This time of year is always a little bit tiring. It’s back to school, back to work after a summer holiday, back to jumpers and then abruptly back to shorts. Plus that horrible sudden realisation that Christmas is actually only 14 weeks away (dare we say that word yet!). Sleeping can be hard; especially when we cannot justify air-conditioning for the two nights a year we actually NEED it. So here are a couple of tips for getting a good nights sleep, and getting us through those holiday blues.
The biggest question is how should we define a good nights sleep’? Waking up feeling refreshed and ready for the next day is just an absolute must. We shouldn’t expect any less than this, so start with these steps to be well on your way to a better night’s sleep.
Stick to a schedule.
Sticking to an actual schedule can sometimes be fairly farfetched. You have children, a high-pressured job or friends that don’t appreciate being forgotten about for weeks. You get it and so do we – 9PM bedtimes just sometimes aren’t possible. However the better your schedule, the better your rest will be. By going to bed and getting up at roughly the same time every day, your body will fall into place. Remain flexible though, as you don’t want to worry yourself if something changes. Perhaps designate a couple of days a week to later nights, so again your body can adjust.
Invest in a good quality bed and mattress.
The saying is correct; you truly do get what you pay for. We actually spend almost a third of our lives in our bed. When we say it like that, the investment doesn’t sound so bad. To really work it out, say your bed cost you £2,500 and you kept it for 8 years. It would actually work out at just a mere 86p per night. Much less than that cup of coffee you need to get yourself through every day. But of course, that is just the recommended length of time before you should replace your mattress, not your bed frame. It is highly likely, especially with a Furl storage bed that you would keep your frame for at least double the length of time. So all in all, it will actually cost you even less. Now it really doesn’t sound like a bad investment.
The quality of mattress and its suitability to how you sleep will also make a big difference to getting a good nights sleep. When choosing your mattress, don’t let anyone tell you which is the right mattress for you. We all move and sleep differently and so the only person that can decide which is best, is you. Test them for as long as you can, and try not to read too much about them before you test them. We make all of our customers have a lovely little lie down on all of our mattresses at the showroom before choosing. Don’t worry, we take any napping or falling asleep as a compliment.
Wind down properly.
In the day and age of smart phones, tablets and the worst culprit, social media, it can be difficult to really wind down and rest before we sleep. Try and put your phone away a good thirty minutes before you plan on actually going to sleep. We know it’s hard for you to miss out on the Twitter latest, including our tips, tricks and tweets. But they will still be there for us all to see in the morning, and the scrolling motion certainly will not help us to rest. This is the same for any screen light – laptops and the television will engage our brain and a scary movie will most definitely not let us get to sleep quickly!
Try chatting with a partner or call a friend before sleeping. Reading, writing and talking are all brilliant ways of winding down. Writing down all of our worries is a great way of clearing our minds. Leave the notebook at your bedside for any light bulb moments you may have in the night. By being prepared, you won’t spend the rest of the night trying to remember that million-dollar idea.
We pride ourselves in being Storage Bed Experts, and know a lot about mattresses too. So if you need any more advice, come and visit us at the showroom. We will be happy to help contribute any more tips to those much-needed 8 hours, so you sleep like a log (dog).