This following is a guest post by Mark Kinsley.

The opposite of sex is sleep.

Think about it. People work hard at getting good sex, but are lazy about getting good sleep. People feel they must create good sex, but think good sleep should come to them. Sex is active (most of the time), while sleep is passive. They’re opposites in a lot of ways.

Granted, there are real distinctions between sex and sleep, but it seems that people blindly accept that a good mattress will not work well for both activities.

Remember when health food tasted like shoe leather? At some point people rejected the idea that healthy food had to taste awful and suddenly it became appetizing. Even fast food companies understood. Subway’s most popular ad campaign featured a guy named Jared Fogle who lost weight by eating veggie sandwiches. It’s no longer an issue of healthy or tasty, you can have both. Your mattress is no different – it should enhance sleep and sex, giving you solid bounce per ounce and a soft, soothing sleep surface.

Inspired by the recent Baron’s article, “Sex or Sleep,” I started thinking about what your mattress should actually give you. It’s assumed that certain mattresses are good for sleep and others are good for sex, but live in separate worlds (or bedrooms). I disagree. At what point did people give up and decide that sex and sleep are mutually exclusive? Why can’t we have both? Has evolution ceased? Is advancement dead?

It’s time to seek a life of balance and forget this world of extremes where innersprings and memory foam are mortal enemies. That disunion doesn’t make sense to real people because they understand that good products increasingly combine materials and ideas that complement each other. It’s no longer just a telephone. Smartphones combine telephone, computer, calendar, and media creator. It’s a functional fusion and that’s what people want because it works. They want the best of both worlds and a mattress can offer that – for all age groups.

The Barron’s article reports that many seniors give up sex because they want good sleep, as if the two can’t coexist. Bad idea older Americans. From a health and wellness standpoint, people (especially seniors) should continue having sex. Even though sex and sleep may be opposites, they offer similar health benefits. Both boost your immune system and help you maintain a healthy weight. Also, during sex there’s a release of oxytocin which promotes sleep. Sleep and sex should not live in separate worlds, or on separate mattresses. But you can see why this happens: For seniors with mobility problems, there’s no wonder that sex suffers when you’re on a memory foam mattress. According to the Barron’s article, the person on bottom gets stuck in a divot and the person on top has a tough time with traction.

NASA concocted memory foam for use in spacecraft seats as a way to absorb g-forces during lift off. Today, people in bedrooms across the country are suffering because memory foam alone is absorbing all the g-forces during lift off! Your g-forces and lift off shouldn’t suffer because of a non-responsive sleep surface. Ask more of your mattress. You have one life. Combine the best things and enjoy it.

Innerspring mattresses represent 75-80% of mattress sales. And guess what? A large number of innerspring units feature a comfort layer on top like visco, gel, or latex. And even visco, gel, and latex are being combined to form higher-quality comfort layers that complement the supportive, responsiveness of an innerspring. Living in a world of sleep OR sex is no longer necessary. You can have both. Good combinations work, and that’s what people want.

Sex and sleep may be opposites, but the two have long held a common bond: Your mattress. There are sleep surfaces that can enhance both of these activities. Reject the crowd that claims sleep or sex must suffer. Embrace hybrids. Remember the lesson from food, which taught us that healthy and tasteful can live on the same plate.

Why would you sacrifice quality sleep for great sex when you don’t have to? These things are too important and you deserve both.

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 Mark Kinsley is Vice President & Lead Strategist with Mark Quinn’s strategic communication firm. You can follow him on Twitter and he blogs at MarkKinsley.com. 

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this blog post are Mark Kinsley’s. They do not represent the thinking of the company he works for, or anyone else with whom he is affiliated.