The Big Sleep

The Daily Mail has published an interesting article on its website, talking about another outcome of the study conducted by Travelodge in order to understand sleeping habits. The story is entitled "We're all too hot or cold to sleep."

Most Britons complain about the temperature in their room. They don't ever seem to find the right balance between freezing cold and sweating of heat. Because of an inappropriate temperature, an average of 6.5 nights of sleep are lost per month!! That is 13 years of broken sleep in a lifetime, as the article states.

• Why do people complain about temperature?

 The difficulty lies in this dilemma: some people choose to have a cold room, and rely on the duvet to provide heat. After a while, it becomes really hot under the duvet, so parts of the body venture outside it. They keep alternating between heat and cold and cannot sleep soundly.

Other people will choose a hot room, but as soon as they are under the duvet, it becomes much too hot. Most people do not like to sleep without snuggling into a duvet, or some sheets. They hang on to something, and the feeling of heat remains.

• How to sleep at the right temperature?

First of all, the temperature of the room must be set to mild. Try to play with the heating as best as you can to achieve  a balanced room temperature. Not too warm, not too cold.

Second, the key is to keep the same mild temperature while snuggled under the duvet. It is not the duvet that creates heat. It is your body that creates heat and the duvet either retains this heat or releases some of it outside air. So you need a duvet that will release enough heat to keep your body at a mild temperature.

This is what determines the quality of a duvet: the better the duvet, the more it breathes, keeping the necessary heat under the duvet and releasing all the extra heat to the outside.

The quilt that best accomplishes this is the

Siberian White Goose Down quilt

And if you suffer from allergies, we recommend the Simply the Best synthetic quilt

The hotel chain Travelodge has conducted a survey to reveal couples' favourite sleeping positions. You can read the BBC article about this subject. 

The results of this article clearly show that the majority of couples sleep better when each person has his/her own space to sleep. Granted, the two bodies are touching, so it is still possible for each partner to have a sense of connection, but when they both fall alseep, bodies rarely stay intertwined.

This study reinforces our belief that larger beds (king or super king sizes) are much more beneficial to sleep. Partners do not disturb each other with their movements in these beds.

Ben-
www.bedeezee.co.uk

Today, we are going to look at the sleep pattern of two animals in the Savanna: the giraffe and the lion. I will spare you my singing of "the lion sleeps toniiiiiiiight..." Let's go straight to the heart of our subject.

Lions do sleep a lot: they can sleep up to 20 hours a day! I guess it's the priviledge of the king. One might wonder: how do they get anything done? Well, lions do not have busy lives and do not do much besides hunting, eating and sometimes mating. Male lions enjoy even more sleep than the female lions: only the latter hunt while the former doze in the savanna.

Giraffes, on the contrary sleep very little: only 1,5 to 2 hours a day, and it's not even straight forward sleep. They fall asleep deeply for only 5 minutes- these naps, added together, make the giraffe's daily sleep count. There is a very good reason for that: giraffes lie down to sleep and their long leggs and necks make it really hard to stand back up. So if they are attacked during their sleep, they have very little chance to make an escape. And when a giraffe falls asleep, other members of the herd stand guard.

That is maybe why the lions sleep so much: he knows no animal in its right mind would dare to attack the king while he sleeps.

This post belongs to a series of posts exploring the sleep habits of animals.

Dolphins, like humans, spend one third of their lives sleeping, as it has been observed that they spend 8 hours a day recharging their batteries.

Dolphins have different sleep behaviour from sharks and other fish, due to the fact that they are mammals. Indeed, dolphins cannot breathe under water and they usually hit the surface every 1-2 minutes to get their air -they can hold breathe for 7 minutes only in emergency! Therefore, dolphins cannot completely fall asleep under water, otherwise they would suffocate. They need to come back to the surface.

How do they do it? Like us, dolphins have a two-sided brain. They are able to “shut” one half of it at a time, allowing it to sleep. They close one eye and that side of the brain rests. This is how they get their mental rest.

