Gravity defying sleep
James, the founder of Levitex, has spent many years helping the critically injured, the chronically ill, and the in-firm patients. Working with physios, occupational therapists, NHS specialists and international experts, James has learnt a key fact.
The impact of sleep quality, and specifically what we lie on, is as important for the rehabilitation of complex neurological patients as it is for the rehab needs of elite athletes. Equally, everyone in the middle has the same needs for wellbeing and an improved quality of life.
James took the science that he learnt in healthcare and applied it to creating the optimum lying surface. One that considers not just comfort and pressure relief, but also support and posture.
He called it Levitex – the Optimum Surface for Sleep
Soft like a traditional memory foam, but firm like a sprung mattress. All in one foam composition. At 25% compression (light squeeze), the softness takes all the pressure off your body. At 65% compression (firm squeeze), the firmness supports your body and maintains your posture.
Where the lack of gravity comes in
Your posture is affected by the force of gravity pushing down on it. This happens 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Do you wake up with aches and pains? This could be due to your poor sleep posture, causing the improper alignment of your head and spine.
Levitex polyurethane foam has a special property that reduces the amount of pressure on your body when you lie down on it. This helps you achieve a neutral spinal alignment.
To prove it, we sent our products to Salford University, where Senior Lecturer at the Health Faculty Joanne Webb conducted research.
She found that when her subjects lied down on our products, there was almost no pressure pushing back onto the body. The force of gravity downwards was not counteracted by pressure back upwards. In conclusion: the impact of gravity on your posture was minimal.
Be still at night
Providing that sweet spot between comfort and support, Levitex allows your body to remain still throughout the night. This is very much unlike what happens when you sleep on traditional feather or fibre pillows, or mattresses that are too firm.
Your mattress being too firm causes your body to try and move as the pressure builds up. When it comes to pillows, you will likely move more at night while sleeping on these, as they are too soft. This causes your head to move, which is followed by your body moving to support your head.
This stillness allows your body to know where it is in space, because it is safe, stable, and correctly supported – something called ‘proprioception’. Proprioception is otherwise known as our sixth sense. Without proprioception, your neck, shoulder and trapezium muscles work all night, giving you a stiff neck and shoulders. Imagine trying to sleep on the top branch of a tree with blowing wind and having a restful night’s sleep. Without a stable sleeping surface, that is essentially what you put your body through!
Stability allows your body to switch off and improves your overall sleep quality. The less effort your body needs to support your night time posture, the more recovery your sleep will provide. This stillness and stability allow you to switch off.
The best night’s sleep?
We cannot promise you a “best night’s sleep” if you have a bad day at work or stay up late to binge Netflix. There are so many external reasons as to why we do not sleep well, and we cannot fix them all. What we can do though, is investigate and understand what it is that you are lying on and how that relates to your pressure posture and proprioception. All of this will impact your sleep quality.
Just in case you have been sold down the river with other pillows and mattresses, we decided to have ours independently clinically trialled at Salford University.
The participants were asked to try 11 different mattresses and toppers and not knowing which was which, they all chose our mattress as the most comfortable.
The study didn’t stop there, though. The participants were put on gold standard pressure mapping equipment – and we came top for pressure relief too.
Further research work is being carried out at UCLan, with studies planned for 2021/2022.
Are you ready to revolutionise the way you sleep?
The Levitex Family
Since starting this journey, we have been blessed to work with the best of the best: clinicians, academics, professional sport stars. We also have our amazing PR and Marketing partners, who have helped bring our vision to life.
Now that we have created the optimum lying surface, our mission is to make sure everyone knows how important posture is to our well-being.
We think of those of you who have helped us along the way, as well of those who have supported us by purchasing a pillow or a mattress, as family.
So, we commissioned this piece by local Manchester artist Gideon Conn. This is a tribute to everyone who has supported and believed in us so far: the Levitex family. From the researchers, through the early adopters and the sport stars who fell in love with our products, to you. Thank you.
Posture and pain experts
Combine a world-renowned specialist in pain medicine, medical device engineering, postural management expertise, speciality chemical engineers and a bunch of entrepreneurs together. The result? A patent pending innovation in foam technology, set to revolutionise the healthcare and sleep market.
Our CEO, James Leinhardt, has a wealth of knowledge in 24hr Postural care and has designed class-one medical devices to manage the posture for clients suffering with complex neurological illness and Injury. His existing business works with NHS trusts and social care throughout the UK and his nighttime system has reached clients as far as Europe, the Middle East and Australia. Working with client groups such as catastrophic brain injury, Multiple Sclerosis, Cerebral Palsy and Stroke survivors, James feels a social obligation and strong sense of purpose to care and improve the lives of patients in medical difficulty and the wider public.
Medical director, Dr Ilan Lieberman works as a Pain Medicine Consultant and Clinician with The University Hospitals of South Manchester (UHSM). Between 2004 and 2014 he was the Clinical Lead for the Pain Medicine Service in UHSM. In December 2013 he was appointed as the Director of UHSM Academy, the learning and development arm of UHSM. His areas of special interest include back pain management and interventions, chronic pain syndromes after surgery, trauma, injury or infection, complex regional pain syndrome, fibromyalgia, neuropathic pain, pain management in multiple sclerosis, refractory angina pain and whiplash.
