)
  3. Accelerated Recovery (support and pressure redistribution)
  4. Optimized Sleep (adaptive accelerated response to reduce movement interruptions)
  5. Organically Clean (clean, non-toxic materials & an organic mineral formula that drives EMF patterns)
  6. Proper Posture (eliminates negative space to properly support the back)

The mattress you sleep on matters just as much as all the other high-performance lifestyle choices you make. In this episode, you’re going to learn the science behind building a better mattress and why so many professional athletes choose Essentia.

A SPECIAL OFFER FOR LISTENERS OF THE HUMAN UPGRADE™
Go to www.myessentia.com/daveasprey. Use promo code DAVEVIP for a special discount. 

Enjoy the show!

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  • I have looked at different mattresses and it’s always been a combination of what makes you sleep the best and what does the least amount of bad stuff. – 2:20
  • Latex was underused and the way manufacturers would use it, they’d buy layers of it and they would incorporate it into their mattresses.  – 5:18
  • My original commitment was just eliminating toxins and the air quality. But over the years, working with so many people who were ill, really, there’s two people that know their bodies or can sense their bodies – the severely sick ill people and their affiliates.  – 8:17
  • It might be a natural organic solvent, but I think it’s a VOC because it smells like it and it measures on my meter. What’s going on with a natural mattress that smells like a chemical factory?  – 17:43
  • We’ve opted to basically put a Kevlar jacket on all of our beds. It had the right flexibility, we’re able to get all the benefits of the surface of the bed without any of Kevlar on it.  – 24:46
  • A firm mattress, that’s the kind of thing that your, what you said, 25% of NHL sleeps on your mattresses?  – 28:22
  • The flatter your lower back, the less elasticity you need. The more curved, your lower back, the higher elasticity you need.  – 30:24
  • Jack:
    You know how I consult with pro athletes? I don’t even have to see them. We have a discussion over the phone and we talk about personality. They answer 25 questions  – 31:52
  • A lot of known technologies for avoiding EMFs has been grounding pads or the idea of channeling the energy somewhere else away from the body. We needed something a little different. – 42:53
  • Dave:
    we know that there’s something EMF-related that’s helping with circulation. You talk about cerebral hyperthermia?  – 53:30
  • You guys have been named like five times in a row Consumer Reports top choice for a mattress.  – 56:40

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