In the meantime, the physical activity is greatly reduced as the dolphin moves very little. According to their preferences, dolphins have 3 usual resting behaviours that allow them to get their air (source: dolphinear.com):

• They swim slowly and hit the surface for air
• They rest at the surface with their blowhole exposed
• In shallow waters, they rest on the bottom and rise to the surface to breathe

This is how they remain strong swimmers (they can swim between 40 and 60 kilometers per hour) and maintain the use of their brain (20% larger that humans).

Sources:
http://www.dolphinear.com/data/dolphins.htm
http://web.mit.edu/seagrant/edu/res/dolphinsleep/question...
http://www.ri.net/RIGeo/rigea/earthwatch/earthwatch02/que...

A study published on line in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology gives has identified the main causes for the presence of allergens (the substance that gives you allergy reactions) in your bedroom. These are:

• an older mattress
• a limited ventilation of the bedroom
• a lower floor level bedroom 

As far as the first point is concerned, I am sure we can help :) Providing new mattresses is our job and we would be happy to assist you in this acquisition. You can visit our whole catalog online by going to bedeezee.co.uk

 If you suffer from allergy, we recommend you to stay away from mattresses with natural fillings and  focus on mattresses with synthetic fillings. The combination of pocketed springs and visco fillings works really in avoiding allergies, so why not look.

• Click on the link to view allergy-friendly beds with pocketed springs and visco fillings. (click here for the mattresses only)

For the ventilation of your bedroom, make sure that you open your windows between the moment you wake up and the moment you leave your home. In the evening, if the weather allows, open the windows for an hour before you go to sleep.

Do not hesitate to contact us should you have any question (on 08000 20 12 12 or contact@bedeezee.com).

Click here if you want to read the full story.

-Ben 

Hello everyone!

It is becoming increasingly harder to find excuses to avoid staying fit. With Silentnight Beds' new way of exercizing, Bedercise, it is virtually impossible!

Celebrating its 60 years of existence, the brand Silentnight Beds launched a "National Love your Bed Day," with the purpose of reminding "us all how much we love our beds and what a big part of our lives they are." And to demonstrate our love of our beds, what's better than just staying in them, even to do some physical exercise? Hence the birth of Bedercise.

In order to create this inventive way of doing some sport, Silentnight commissioned sports specialist Sue Jepson from Manchester Metropolitan University. Bedercise contains 6 exercises and 1 stretch in order to tone up your body, while staying in bed. You can do Bedercise alone, or with your partner.

Here is an example, to work on your abs: the Ab-pillow pass.

HOW TO DO IT: Lie on your back with bent knees and feet on the bed, either side of your partner’s! Tense abdominals. One partner holds the pillow (either across the chest or above the head). As you slowly curl up towards each other, pass the pillow between you. Return to the start position. Repeat several times.

Visit this link to find more about Bedercising.

-Ben

bedeezee.co.uk 

Don't be fooled by the recent cool down in the temperature, the heat wave is supposed to strike back in August. Temperatures are expected to be higher than in July.

Many people experience difficulties to fall or stay asleep in the higher temperatures. Here are a few tips to make sure that  you get a good night's rest during the hot season:

• During the day, try your best to keep the room cool: shut the blinds, and keep the windows closed.
• Sleep as low as possible: the ground floor will be cooler than the 1st floor, etc, because heat rises. The lower you can sleep, the cooler.
• Keep a bottle of water handy to prevent from the risks of dehydratation.
• If you have friends who have got air conditioned houses, ask them if you can stay over. If they're your friends, they will say yes :)
• Try to wear very light pyjamas, or no pyjama at all.
• Finally, you can be interested in beds with a layer of COOLMAX: this will absorb your body heat and keep you fresh. The Sleepeezee Coleridge Mattress is a product with this feature to improve your nights during the summer. Check it out here.

Stay cool !

