You have purchased the perfect mattress! What a wonderful feeling… finally a good nights’ sleep. Now what? Mattress protectors.

You may be thinking… isn’t the need for those an “old wives tales” or it just something my elders say I need, but do I really? The answer is YES.
Why? The investment you’ve made in a new mattress, box spring set, and pillows is significant to you and is a long-term investment in your comfort.

Using protectors gives you the assurance that your investment in new mattress and pillows will be protected moving forward.

While enjoying your new bed, things accidentally happen in many forms. A child or pet has an accident? Or perhaps the snack you shouldn’t have taken to bed but did? These are the reasons for a protector that naturally come to mind.
However, there are a few great reasons that are routine and usually not in the forefront of our minds: daily dirt and dust, mold, mildew, sweat, dander, hair and dead skin cells. All of which accumulate through the years.

Now that you know, how do you protect everything? Mattress protectors are there to give you peace of mind that an unexpected accident won’t stain, damage, or shorten the lifespan of your new mattress and pillows! By helping to protect the materials inside your bed from damage and make cleanups a snap when accidents do happen.

If you want more information about the benefits and need for mattress protectors - speak to a sleep expert at The Bed King today.

Article source: https://plus.google.com/104285965402703854374/posts/EGqRv9zNPdj​

When the time comes for your toddler to graduate from a cot to a bed, the range of options can be bewildering. Should you buy a toddler bed or a single bed? An innerspring mattress or a latex one? Should you place it on an ensemble or a slatted base? And what kind of pillow is right if your child sleeps on his back, side or stomach?

Here we consult the experts on how to choose a bed that will best support your child's growing body and spine. Follow these golden rules to ensure a great night's sleep for them (and you).

All beds are not created equal
So says Dr. Havard Bergby, a pediatric chiropractor at Sydney's Inner West Spinal and Sports Injury Centre. 'As with most things in life, you get what you pay for,' Dr. Bergby says. 'When buying kids beds, parents have to consider the weight and age of the child. The transition from cot to a normal bed should happen between 18 and 36 months, after which a toddler should be in a proper bed with a proper mattress.'

Spring for innersprings
Sealy Posturepedic, the world's number-one bedding brand, recommends mattresses with an innerspring system. 'Innerspring mattresses, as opposed to pure foam mattresses, will provide the best skeletal support and conformance to the body while sleeping, and will not degrade with moisture,' says Sealy Australia spokeswoman Kim Bennett. Dr. Bergby agrees that innerspring mattresses are better for kids than ones made of foam or latex. 'Foam simply does not have the same supportive properties as a sprung bed and latex has a tendency of shaping to your body over time,' he says. 'This is not recommended for children due to the fact that their body is constantly changing. So, memory foam beds are definitely not good for children.' Dr. Bergby says children do not necessarily need an ensemble - a slatted base can be fine, as long as the slats are no further than five centimeters apart.

Toddler beds are an unnecessary extra expense
Although they're all the rage, a toddler bed - which is essentially a frame that makes sure a child does not roll out of it at night as well as giving them a similar snug feeling to their cot - is something they will quickly grow too big for. 'A toddler bed can be a good alternative for children who are finding the transition to a ''big'' bed difficult,' says Dr. Bergby. 'What mattress you use on the toddler bed is what matters. Between 18 and 36 months a child's spine is rapidly developing and growing, particularly at night. It's imperative that the mattress provides sufficient support to ensure this growth happens naturally. I frequently encounter families where the mum and dad have an expensive bed, whereas their toddler sleeps on a thin foam mattress.'

Spinal support is crucial
'When it comes to sleeping, what matters for a child's spine is support,' says Dr. Bergby. 'Both their spine and neck have to be in a neutral position, which minimises stress and allows the spine to grow without any restrictions. A toddler's spine can grow as much as 1.5cm during the night, which mainly comes from the intervertebral discs in between their vertebrae filling up with water. So the mattress has to be soft enough for them to be comfortable, yet firm enough to prevent them from completely sinking into it.'

