While watching TV, resting after a big meal, or reading a novel, we've all dozed off on the sofa. There's nothing more comfortable than your very own bed, but the couch is a close second.

But if you've ever woken up with a crick in your neck or an ache in your back, you may have learned the hard way that this furniture is  not designed to be slept on. You may be asking why. After all, they're extremely comfortable to sit on and were clearly designed to support people with soft cushions. But sleeping on the couch is actually worse for you than you may think.

Couches Aren't Always Clean

Mattress Firm doesn't want to deliver the bad news but your sofa may not be quite as clean as it looks. Often a communal piece of furniture, many people in your home sit and play on the sofa throughout the day.

Compared to your bed, people tend to wash their sheets every week or so. Do you wash your couch cushions as often as you clean your sheets?

Proper hygiene is a big part of a healthy sleep regimen and that includes the surface you sleep on. Regardless of whether you make a habit of sleeping on a couch, you may want to consider having the cushions professionally steam-cleaned and pillowcases dry-cleaned to help with the dirt buildup.

Soft Doesn't Mean Supportive

Your mattress was designed to support your entire body. When you lay down, there's a relatively even distribution of weight across the full surface of your mattress, which means you don't have to worry about waking up stiff or sore.

Your sofa, on the other hand, lacks that kind of structure and support. Couches are designed to support you when you're sitting, which results in an uneven distribution of weight, naturally.

When you lay down on your couch, the different parts of your body are experiencing varying levels of support, which means your chances of waking up in pain are high. For this reason, believe it or not, you're actually better off sleeping on the floor than your couch!

Trouble with Temperatures

Your Mattress Firm mattress was designed to combat an influx of warmer temperatures to help keep you cool while you sleep. When you fall asleep on the couch—even if the room's temperature is moderately cool—your body heat has nowhere to escape to. Thus, it continues to circulate throughout your body and onto the couch cushions. If you wake up in a sweat on the couch, this is why.

There's nothing wrong with dozing off on the couch every now and then, but it should never become part of your sleep routine.

Optimal sleep health requires an optimal sleep surface and an optimal sleep environment, none of which can be fully replicated by that big comfy piece of furniture in your living room. There's no substitute for a proper night's sleep and your mattress is designed to provide you with just that.