I always chuckle when I say, “It was all in a day’s work,” because I know all work is done during the day. And at night, it’s time for bed!
After a hard day’s work, I take off the Signature Super Sleep Superhero Suit to put my feet up for some downtime. I adhere to my bedtime routine every night to help me fall asleep as quickly as possible.
Even though I have a sleep system that is customized to my habits, it’s still not enough. And I came to realize this over the winter and I wanted to share a story that taught me this lesson.
In a previous episode, I mention the fact that I am a gamer. The Super Sleep Suit comes off when I get home, and yes I do take it off from time to time, like when I’m playing video games on my computer.
I hang out with my internet friends on Discord, an app that is kind of like an old-school party phone line. Except instead of you and ten of your neighbors on the call, it’s me and ten buddies from across the globe and we’re all playing video games together. In case anybody is curious, our main game of choice is called Path of Exile and we play the Hardcore League.
I love my online community which I’ve hung out with for four to five years now. We all work full-time jobs. We all have a family life. And we all like to smash monsters for loot. One day in January, we had a younger buddy, we’ll call him Dan, ask for some help.
He had some water coming through his floorboards in his room. As luck would have it, one of our other buddies, we’ll call him Mike, is a handyman. So Dan tells Mike what’s going. Dan used Discord’s live streaming feature to show Mike the water problem and see if he could tell him how to fix it. Turns out he couldn’t help him; Dan needed a plumber.
I got a message from Mike the next day. He literally said he couldn’t sleep that night. Mike is a 30-year old dude married with two kids and he goes to church. All around a great guy. He cares for others, so when he saw Dan’s room he asked a couple of gentle questions.
The answers confirmed what Mike saw in the room. He learned Dan didn’t have a mattress. He had blankets on the floor. And this escalated his water issue to a whole other level. Mike knows I work for a mattress and furniture company, so he offered to buy Dan a mattress. In Mike’s words “I don’t want to do this because I pity him. I know he needs this like he’s my brother. The emotion comes from somewhere else.”
So I suited up! It’s not every day that your friends beam the Mattsymbol into the sky and call upon their superhero buddy.
I immediately gave info to Hannah on the Dream Team and she contacted Colter on Team Malouf. This was January 2021 when there were unprecedented supply chain disruptions. We were looking for a full-size mattress for a 22-year old dude of average size and weight. Something that would be awesome and long term.
Colter didn’t have regular stock, but he went to work with some inventory that wasn’t in production anymore. He activated an old SKU that was kind of off the beaten path. They got it all ready and three days later, Dan had a full sleep system. He had a mattress, a metal platform frame, protector, sheets, and a pillow! BOOOOOOMM-Shakala!!! (Play some vuvuzela horns like somebody just scored a goal #LOL).
This was a huge victory. In a time of high volatility. Dan got a great bed! And for the record, I’m in North Carolina. Dan was in the midwest a few states over from us. This is an amazing time to be a part of the mattress industry! The internet is an interesting thing when you look at the connections it can create. And in today’s world, of all days, we could help!
I had checked in with Dan just before and after his delivery. His plumbing issue got fixed after a couple of days so the mattress arrived right on time and in case it ever happened again, now he was off the floor with the platform frame from Malouf so his mattress wouldn’t get wet. But there’s more to this story. I also checked with Dan after he had slept on the mattress.
I had only known Dan at an arm’s length. I knew he worked two jobs and didn’t have a lot of time for gaming so we hadn’t seen him as much. But I didn’t know he had grown up in foster care. And the reason he slept in a pile of blankets on the floor was because his last few foster homes never gave him a mattress to sleep on. That’s just what he thought a bed is. My worldview shattered when he said that. I was speechless. I did not realize this was the case when Mike sent me that original message.
And after he got the mattress and he slept on it, I asked him how it went. He absolutely loved the mattress! I had figured he would say something like, “Oh man, my pressure points felt great or my back was so well supported.”
Instead, he said the one thing he liked the most was how the mattress stayed warm all night. The floor got so cold that it would wake him up and keep him awake in the coldest hours of the night and he hadn’t slept great in a long time. Again, I was speechless.
The reason I share this story with you is because this experience helped me change the way I look at my own sleep routines. It showed me how much I take for granted in my own life.
This gave me a new perspective and helped me choose my better sleep habits. A 9:30 bedtime might sound awful to some of you listeners out there. But I get to choose to go to bed at 9:30 on the sleep system that is custom fit to me. I get to choose the amount of sleep I get and the quality.
And I’m lucky that I get to choose. Some people don’t know or haven’t been given the same opportunity to learn about sleep habits from their family growing up. I am grateful to have learned this important but difficult lesson.
I want to thank my internet buddy Mike. He recognized the need for family and shared it with me. And every person in the chain that shared it was driven to immediate action that resulted in a wonderful outcome.
Kudos to the Malouf Team and to Colter. At Sweet Dreams Mattress & Furniture, we don’t have vendors, we have partners. And when our team reached out, a real person listened at Malouf.
Colter, I hope a lot of people from our industry know your name from here on out. It’s people like you and Hannah who are the real superheroes. I interrupted both of your busy Monday mornings and all you did was smile, care, and try! And you made it happen! Standing next to you two, I feel like a weirdly dressed dude in a cape! You guys are the real superheroes.
And to all the listeners out there, there’s more to falling asleep quickly than following rules like no cell phones before bed, no caffeine after 2 p.m., and yadda yadda. Doing good for others helps tuck me in and prepare me for a good night’s rest. I can’t be exceptional tomorrow without a good night’s sleep tonight.