Dr. Bergby says the potential consequence of children sleeping on an unsupportive foam mattress is that their growing spine is placed under stress for prolonged periods of time. 'A growing spine is very flexible and can adapt to stressors in daily life such as falls,' he says. 'However, this flexibility makes the growing spine more susceptible to more permanent deformative issues when placed under a certain load over long periods of time, such as 10-12 hours of sleep per night.' Dr. Bergby says it is hard to predict what type of short-term problems might arise from sleeping on a foam mattress in the early years, 'However, there is no question that sleeping on a spring mattress allows for better and more natural development of a growing spine.'
For parents who can't afford a good-quality innerspring mattress, Dr. Bergby advises buying a second-hand one no more than two years old. 'I suggest to parents planning on having more than one child to buy a good-quality spring mattress and pass it down. If you buy good quality there is no reason why three kids can't spend two to three years each on it.'

Cleanliness is important
By law, all new beds must be treated for dust mites before being sold. However, this does not mean that over time dust mites will not develop - especially given that every night a human body loses up to one liter of body fluid through the skin and mouth, as well as millions of skin flakes. Sealy Australia spokeswoman Kim Bennett says special mattress protectors are a good way to add additional anti-allergenic and moisture-barrier properties to mattresses. 'Most sprays are not recommended as the risk (inhalation of a cocktail of chemicals) versus the benefit (possible removal of bacteria, dust mites etc) is just not feasible,' says Dr. Bergby.
​
As such, the best way to avoid worsening a child's asthma and prevent the build-up of dust mites is to:

• clean bed sheets weekly, including pillowcases and doona cover
• air out the bed with no sheets on for at least two hours when you change the sheets
• these two hours are ideal for cleaning the room, which includes both dusting and vacuuming

In general, a clean and tidy home (and bedroom) is a good way of controlling the spread of dust mites.

Replace mattresses regularly
How frequently should mattresses be replaced? 'It comes down to the quality of the bed and the size of your child,' Dr. Bergby says. 'As long as they haven't grown out of it, a good-quality sprung bed can easily last as long as five years. As a general rule of thumb, change the bed every three years between the ages of 0 and 10 years, and every five years between the ages of 10 and 20. Latex beds, however, have a tendency of shaping to the body of a child after about one year, so I do not recommend these for anyone under 18 years old. Latex pillows, on the other hand (they must be natural latex), I do recommend, however they need to be replaced every one to two years.'

View the great range of kids beds from The Bed King here or speak to one of their sleep experts.

Article source: https://www.kidspot.com.au/parenting/child/child-sleep/how-to-choose-the-right-bed-for-growing-kids/news-story/59f4281c179eb4136824adff809301c3

Mattress Type and Components:

• Simmons Bedding Company offers innerspring and hybrid mattresses under the Beautyrest product name as part of three exclusive collections.
• The Black Collection features innerspring mattresses with an above-average price-point. Some models are available in multiple firmness ratings. It currently features the following models (ordered by price from highest to lowest):
  • The Tatiana features a comfort layer with a top layer of gel memory foam, second layer of standard memory foam, a third layer of latex, and a microcoil bottom layer. The support core is designed with pocketed coils encased in edge support polyfoam.
  • The Sonya has a comfort layer with a top layer of memory foam, a middle layer of latex, and a microcoil bottom layer. The support core features pocketed coils with a polyfoam encasement.
  • The Natasha features a comfort layer with a layer of standard memory foam, followed by a latex bottom layer; the ‘Plush’ option also features a top layer of gel memory foam. The pocketed coil support core is encased in edge support polyfoam.
  • Like the Natasha, the Mariela has a comfort layer with layers of standard memory foam and latex; the ‘Plush’ option also features a top layer of gel memory foam. The support core has pocketed coils encased in edge support polyfoam.
  • The Katarina Pillow Top has a comfort layer with a top layer of standard memory foam and a bottom layer of gel memory foam. The support core foam-encased pocketed coils.
  • The Desiree has a memory foam comfort layer and a pocketed coil support core encased in edge support polyfoam.  
  • The Calista is designed with a memory foam comfort layer and a pocketed coil support core with a polyfoam encasement.

