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2 kids, 2 adults, 1 queen bed, and no personal space. I regret not splurging on a king-size mattress while my kids were little.

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For Christmas one year, my husband and I bought our then 2-year-old son a Nugget Couch. It was amazing, and more comfortable than our mattress. Wait, was our mattress really that bad?

I was pregnant and had thought it needed replacing (after all, it was over 10 years old), but the play couch pushed us to make a mattress purchase, which, on some days, I think we rushed into without considering some important things.

We chose a queen mattress, the same size as the one we were replacing. At the time, the king seemed like a luxury we didn’t need. And we certainly didn’t need to spend the extra money, either. Now, I see things differently.

Adding a second child changed the dynamics in our bed

When it came time to shop for our new mattress, my husband casually mentioned upgrading our queen bed to a king, but I had little interest, and we never discussed it much past that.

I’ve always felt like king-sized beds were too spacious. At hotels, they required scooting over to reach the center of the bed. Who wants to do that?

We went with the queen, and things were fine for a while. After all, when just one child toddles into our room and climbs into bed, there are cuddles and coziness. However, when two children wind up in our bed, there are feet in each other’s faces, and everyone winds up a bit uncomfortable, especially now that they’re 4 and 6.

Sometimes a child will wind up lying sideways. Once, I might have suggested that someone sleep at the end of the bed, where one might picture a dog or cat (neither of which we own). The extra space a king-sized mattress would provide sure would come in handy now.

We play games on our bed

My husband started a game with our kids where he pretends that our blanket is a “hungry house” that will eat up and envelop them. The kids also love it when we pretend they’re airplanes and toss them into the bed, where they squirm like rollie-pollies. These activities take up a lot of space, and having more room to roll around and play would be a plus.

Once in a blue moon, our kids will decide to bring all their stuffed animals into the bed and make a suffie mountain, or play hide-and-seek under the covers. Then there are the nights when our daughter climbs into our bed and announces herself with a doorbell sound. I cherish these silly moments of connection and know they won’t last forever, so I want to encourage them as much as possible now.


The author poses while skiing.

The author says her family spends a lot of quality time in the bed she and her husband share. She now regrets not splurging on a king-sized mattress when she got a new bed. 

Courtesy of Anne James



I feel like I missed our chance to upgrade to a king-size bed

Now, four years later, I question why I didn’t consider my husband’s suggestion to upgrade to a king-size bed seriously. As an item that’s only replaced every 10 years or so, and with a higher price tag, it’s a big decision.

It seems too late to change mattress sizes now since we’d need both a new bed frame and mattress, and it doesn’t make sense to replace ours, which works perfectly fine.

At some point, our kids will stop crawling into our bed. By the time we’ll need a new mattress again, I likely won’t feel the same desire or need for a king-size bed. But if I chose again with younger kids, I’d get a king.




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Heart disease is on the rise in younger adults. A cardiologist says prevention needs to start sooner.

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You wouldn’t wait until your 50s to start saving for retirement — so why wait until your heart is already at risk to start protecting it?

Heart disease is spiking among younger people, in part because people in their 20s, 30s, and 40s are procrastinating on their health, according to Dr. Sadiya Khan.

Khan, a professor of cardiovascular epidemiology at Northwestern University, told Business Insider that changes to your diet and exercise habits now can pay big dividends as you age.

“You can’t just become older and then hope to make all these changes,” she said.

The earlier you understand your heart health, the better equipped you are to make healthy decisions for future you.

Your heart may be aging too quickly

Right now, most of us are behind in our investments to our cardiovascular health. The average American’s heart is 4 to 7 years older than their calendar age, according to Khan’s research.

“All of us are naturally driven to procrastinate,” she said. “You try to worry about the things that are immediately in front of you, and it’s harder to prioritize and give as much attention to something that is a long-term consequence.

An online tool, developed by Khan and her team, helps forecast a person’s risk of heart attack or stroke over the next 30 years by illustrating how they stack up to their peers. It shows their percentile rank for heart health: in other words, out of 100 people the same age and sex, how many have a higher or lower risk of cardiovascular disease.

Khan said the new tool uniquely uses percentiles to help people manage their health by understanding their risk and making changes if needed. Patients can then prioritize which habits provide the best bang for their buck in terms of health benefits, starting with what Khan recommends most.

