In 2020, Ameliaranne Ekenasio was the current Silver Ferns netball captain and training full time – sleep was a luxury she couldn't afford to give up. See how upgrading their bed improved her performance on and off the court.
There came a time in her busy growing household when the realisation hit that her bed from her single life no longer fitted her current lifestyle.
Like trying to put bulky kids' car seats into a two-door sports car, there was a sense that it was time to let go and find something that served a new purpose.
Ameliaranne Ekenasio was the Silver Ferns netball captain and training full time – sleep was a luxury she couldn't afford to give up. The 29-year-old came to New Zealand in 2014 from Bundaberg in Queensland. She had a New Zealand dad and got a contract to play netball for Wellington's Central Pulse.
Ameliaranne set up in the capital, bought a queen size bed and it was there her sports career began to take off when she debuted for the Silver Ferns in 2014. She met her now husband Damien Ekenasio and they married in 2016. Damien is a former basketball representative.
"The bed we've got at the moment was really good for us when it was just the two of us. We thought it was fine but then, yeah we didn't really fit into it that well," said Ameliaranne.
Queen sized beds are the most commonly purchased mattress in New Zealand – that's just 153cm wide by 203cm long for you and your significant other. Sure, it might work for some but try fitting a couple who are well over 6 feet into a queen size bed. Plus, Damien and Ameliaranne had a son, three-year-old Ocean.
"And when he jumped into bed too – it was like sleeping straight sideways so we could all fit in," said Ameliaranne.
Plus for the couple, as for many Kiwi families, their bed was often the hub of the home for everyone – including their canine friends and two older children from Damien's previous marriage.
"The bed was definitely the place where we all went to either wind down or get ready for the day and have some yarns in the morning," he said. "Looking for a bed, we required something that was going to be long enough and spacious – we like our space."
So that's where Sleepyhead came to the rescue to ensure the entire Ekenasio family had plenty of space to enjoy their sleep with the New Zealand Chiropractors' endorsed Chiropractic range. From Ocean getting his first big boy bed in a trundler set through to Ameliaranne and Damien climbing into a super king Chiropractic HDX.
Plus, their Chiropractic HDX came with KülKōte. This US-designed technology helped with the hot/cold problem that Damien and Ameliaranne had when they slept – temperature regulation.
"I'm hot, she's cold every single hour of the day. And her cold feet creep over my side of the bed," said Damien.
Ameliaranne admitted: "I am like ice most of the time and it's hard because he's so hot so we have these massive duvets on the bed and they are all on my side and he's lying there sweating."
Does this happen in your house?
Women as a general rule sleep colder than men. This can be put down to their metabolic rate. Women have a lower metabolic rate so they produce less heat than men and this can make them feel colder in bed. Men typically have more muscle mass and generate more heat, so that might explain why there was often a lot of disparity – not to mention duvet hogging – between men and women in bed.
KülKōte uses tiny microcapsules which, once you're lying on the mattress, heat up and liquefy inside the layer and start the process of absorbing heat. However, KülKōte cleverly doesn't take away all your heat. It senses what's needed and can push back warmth when needed.
So with space sorted on a super king mattress and with the heating regulation technology of KülKōte, the Ekenasios could enjoy better family time and hopefully a great night's sleep for everybody in the household.