 

• The Platinum Collection features innerspring and hybrid mattresses with a mid-range price-point. Some models are available in multiple firmness ratings; the current selection is listed below (ordered by price from highest to lowest):
  • The Quinn hybrid features a comfort layer with four components: a top layer of standard memory foam, a second layer of high-density memory foam, a third layer of standard memory foam, and a latex bottom layer. The support core features pocketed coils with a polyfoam encasement.
  • The Maddie hybrid has a comfort layer with two standard memory foam top layers, followed by a third layer of gel memory foam and a bottom layer of latex. This model also features a pocketed coil support core encased in edge support polyfoam.
  • The Bryson hybrid is constructed with three memory foam layers in the comfort layer, followed by a bottom latex layer. The support core features pocketed coils encased in polyfoam.
  • Like the Bryson, the Austin features a comfort layer with three memory foam top layers and a latex bottom layer. The pocketed coil support core is encased in polyfoam.
  • The Katherine Pillow Top innerspring has a comfort layer with a gel memory foam top layer, a standard memory foam middle layer, and a polyfoam bottom layer. The support core features pocketed coils encased in polyfoam.
  • The Gabriella Pillow Top innerspring is designed with a comfort layer with a top layer of gel memory foam and a bottom layer of standard memory foam. The pocketed coil support core is encased in edge support polyfoam.
  • The Brittany innerspring features a gel memory foam and standard memory foam comfort layer in the Plush and Luxury Firm settings, and a polyfoam comfort layer for the Firm setting. In all settings, the support core features pocketed coils encased in polyfoam.
  • The Amberlyn innerspring features a polyfoam comfort layer with a memory foam center and a pocketed coil support core with a polyfoam encasement.

 

• The Silver Collection features innerspring and hybrid mattresses with a below-average price-point. Some models are available in multiple firmness ratings. The current lineup is outlined below (listed by price from highest to lowest):
  • The Harbour Beach hybrid has a comfort layer with a top layer of standard memory foam, a middle layer of gel memory foam, and a bottom layer of standard memory foam. The support core features pocketed coils.
  • The Cascade Mist hybrid features a comfort layer with a standard memory foam and gel memory foam top layers, and a standard memory foam bottom layer. This model also features a pocketed coil support core.
  • The Austin Reef hybrid has a comfort layer with a top layer of standard memory foam, a middle layer of gel memory foam and a polyfoam bottom layer, as well as a pocketed coil support core.
  • The Beachwood hybrid has a comfort layer with top and bottom memory foam layers, and a polyfoam middle layer. The support core is constructed with pocketed coils.
  • The Charcoal Coast Pillow Top innerspring features a comfort layer with two top layers of polyfoam, followed by a third layer of memory foam and a microcoil layer. The support core has pocketed coils.
  • The Charcoal Coast innerspring has a comfort layer has two top layers of polyfoam, a third layer of gel memory foam, and a final microcoil layer. The support core features pocketed coils.
  • The Open Seas Pillow Top innerspring has a comfort layer with two top layers of polyfoam, followed by a third layer of gel memory foam and a bottom polyfoam layer. The support core has pocketed coils.
  • The Open Seas innerspring features two top polyfoam layers in the comfort layer, followed by a bottom layer of gel memory foam. The support core features pocketed coils.
  • The Tidewater has a comfort layer with top and bottom polyfoam layers surrounding a middle layer of gel memory foam. The support core is designed with pocketed coils.

 

• Simmons Bedding Company does not disclose the composition of any mattress covers.

Why it’s great:

• Simmons Beautyrest currently offers 24 different innerspring and hybrid mattress models, half of which are available in multiple firmness settings. This extensive selection should accommodate a wide range of sleepers.
• A large number of owners claim Simmons Beautyrest mattresses offer above-average edge support, and have a responsive surface that makes them better for sex.
• Simmons Beautyrest mattresses are available at hundreds of brick-and-mortar locations across the country.

For more details such as product specifications and warranty information of Simmons beds - speak to a sleep expert at The Bed King.

Article source: https://www.tuck.com/simmons-beautyrest-mattress-reviews/

​

Let’s cut to the chase - here’s why you need to start shopping around for sleeper couches, Johannesburg, Cape Town - everyone who doesn’t have one yet.

You’ve Got Visitors Staying Over

You know how it goes. Whether you like it or not, you’ll be expected to host people over the June holidays and year-end festive season.

Whether it be just for lunch, or for a week thanks to your brother-in-law choosing the cheapest accommodation option (your house), chances are you’ll have to organise sleeping arrangements for one or two people.

With a sleeper couch in your lounge, your guests can go from sitting to sleeping in a matter of minutes – and they’ll have the television to entertain them through the night so you don’t have to!

You’ve Been Kicked Out of Bed

Gentlemen, we’re talking to you here!

We know the struggle; the dogs, cats, and even the African Grey decide to spend the night on your bed, leaving you just enough space to lie on your side with a cat’s bum in your face while you try to get to sleep.

Let’s face it – the tribe has spoken, and the island is just too small for the lot of you.

