It’s amazing to think that certain types of food and drink can help you to sleep better – but it’s true! Most of us know that chocolate and other sugary foods are more likely to rev you up, and even more so if you are tucking into them before bedtime. Spicy, fatty and acidic food (such as curry, onions, pickles and strongly flavoured crisps) eaten late at night can also cause sleep issues.
“Easter is the only time of year when it is safe to put all your eggs in one basket.” Evan Esar, Author and Humourist.
As the nights start to get a bit warmer, you may be thinking about a lighter duvet, but with so many options out there, it can be difficult to see the wood for the trees (and speaking of trees, we’ll get to that a little further on in this blog!). So, with keeping cooler in mind, we’ve put some pointers below and if you’d like more information, then we’re here to help.
Firstly, each one of our duvets is individually handcrafted, here in Devon, by our brilliant seamstresses. We only use natural fibres for our fillings because they are breathable and better for temperature regulation, unlike synthetic fibres, which can trap heat and make you feel hotter. Natural fibres are also sustainable and eco-friendly too, because when it’s time to replace your duvet, it won’t sit in landfill for decades. You can even use the filling for compost in your garden!
Secondly, we often get asked when the best time is for making the switch to a summer duvet. Although this will depend on when you are starting to feel a bit too warm under your winter duvet, there are other factors to consider, such as the ambient temperature in your bedroom. Natural fibres have the ability to adjust to this, releasing or retaining heat and thereby helping to keep your core body temperature level. The time taken for this adjustment to take place depends on the tog rating of your duvet. For example, with our lightweight 100% British wool duvet, there is one layer of wool, so it can react more quickly to warmer temperatures, releasing heat, whereas our medium (warmer weight) wool duvets, has two layers so the adjustment will take slightly longer in a warm bedroom. The same applies to our other lightweight duvet options. This makes a lightweight natural fibre duvet a great choice for the summer.
We’ve put some information below about the lighter tog duvets available in our range of natural duvets, together with their features and benefits. However, if you’d like to chat through any opt
April is Stress Awareness Month and it is now widely recognised that not getting enough uninterrupted sleep each night can have an impact on our stress levels. If we’re not sleeping properly, then we are tired during the day, we find it hard to concentrate and can struggle with our daily jobs and chores. This can then add to the usual stresses of everyday life.
st Friday, 18th March, was World Sleep Day. The focus for this annual event is the importance of sleep for our health and wellbeing. Our founders and owners, Dick and Pauline Beijen were approached by a number of UK radio stations, from Scotland to Cornwall, and as far as the Channel Islands, to talk about sleep and how to create the best environment to help achieve a great sleep when you tuck yourself up each night. They were also featured on Sky News Radio.
It can be difficult to know if you are making environmentally-friendly choices when you are shopping for clothes, but one thing is clear – choosing natural fibres over synthetics can make a huge difference in protecting our soils, waterways and oceans.
Although we have won several awards for our individually handcrafted 100% British wool mattress toppers (including an ‘Indy Best Buy’ from The Independent), we don’t want to rest on our laurels. As more and more people are discovering the joys of sleeping more soundly having purchased one of our wool mattress toppers, we’re constantly looking for ways to maximise the way we build luxury into every stitch.
Now that we are in to 2022, we all have hopes for a positive year that will bring us happiness and wellbeing. A good immune system is so important for good health and trying to live a healthier lifestyle will help give this a boost.
Duvets have been around a lot longer than most of us realise. This is probably because it took a while for them to become popular in the UK and they have been through various transformations throughout their history.
Some archaeological digs have suggested that an early form of duvet was used in China, as far back as 3,000BCE. In Ancient Rome, patrician Romans used both blankets and quilts on their beds (lecti cubicidates) but the first documented use of a duvet dates back to the Viking era. Many of the largest and most richly equipped Viking burial mounds discovered contained beds with several types of bird feathers and down from pillows and duvets. This has included down from the Eider duck and feathers from the Eurasian Eagle Owl, the largest owl in northern Europe. The luxury of owning a pillow and duvet was reserved for the wealthiest in Norse society.
In the mid 18th century, Thomas Nugent, an Englishman on a tour of Europe, passed through Germany and remarked that there was one very peculiar thing about the people there: “They do not cover themselves with bed-clothes but lay one feather bed over and another under. This is comfortable enough in winter, but how can they bear their feather-beds over them in summer, as is generally practised, I cannot conceive.” Of course, if they had used wool then this wouldn’t have been so surprising perhaps… but more on that later!
By the early to mid 1800s, eiderdowns were popular with affluent Victorians and continued to be so until well into the 20th century. These tend to be heavier than duvets and balance on top of the bed, without any overhang. They were used to add warmth to sheets and blankets in the coldest months, and older generations in the UK today will remember these still being popular in their childhood. In Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy story ‘The Princess and the Pea’ (published in 1835), the princess has to lie on 10 eiderdown quilts to avoid being b
Winter is a wonderful time of the year – cosy nights in front of the fire, hot chocolate, comfort food and frosty days with bright blue skies. We can also feel a bit more tired and less energetic - and there’s a reason for this change. Here in the Northern Hemisphere, we are tilted away from the sun as part of the Earth’s natural orbit, and this is what makes the daylight hours shorter and darker hours longer. It’s colder too, as a result, making it harder to leave your cosy bed! All of this makes us want to sleep longer.
Sunlight helps our bodies to make vitamin D, which is essential for good health, so we notice a difference when we don't get enough. Less sunlight also causes our brain to produce more of the hormone melatonin, which makes you feel sleepy. These changes in daylight and melatonin levels have an impact on our internal clock, also known as our circadian rhythm. As a result of the darkness our brain tells us that we should be tucked up and sleeping more. Although it’s nice to have extra time in bed, and whilst we sometimes wish we could stay in bed and not have to get up for work or get the kids to school we all have our busy daily lives. So, it’s all about managing that – and here’s some ideas to help:
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