The Big Sleep

Hi everybody,

It's been a long time since I blogged here. I'm letting Ben have all the fun!!!!

Anyway, I was reading a press release this morning about back pain and possible new therapies, the press release enhances yoga and pilates as the best proven therapies. Already interesting!!

But even more interesting I think is the fact that the press release states it is estimated that back pain costs the UK industry £5bn a year (£481m just for NHS).

Now if we consider those facts:

• A good bed lasts 10 years
• We spend one third of our life in bed
• Sleep is usually the period where your back gets "back into shape"
• A bad mattress is the worst that can happen for a back pain sufferer
• A good mattress all your life prevents backpain
• When you start feeling back pain, it is very difficult to heal!

And transform them into numbers:

• 10 years of back pain cost £50bn (!!!!!!) to the UK industry and £4.81bn to the NHS alone
• Just one third of it costs £17bn (and £1.45bn for NHS)
• Per inhabitant, that's £283 (and £25 for NHS alone)!!
• The average cost of a bed is £250 and it lasts 12 year. (whereas we should spend more I think, see here for more info)
• The last year of a bed is the one where the sleeper's backpain increases most.

This drives me to one conclusion:

• The UK industry could spend a further £283 per person to improve their sleeping at no extra cost.
• The NHS could subsidize beds for a further £25 per person

In beds, spending twice the price usually increases the quality 4 to 5-fold!

So, what are we waiting for? I'm sure pilates and yoga works great but what about preventing rather than healing. It's always less expensive: Let's buy good chairs, good beds for our employees!!! And let's get a tax credit to do it! Better this than nukes (or not !!! I'm not a nuke specialist :-))

Have a great WE!!

Julien - Bedeezee