With a sleeper couch in your home, you’ll be able to rest easy in the living room while your significant other deals with the animal farm in your bedroom.

You Like a Good Movie Marathon

Picture this:
You arrive home late from work on a Friday night; it’s raining and the wind is threatening to uproot your entranceway pot plants.

Your significant other hasn’t taken anything out for dinner, which usually means take-outs are in order.
With a sleeper couch from Bed King positioned directly in front of your television, coupled with takeaways and a warm blanket, you have the makings of a perfect couch-cuddle movie marathon evening.

What’s more, should you fall asleep during the third Lord of the Rings, you won’t wake up with a crick in your neck come Saturday morning!


Article source: https://bedscapetown.wordpress.com/2018/10/30/reasons-why-you-need-a-sleeper-couch-in-your-living-space-before-the-next-holiday-period-rolls-around/​

Double XL: This bed is the same width as a Standard double but has an extra 12,7cm length that matches single XL, Queen and King size options.
Width: 137cm
Length: 203cm
Width Per Person: 67cm

You Might Choose Single if…

• You’re a petite adult or child. As we mentioned earlier, single-sized beds are sort of the next step up from a crib mattress. This could be a tight fit in both directions for an average adult and nearly impossible for a couple.
• You’re trying to save money. If you have room for a Double bed but can’t afford the frame, mattress, and sheets, you can consider a single (or a single XL for more length). The single will definitely be more affordable since you are saving on space. College dorm room beds are often single XL and there are good sales on bed sets during Back-To-School season.
• You need a bed for a smaller room. A single bed will look very small in a Master Bedroom (unless it’s a small bedroom). A single will probably fit well as a replacement for a crib in a nursery or a smaller room that maybe two people share – like a kid’s room.

Double If…

• You’re a couple and tight on space. Two people could technically sleep on a Double bed, but it would be a tight fit – with each person only getting the width of a crib for themselves. Consider a Double XL for an additional 5″ of length if that’s a Double is the widest option of your room.
• You’ve got a bigger room to fill. You’ll get an additional 12,7cm of width in a Double from a single or single XL, which will fill up space in a room better than a single or even a single XL bed.

You’re looking for something to grow into. The Better Sleep Council says that more people are choosing to skip a single or  single XL and go straight to a Double for their young children or their teens. The extra width leaves room for everyone to grow.

Things To Consider
There are a lot of reasons to choose either a single/single XL or a double/double XL. Planning ahead is going to be critical in making sure you pick the right one for your room. Here are some tips and things to think about before you make your next purchase.

• Measure your space and leave room for movement. If you are thinking about making the jump from a crib to a single or a Double,  make sure it fits it in your bedroom. This may seem obvious, but it’s easy to get caught up in an impulsive shopping moment and end up with a bed that doesn’t fit. An article from Th!ngz Contemporary Living says that most designers will recommend 76cm of space around your bed for movement.
• Consider who will be sleeping in the bed. Is this a new bed for your child? Something for the guest room? Will two people end up in this bed? All of these questions will be key to factor into your decision. If there’s a chance a couple will use the bed, think about going with a double (or double XL for extra length).
• Shop seasonally if you can. There are times during the year that mattresses and beds will go on sale. If you’re on a budget but want to upgrade to a bigger bed, it might be worth waiting to make a purchase during that time. The Bed King often has bed specials all year round - view their available range and double bed offers online.

Overall
A single or single XL bed could be the perfect fit for a smaller child’s room or college dorm or hostel. But if you’re a couple, a double bed (double XL) will be a better fit thanks to the 38cm of extra space. Both are affordable and often go on sale around Back-To-School time, so it’s worth keeping your eye out during sales and seeing if you can score a great deal on either.

Article source: https://www.mattressclarity.com/blog/full-vs-twin-beds-know/

​

Simmons Bedding Company is one of America’s oldest major mattress stores and manufacturers of mattresses and bedding products. Similar to many companies though, they had humble beginnings.

Founder Zalmon Simmons, a businessman based out of Kenosha, Wisconsin, was an entrepreneur with many interests. First, the owner of Kenosha’s general store. Besides that, he continued to own railway interests, a cheesebox factory, attempt to manufacture wooden telegraph insulators and be on the board of directors of the Western Union Telegraph Company. At one point, Zalmon even served as mayor of Kenosha and served in the Wisconsin State Assembly. A man of many ventures, but the bedding company is his most famous.