-Ben

bedeezee.co.uk 

Hello everyone, I hope that you have had a good week-end.

I  would like to draw your attention to an a article published in the magazine "The Hindu" (click here for the full story)

Most people today ignore the the fact that they are tired. They put too little attention to their sleep, often focusing on other areas of their lives, and putting sleep as after all their other priorities. When facing with the following decision:

• I am tired but Matrix 2 is on TV...

what do you do?

Let's see another situation: when you set up your alarm clock...

• I could really do with 8 hours of sleep, but I should get up at 6 if I want to do all I should be doing for work.

Do you see what I mean? There is always something that seems more important than sleeping. Until you reach  a  point that you are so tired you can't do anything anymore. "Ignore sleep problems and you only get diminishing returns," says the article.

It can even be dangerous if you are a driver: "Sleepy driving is emerging as a big problem in the UK, so we now have lots of signboards that read `Tiredness kills - Take a break'," says Dr. Singh, who also teaches at Imperial College, London (excerpt from article).

Your mattress plays an important part in your sleep

Getting a new mattress will drastically improve your sleep. It will impact on the way your back rests and will decrease the number of time your body moves during the night.

A bad or an old mattress (more than 8 year old) is usually unable to support your body the way it should. As a result, your back hurts while you sleep (and prevents your body from getting the right sleep).

After a while, the fillings on top of the mattress tend to flatten as a result, you get pressure points. If you have too many pressure points, your body will turn over too many times throughout the night, and this will disturb your sleep.

Visit the DR SLEEP section of our website (bedeezee.co.uk) to make your choice, or call one of our sleep advisors at 08000 12 20 20.

Have a good week,

-Ben

 

Some  articles published recently on the BBC News website and in the newspaper Metro have worried me a little bit. They  state that Britons do not take care of their duvets as they should (See Britons sleep in dirty duvets)

The most hideous fact was that they found a duvet that had NOT BEEN WASHED FOR 11 YEARS !  Urgh. They found in it skin scales and dust mite feaces...  no comment. The consequences for the health can be really dramatic: asthma,  rhinitis,  conjunctivitis,  eczema...

Anyway, if you have just bought a duvet from us, you are far from that stage. To prevent you from getting there, here are a few tips:

• The duvet must be shaken at least once a week
• It must be  protected by a duvet cover that you wash at least once a month
• The duvet must be washed every 3 months at least. The best way to go about this is to just leave it to the professionals: dry cleaners are well equiped to take care of your duvet. However, if you want to  do it in your washing machine, it must be able to support a load of 24kg. If you must force your duvet to get into the machine, do not insist, because it needs space to move around. Make sure that there is no tear in the duvet, otherwise it will get wider and the duvet will get damaged. Make sure you dry it for a very long time: it must not be moist when you put it back on the bed.

-Ben

Hello everyone,

I hope that you had a good week-end and that you've done all the late sleep-ins and relaxing you need to be energized for this new work week.

Here is a couple of funnies to bring some amusement on this Monday.

•  The firstone is a story that was published by DailyRecord.co.uk It states that "ONE million Brits have revealed a secret affair to their partners by calling out the name of a lover in their sleep". Can you believe it? What a terrible way to  get caught! Of course, I am sure that you do not share these morals, but just in case you would like a  deep and sound night sleep to avoid sleep-talking ;) I suggest that you go for one of the high-end mattresses. Visco fillings or pillow top, on pocket springs should keep you well asleep. (and your partner too, so no risk of accidental listening!)

The recommended bed: REST ASSURED FIJI DIVAN SET, King size available at a reduced price during our summer sale. Click here for more details.

• Along the same line, news has reached us that a couple in India "is being forced to split up after the husband uttered the word talaq, the Arabic word for divorce, three times in his sleep. According to Muslim law, the "triple talaq" is an actual divorce." Now are we sure he was actually sleep-talking? Sounds like an easy-way-out to me!! :)

Hope you all have a good week!

-Ben

bedeezee.co.uk