When salespeople educate mattress shoppers about how to get better sleep, they’re making each interaction more emotional, meaningful, and beneficial.
Brush up on sleep knowledge and send customers home with a great mattress and a lifetime of better sleep.
1. Don’t Trust Most Doctors. During four years of medical school, most doctors get less than two hours of training about the field of sleep. This is according to researcher Raymond Rosen. If you read two books about sleep, you will be more knowledgeable than most medical professionals. Here are a couple of recommendations to get you started:
Sleep Smarter: 21 Essential Strategies to Sleep Your Way to A Better Body, Better Health, and Bigger Success by Shawn Stevenson.
The Sleep Solution: Why Your Sleep is Broken and How to Fix It by W. Chris Winter, M.D.
2. How To Get Fat. Want to put on some extra pounds? It’s easy. Cut back on sleep. A 2015 study evaluated how chronic sleep loss affected weight among 3,300 adults and kids. Researchers showed for every hour of sleep lost, the person gained 2.1 points on their body mass index (BMI). In BMI language, 2.1 points makes a big difference. Going from a 24.9 to a 27 would take you from normal to overweight—and any BMI over 30 is obese.
3. Clean Your Cage You Dirty Rat. Harvard sleep researcher Cliff Saper put one group of rats in a dirty cage and another batch in a clean cage. Both gangs of rats slept, but the varmints in a dirty cesspool showed signs of hyper-arousal and did not sleep as well as the rodents enjoying their sparkling little sanctuary. A clean room is better for sleep.
4. Hormone Name Game. Melatonin and adenosine are the hormones responsible for sleep. Histamine is the chemical that produces wakefulness in our brains. Speaking of histamines, let’s talk about that pill for a runny nose that some people end up taking to help them fall asleep.
5. Dangers of Benadryl for Sleep. Lots of people have sinus drainage and take Benadryl, or other histamine blockers. They make you feel sleepy. One thing leads to another and the next thing you know, after struggling to sleep, you’re taking a Benadryl cocktail every night to help you doze off. Stop immediately. A 2015 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association concluded using these anticholinergic medications long term increased the risk of developing dementia.
6. Impossible to Ignore: Sex, Food, Water, Sleep. It’s inevitable. Like a zombie craving a brain sandwich, you are governed by maintaining a balance in primary drives. In 1943, American psychologist Clark Hull told the world human beings have primary drives they can’t ignore: food, water, the desire to reproduce, and sleep. “The longer we go without sleep, the more determined our brains are to get it, ultimately to the point where it is no longer a choice,” said sleep doctor Chris Winter. Sleep is inevitable. And like food and sex, it should be enjoyable.
Those are six sleep knowledge bombs you can drop when a customer comes in to buy a mattress. Salespeople who are knowledgeable about sleep can offer a life-changing service to every person that walks through the door. When your team is transforming lives, they will stand out from normal mattress hawkers.
What are your favorite sleep tips or tidbits?