In 1870, an inventor whose name was lost to time owed Simmons for merchandise purchased at his general store. Instead of money, the inventor gave him a patent for a woven wire bedspring mattress. Simmons took the patent and developed the techniques needed to produce the mattress.

The Northwestern Wire Mattress Co. launches in 1884 from Simmons, later to become the Simmons Manufacturing Company in 1889. Thanks to refining the manufacturing of his woven wire mattresses, he dropped the product price from $12 to a mere 95 cents. That way, he made sure anyone could afford a comfortable mattress to sleep on at night.
​

Simmons Manufacturing Company gained to national prominence when the founder’s son, Zalmon Simmons Jr., took over the company in 1911. The company became Simmons Co. in 1915. Known for having a flair for advertising and showmanship, he would boost the company’s profile by perfecting the innerspring mattress and making it readily available to the public. This would be the first of his Simmons Beautyrest Mattresses.

HELP FROM THE FAMOUS
Thanks to endorsements from Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and George Bernard Shaw, the mattresses catapulted to fame. They even receive a listing on the New York Stock Exchange in 1924. For a time, Simmons became the biggest name in mattresses in the United States and was exploding into furniture and textiles.

Then the Great Depression came. The company’s stock dropped from $200 to less than three cents a share by 1932. Zalmon Simmons Jr.’s son, Grant Simmons Sr., took over in 1929 during this financial disaster and worked hard to build back up again.

Everything non-mattress related is then sold off. Hollywood stars and beautiful models start to advertise his mattresses. He even got the endorsement of Eleanor Roosevelt and furnished the White House with Beautyrest Mattresses. Even Air Force One was furnished with mattresses from Simmons, according to The New York Times.

WAR AID
By the time of the Second World War, they had recovered from the financial catastrophe. The company begins producing parachutes, cots and more for the war effort.

According to BedTimes Magazine, over 2,700 items to aid in the war were made by the 14 plants in North America.

After the war, the focus returned to mattresses and bedding. The family-owned company found continuous growth through until the 70’s.
​

The late 70’s and 80’s became hard for the mattress giant. The company moved their headquarters from New York City to Atlanta, GA. When money is lost in the 70’s, long-time CEO Grant decides to step down. Simmons Co. is bought and sold to a series of companies during the 80’s until it settles with Wesray Capital.

In an attempt to revitalize, Wesray Capital offered an employee stock ownership plan. Though the company still struggles with potential bankruptcy and legal action. From the same employees who found their stocks to be more worthless. Eventually, Westray had to sell to Merrill Lynch Capital Partners in 1991.

MORE MEMORABLE MATTRESS ADVERTISING
Revitalization came to the brand in the 90’s. Going back to their roots with memorable advertising for their Beautyrest Mattresses, as well as coming out with a new line, the BackCare Mattress. However, trades to various holding companies took its financial toll and saddled Simmons with an increasing debt load. It wasn’t until Ares Management, L.P. and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan bought Simmons and restructured their debt was there light at the end of the tunnel.

Today, Simmons remains part of Serta Simmons Holding, LLC, who also owns their chief rival Serta.
The mattress giant is responsible for many innovations in the mattress business. There was the innerspring mattress; previously a luxury handmade product refined over the years as the Beautyrest mattress and made accessible to the masses through their own manufacturing techniques. Celebrity endorsements were also unique for the mattress industry, and their 90’s advertisements showing a person dropping a bowling ball on a Beautyrest mattress without disturbing the neighboring pins showed how good the mattress could be.

As a testament to all of the resilience in the face of change, the Beautyrest mattress celebrated its 90th anniversary in 2015.

Make sure you get a Simmons night’s rest, every night - with a Simmons bed from The Bed King.

Article source: https://bedscapetown.wordpress.com/2018/06/19/the-humble-history-of-simmons-mattresses/
​

Actually this wasn’t such a bad pillow in that kapok is all natural, hypoallergenic and naturally antimicrobial – but it is lumpy and bumpy and flattens down, so offers poor support to the neck and shoulders. At boarding school aged 7, part of the morning ‘making the beds’ ritual was giving the pillows a good shake to get some loft back into them. Imagine 12 boys to a dormitory; the urge to pillow fight was too often irresistible, with kapok flying everywhere. And then big trouble from Matron McBride who was a lovely old duck, but handy with the strap.