How to invest in your heart health now

Khan said a big challenge with heart health is that it can be highly individualized. All the factors involved — diet, exercise habits, genetics, and stress — can vary widely from person to person.

“It’s not going to be a one-size-fits-all,” she said. “It’s this overarching goal that we need to personalize how we communicate risk and how we can share that information in a way that works for each patient.”

That makes it hard to recommend a specific game plan to boost everyone’s heart health. However, there are a few strategies that can pay off for most people.

  • Stop smoking. It may seem obvious, but if you’re a smoker even occasionally, quitting is one of the most effective ways you can reduce heart health risks (and yes, smoking cannabis is bad for your heart, too).
  • Get your steps in. Exercise helps strengthen the heart and stave off age-related disease, and most of us don’t get enough. Walking an extra 500 steps a day can help start building better fitness from the ground up. Short bursts of high-intensity movement quickly add up for better health.
  • Lift weights. Strength training is increasingly linked to better longevity, and movements like squats and deadlifts or at-home exercises like push-ups or wall sits can support a strong heart.
  • Eat more beans. Most of us could benefit from eating more nutrients like fiber that protect heart health. Affordable foods like whole grains and beans offer protein, fiber, and nutrients to fuel better heart health. Plant-based whole foods also help to keep you full, making it easier to cut back on sweets and processed foods that can be hard on your heart.
  • Take a tai chi break. It’s no secret that stress can be harmful, and over time, it can take a major toll on your heart. Relaxing habits like spending time outdoors and doing yoga or tai chi help to lower your blood pressure and reduce cardiovascular strain. Getting enough quality, consistent sleep is crucial, too.

For best results, try to make small, sustainable changes that you can keep up over time.

“It depends on what works for you and what you are able to stick with,” Khan said. “They all matter, but you don’t also need to do it all at once.”




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They quit, traveled, and rethought their lives — meet the adults taking gap years

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In my early 30s, I was working long hours as the editor in chief of a magazine, juggling deadlines and the looming “should we have kids?” question — all while feeling completely wrung out. I drafted a resignation email.

When my boss called me in, she surprised me: “Take some time off,” she said. “Come back to manage a new launch later this year.”

My plan for a year off collapsed into two months.

It began quietly in India at a yoga retreat near Kerala and ended with an adventure in Indonesia, climbing Mount Bromo and motorbiking through Yogyakarta.

It wasn’t a true gap year, but it was long enough to reset. The next year, I stepped into my boss’s role, leading the creative team I’d almost left behind.

That experience made me realize that time off doesn’t have to derail a career — it can redefine it.

I wasn’t a student with few obligations or a 20-something who hadn’t settled on a career path. I was an established professional stepping away when the stakes were high.

Extended time off can carry long-term costs — lower earnings, disrupted savings, slower compounding — but for some, the benefits outweigh the risks.

David Burkus, an organizational psychologist and author, began researching sabbaticals in 2015.

“People report better mental and physical health, increased confidence, and a greater sense of purpose after an extended break,” Burkus told Business Insider.

He also notes the benefits for employers: Teams cross-train, share knowledge, and become less dependent on a few “indispensable” people.

Paid sabbaticals are still a rarity in the US. Society for Human Resource Management data showed that 5% of companies offered them in 2019, rising to 7% by 2023.

And despite employers not rolling them out broadly, employees are increasingly seeking time off. In SHRM’s 2025 benefits survey, leave was the second-highest priority for workers — trailing only health benefits — for the fourth year in a row.

A peer-reviewed study published in the Academy of Management in 2022 interviewed 50 professionals who had taken extended time off. All interviewees said they came back as better leaders.

DJ DiDonna, a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School and coauthor of the study, says everyone he interviewed wished they had taken one earlier.

DiDonna told Business Insider that the best times for a sabbatical often coincide with natural life transitions, like a honeymoon, a newly empty nest, or the “twilight career” stage before retirement.

This collection brings together people who took that pause at different ages, for different reasons, and for vastly different lengths of time.

If you’ve taken an adult gap year yourself, I’d love to hear from you at akarplus@businessinsider.com.




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