How and why two sleep-loving parents decided to create the ultimate sleep system for kids

I simply do not relate to those people who brag about needing only four or five hours of sleep a night. Come on, how is that even possible? Five hours of sleep for me means I’m unfit to operate a motor vehicle at any speed—especially one with two small children in the backseat. When I’m sleep deprived, everything else in my life suffers. I’m sure you know the feeling!

Ok, I’ll admit it! I need a solid eight, preferably nine, hours of sleep a night to function in top form. Of course, on most nights, this is not the case. However, I have learned through six short years of motherhood that I MUST make sleep a top priority in my life!

Then came babies

All parents know that a good night’s sleep is directly related to how well our children sleep. So when our two daughters were infants, my husband and I became obsessed with learning how we could train—oops, I mean “help”—our girls get the best night’s sleep possible, so WE could get the best night’s sleep possible.

That help came easy when we discovered a particular sleep-learning book that a friend recommended. Up until four months old, both of our daughters kept us up all night, as infants do. But, our life changed in three short nights when I read the book The Sleep Easy Solution by Jill Spivack and Jennifer Waldburger. If you are a parent with an infant or child up to five years old who has sleep issues, this book is a life changer. I love recommending it to other parents who undoubtedly always call and thank me for the recommendation. This is the children’s sleep bible, people, and not to be missed! With the nurturing guidance of this book, we were able to get both of our girls sleeping a straight 12 hours a night at four months old. Yay us! We thought we had this sleep thing in the bag!

And then came toddlerhood (or, sleeping with human sundials)

Flash forward a few years. Our older daughter was late to outgrow the crib. She stayed cozy in that bed until she was three and half. When we transitioned her to an adult twin mattress, the quality of her sleep plummeted. Always restless, her body was in a constant state of motion. She would kick off sheets and blankets, flop all over and twist her body in all kinds of awkward positions. Quite often, she’d fall right out of bed. “MOMMYYYYYY!” Sound familiar?

Our second daughter was an escape artist! At 18 months, she would crawl out of the crib in the middle of the night or during naps. This was so dangerous and literally terrified me. I thought she was too young to move into a “big girl” twin bed, so I did some research and discovered that, as soon as your baby starts crawling out of the crib on their own, it’s time for a big kid bed. According to doctors, it’s much safer to move them to a low profile mattress than keep them in a crib where they can fall trying to get out. So, we moved Vivi to an adult twin mattress before the age of two. She could no longer hurt herself by falling out of her crib, but, just like her older sister, the transition to an adult mattress did not bring her, or us, a peaceful night’s sleep. She would get so hot that she’d sweat through her pajamas and wake up at 5 am crying because she was cold. More on that later.

This phenomenon got my husband, Jason, thinking. Jason, by the way, has worked in the bedding industry for 20 years. He runs his family’s third-generation bedding support company, Hollywood Bed, in Commerce, California. From a technical standpoint, he started asking questions like, “Why do our girls flip and flop so much at night? Was it a problem with their mattresses, or just the way kids are?” He strongly suspected that a big part of the problem was their mattresses. We knew they couldn’t be getting their best sleep in their current beds because, on far too many nights, they ended up in ours.

Jason was onto something. On those nights that they came into our bed, we noticed that it was as if we were sleeping with human sundials! They were no more comfortable or content in a fancy, expensive adult mattress than they were in their own quality twin mattress. They would wake up every time they needed to move, and, while they would usually fall back asleep quickly, their sleep was still being disrupted way more than we thought it should be. And that meant—so was ours!

 

5 Little Monkeys is born

After concluding that our girls were not getting their best sleep on adult mattresses, we began a quest to develop the IDEAL MATTRESS FOR CHILDREN. Jason, with his expertise in the bedding industry and my expertise in being a mom, began to develop a product that would offer all of the features and benefits needed for a kid’s mattress to help children sleep better. Thus, 5 Little Monkey’s was born.

Through extensive research, we were able to create a temperature-regulating, three-layer memory foam mattress, specifically designed with the proper amount of support in all the right places for children’s growing bodies. Not too soft, not too firm. Not too warm, not too cool. Other mattresses on the market today are designed for adult bodies. We created a mattress specifically designed for young bodies, whose bones, muscles and tissues are still growing and developing.

Since we’ve designed the 5 Little Monkey’s Mattress, our daughters are definitely sleeping more comfortably! Because of our state-of-the-art Quick Recovery Memory Foam, the mattress cradles and gently supports their bodies, reducing the amount of tossing and turning and eliminating the sinking sensation you get from traditional memory foams. The temperature-regulating gel responds to their changing body temperature, so they won’t get too hot or too cold.

Because I’m one of those moms who only want the best for my children, I insisted we cover our mattresses with a fabric made from organic cotton. When I thought about how much of my child’s day was spent sleeping—up to12 hours a day—the materials of the mattress were extremely important to me. I scrutinized dozens of fabrics until I came across the perfect one that is a healthier alternative to other mattresses and is soft enough to sleep on without sheets. My kids and dogs love rolling around on the soft mattress before I’m able to make the bed. This is also why we made sure the mattress cover is stain- and water-resistant, even before putting on the waterproof mattress protector.

The 5 Little Monkeys Sleep System is a true labor of love from the hearts of two sleep-loving parents. Our girls love their mattresses, and we love tucking them into it. We sincerely hope your family will love our mattresses, too, and that many sleep-filled nights are ahead of you!

XO,
Courtney