Other popular fillings for pillows back then were also natural – cotton fibre and wool, both with similar properties to kapok - and feathers, which tended to include mainly larger feathers that scrunched and the quills poked through. Ouch.


Then, as I got into my teens, synthetic fibres invaded the world of pillows and have pretty much ruled ever since because, for less cost, synthetic fibres create more loft and comfort than natural fibres. The most commonly used fill fibre for pillows is polyester, which is produced directly from polymer, an oil derivative. Polymer is the end result of oil being ‘cracked’, then ‘oxidised’ with air, and hydrated.


Solid polyester fibre is quite dense and flattens quickly, so hollow fibre, imagine tiny miniature macaroni, was developed that resists flattening. From there companies like DuPont and Honeywell developed all kinds of polymer based fibres with two holes, three holes – all the way up to seven holes in each tiny fibre. Other innovations included siliconizing fibre in a bath treatment, to make it softer and further improve loft recovery; and crimping to make it frizzy. Fancy marketing names were applied to add extra sizzle. Think Dacron, Tencel, Modal, Coolmax, Tactel, Fortrel and most recently, Microfibre.


It was soon discovered that a big problem with fiberfill pillows is that they are a brilliant medium for cultivating bacteria. Almost unbelievably, after only 2 years use, over 30% of the weight of your pillow could be made up of bacteria, bed bugs, dust mites (and their faeces), fungi, mould and dead skin. How horrible. So manufacturers started spraying fibre with chemicals to combat bacteria, microbes and dust mites. Sanitized, Healthguard and Ultrafresh are well known registered brands of these chemicals, which vary in degrees of necessary toxicity - and are only effective for a limited amount of time anyway. The biggest pillow manufacturer in this country, Tontine, strongly recommends renewing fiberfill pillows every two years! 
​

Today over 95% of pillows sold in Australia are synthetic fibre filled. Some fibres obviously perform better than others and this is reflected in the price, but health issues aside, all fiberfill pillows lose loft after about two years and may still be reasonably comfortable, but no longer provide the required support to your head and neck.


By now my career had taken me from 25 years running a clothing business to a sourcing role in homewares which involved finding suppliers for finished goods and raw material componentry for various products including mattresses, manchester, quilts and pillows – under some of the best known and most loved brand names in Australia.


We marketed pretty much every type of pillow there is and my wife was delighted we were afforded a golden opportunity to discard our horrible Lada’s to try sleeping on every Rolls Royce model pillow there is. I was also exposed to years of extensive pillow research – and what a revelation that was!


Once you go past fiberfill there are three pillow types that stand out as being superior. Feather and down, memory foam, and latex pillows. They are all significantly more expensive – but well worth taking the leap (like most people, something I probably would never have done had I had to pay normal retail price).


Feather and down makes a great pillow so long as it is good quality and the feathers have been properly processed to remove any odour. This entails washing in very hot water umpteen times (no toxic chemicals).The best of these have three chambers with lovely soft down at top and bottom for comfort, and the middle chamber filled with small feathers for loft. Feather is naturally antimicrobial so there is no need for any nasty chemicals. They retain height very well, but the only drawback is they do need to be regularly fluffed up.


Health professionals like memory foam pillows. They sink inwards with the weight of the head to create neutral skeletal alignment and reduce pressure points. Then, almost by memory, they slowly return to normal height. They are long lasting, antimicrobial and hypoallergenic. Manufacturers love talking about how memory foam was developed by NASA scientists for the comfort of astronauts during space travel. Fans love them.


I am not a fan. Memory foam is visco polyurethane – an oil derivative. They are heavy. People can have difficulty breathing through the nose because their heads sink in so far. Memory foam cannot breathe so sleeps hot and has a chemical odour. They are simply not for me.


I have a great love for my latex pillow. I can’t sleep properly without it and take it on holidays. It can breathe so sleeps cool. It is antimicrobial, dust mite resistant and hypoallergenic. It will perform as good as new for about 15 years. Most of all it is wonderfully supportive and comfortable. Choose the height and firmness that best suits and you are away. You won’t look back. Trust me. Or if you don’t want to trust me, ask your chiropractor. The Bed King offers the best latex pillows to give you the best benefits of latex pillows.

Article source: https://www.tlclatexpillows.com.au/blog/Whats_the_deal/

​

I last purchased a mattress about six years ago. As I remember, it required a five-minute waltz around the British homewares store John Lewis, a bit of bouncing and some fairly animated discussion about springs per square centimetre vis-à-vis memory foam which, at the time, was considered rather common. Some were stuffed with horse hair or wool, which in days gone by would have required restuffing or “carding” by an experienced professional.

