I’ve been struggling a bit with sleep lately. Some nights, I’d have trouble falling asleep; other nights, I’d get to sleep, but toss and turn through the night. Often, I’d wake up with pain in either my neck, my upper back, or my lower back. Sometimes all three. It’s not just about the joys of aging; there are things you can do to improve the quality of sleep you get, and to wake up without feeling like you aged 30 years overnight. Here are a few tips for getting a better night’s sleep that worked for me!

My wife and I recently made the decision to get rid of our mattress and bedframe, and switch to sleeping on Japanese futons (called shikibutons) full-time. If you don’t know what a Japanese futon is, it’s basically a bed made by folding layers of brushed cotton over and over again and covering it with a layer of fabric. They sit right against the ground – no boxspring, bed frame, nothing. It was a decision that took time to come to grips with, and we did a ton of research before getting to that point. So what made us choose to sleep on the floor?