I walked away with something that cost the same as a second-hand car and strict instructions that I must turn it every month in order to preserve its unique temper. Needless to say, it hasn’t moved a millimetre since being hauled up the stairs and onto the bed frame.

I never expected to give any further thought to mattresses, but lately I have found myself besieged with urgent information on the subject. Every Tube carriage proliferates with signage advertising conical pocket springs, promising “the best night’s sleep of your life”; every podcast is interrupted by some sponsor blathering on about “Airgocell layers” and “viscoelastic memory foam”. I stay in glamorous hotels that offer “pillow menus”, and make decidedly non-glamorous stops in motels that boast of their “king-size Hypnos beds”.

Could it be that other people are getting a better night’s sleep than I? And on cheaper bedding, too? This has piqued my full attention.

The great mattress disruption probably began with the advent of start-ups such as the US-based Casper, and the UK’s Eve and Simba, all promising cheaper, sleep-optimised technologies in straight-to-consumer businesses, part of a drive to crack what is estimated to be a $15bn market. Sales have been brisk. Casper, which launched in 2014, has seen its revenues triple to $300m in its first three years and has since launched pillows and dog beds. According to Forbes, online mattress sales could soon account for more than 10 per cent of the market.

It’s telling that even a mattress, that dull old lump of sponge, is now an essential chapter in our ‘story’

Likewise, the beauty industry is burgeoning with sprays, potions and unguents designed to aid better sleep. Fashion has become newly taken with “loungewear” — another word for pyjamas worn during the day — which has been identified as one of the fastest-growing categories by the luxury retailer Matches.com.

The subject — and science — of sleep has possessed our cultural lives, too. Arianna Huffington has built a second empire based on her TED talk and now bestselling book The Sleep Revolution, in which she advocates for eight hours sleep by eliminating mobile phones from her “sleep sanctuary” (or bedroom) and lighting candles instead. And there are a bazillion new sleep aids, apps and gizmos designed to facilitate swift passage to the land of nod. They even gave the Nobel Prize to those dudes who unlocked the chronotype, elucidating the inner workings of the biological clock, and excusing our habit for sleeping until midday as part of our genetic birthright.

At a time when we’re getting less of it than ever, sleep has become a very sexy subject — the bed a fetish object. The “Sleep in America” survey, conducted in 2008, found that 44 per cent of those polled weren’t getting the average of seven hours and 18 minutes sleep a night they needed to feel “their best”. The UK-based Sleep Council says a third of Britons survive on five to six hours sleep a night.

But hang on a second. The temptation to cast westerners as the woefully sleep-deprived victims of a capitalist culture that allows us no rest seems a bit rich, does it not? We’re not working down the mines any more, after all, or currently being shelled. Moreover, a good part of this new sleep obsession is actually being funded by the very agencies flogging us the sleep aids in the first place.

In 2015, Casper, the mattress company, launched a media offshoot called Van Winkle’s to “make sleep journalism a thing”. According to Jeff Chapin, co-founder and chief product officer at Casper, their objective was not only to sell mattresses but to start a “narrative” so that sleep became “part of a lifestyle”. Last month Van Winkle’s was wound down to re-emerge as Woolly, an online magazine about comfort and modern life which, according to a spokesperson, “emerged from Casper’s founding philosophy that sleep — in addition to food and fitness — is the third pillar of wellness.”

Creating a narrative is one of the weirder, more pernicious trends in recent years, affecting everything we buy, from bananas to handbags. It’s telling that even a mattress, that dull old lump of sponge on which you throw yourself each night, has become an essential chapter in our “story” — something we’re willing to pay for because it expresses some aspect of a lifestyle we hadn’t realised needed expressing until now. Sleep, once considered to be a basic life-sustaining necessity, a daily event that, unless one suffers from insomnia or small children, occurs as naturally and inevitably as blinking has now become a commodified, luxury experience.

Here’s another story. It’s quite short but I think it too could transform your own sleep narrative. Want to get more shut-eye? Try going to bed a bit earlier and research the best beds available. The Bed King have a marvelous variety of beds - there’s bound to be one to suit your needs, as well as your pocket.

Article source: https://www.ft.com/content/92242fbe-eff0-11e7-b220-857e26d1aca4​