A new study has found that young people who are getting less than five hours sleep each night are tripling their chances of developing a mental illness.

The study, conducted by the George Institute for Global Health, surveyed around 20,000 Australians between the ages of 17-24.

Their results showed that the people sleeping less than five hours a night are three times more likely to become mentally ill than those sleeping for the recommended eight or nine hours.

The results were published in the journal Sleepwhich also connected sleep deprivation with cardiovascular disease and weight gain. Professor, Nick Glozier, the lead author of the study, said that the average amount of sleep for a young adult should be around eight to nine hours per night; however figures have shown that this has been decreasing over the past ten years.

“Over the past few decades young adults have been sleeping fewer and fewer hours, whereas the rest of us…have generally been sleeping more hours,” says Glozier.

“There is a whole bunch of gadgets that kids and young adults now have in their bedrooms that they never used to have.

“Yet of course they got to get up to go to school or go to college or go to uni at exactly the same time.

“So there is  group of them who are becoming more and more sleep deprived.”

Researchers discovered that half of those people surveyed who had less than six hours sleep per night had higher levels of psychological distress in comparison to around 25 per cent of those sleeping eight to nine hours each night.

“It’s those chronic mental health problems when you are an adolescent or you are a young adult, that lead onto the more important adult forms of the disorders, like major depressive disorder or bipolar disorder,” he says.

“So if we can do something around that group of people when they are beginning to become chronic or preventing those chronic, persistent problems then we may have  a really good target for an early intervention.”

A professor of youth mental health at the University of Melbourne, Dr Patrick McGorry, said that he thinks the results point out the effects of disturbance in chronobiology – the timing of biological rhythms.

“It might be a very important marker or risk factor that we can actually measure and help us with identifying people who are at particular risk for these problems,” says McGorry.

If you are struggling to get to sleep each night, make sure it is not your bedding that is giving you a hard time and visit Duvet and Pillow Warehouse today, the online duvet store who stock thousands of bedding products for your needs and requirements. From goose down duvets to memory foam pillows, you will find everything you need at the online bedding store, all at affordable prices.

We are still going strong with our Duvet and Pillow Warehouse sale, but our stock won’t be around forever so make sure you visit our online bedding store today for high quality bedding at affordable prices.

With up to 50 per cent off some of their top quality products you are sure to find everything you are looking for to furnish your bedroom to be comfortable, cosy and the place you want to be each night.

From 50 per cent off goose down quilts to fantastic savings on memory foam pillow products you are sure to find everything you are looking for that certainly won’t break the bank.

Our team can guarantee that our prices are the cheapest and you will struggle to find lower priced high quality bedding products elsewhere.

And it’s not just mega sale that you can get excited about.

Our team are giving customers an extra £10 off your overall price if you spend over £100 via our online store! The savings are endless!

And better still, if you are purchasing bedding products that cost over £50 you will find that you will receive free postage and packaging on your order.

For more information visit Duvet and Pillow Warehouse today, the place to be for all your bedding products.

After a long hard week in the office and many sleepless nights, many people think that a long lie in on a Saturday will help rejuvenate our worn out bodies.

Scientists, however, have said that having a catch up on your sleep that you loose during the week can often be a pointless task.

Restricted sleep – four hours or less per night – has been found to be cumulative and that little sleep each night is almost as bad for the body as having no sleep at all.

Even if it is just a couple of nights a week can completely affect how the mind works and one single night sleep will not immediately reverse this.

Lead researcher Dr Chiara Cirelli from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said, “There is a huge amount of interest in sleep restriction in the field today.

“Instead of going to bed when they are tired, like they should, people watch TV and want to have an active social life.

“People count on catching up on their sleep on the weekends, but it may not be enough. Even relatively mild sleep restriction for several nights can affect an individuals ability to perform cognitive tasks.

“For instance, recent studies in humans have shown that five days with only four hours of sleep each night result in cumulative deficits in vigilance and cognition, and these deficits do not fully recover after one night of sleep, even if ten hours in bed are allowed.”

Insomnia can also increase the bodies resistance to insulin and further lead to diabetes.

Dr Cirelli’s team studies how sleep deprivation on rats and recorded their slow wave activity (SWA) while they were asleep and awake. SWA indicates when an individual needs to sleep because the longer someone stays awak the higher the level of SWA.

Dr Cirelli explained, “Monitoring SWA levels during waking time is very important in understanding the whole picture.

“High SWA levels during periods of both sleeping and waking signal that you need to go to sleep.”

The research is expected to help scientists understand the harmful effects of sleep disturbance.

If you are looking for comfy bedding to keep you in the perfect slumber each night then visit online bedding store Duvet and Pillow Warehouse. From goose down quilts to memory foam pillows, there is something for everyone to ensure that you get the best sleep right through the night.

Women have been found to wake their sleeping partners up at night because they are jealous of their partners nodding off within moments of hitting the pillow.

Sleep envy – as it is known – can turn a lovely lady into a less than likeable partner.

Figures show that 1 in 4 women admitted to deliberately waking up their partner because they are jealous they aren’t able to fall asleep as easy.

The most common revenge is to simple toss and turn until their sleep-eyed partner wakes up.

The next wake up tactic is the ‘accidental’ poke or prod in the ribs.

Others used less than subtle tactics such as chatting until they got a reply, making a loud noise and even turning on the light or television.

One in ten actually confessed to pinching their partner to wake up.

The sleeping envy confessions came about after a poll was conducted about women and their sleeping habits. Around 25 per cent of the women took up to an hour to drop off, while most men said they fell asleep in under ten minutes.

A third of women said that they felt frustration at watching their partners effortlessly fall asleep while they toss and turn, leading to unnecessary arguments before bed.

“Not being able to sleep can be frustrating enough, bout our survey shows that it is made worse when you are next to someone who is sound asleep,” the Daily Mail quoted for Silentnight, which carried out the poll, as saying.

“However this sleep envy phenomenon is actually doing more harm than good and will only prevent you from getting to sleep longer.

“Sleepless Brits should try tiring themselves out by reading or having a warm drink in another room, so as not to disturb their partners,” he added.

If you are struggling to sleep at night you may want to consider changing your bedding to a more cosier duvet and pillow to ensure you are getting the most out of each night’s sleep. From memory foam pillows to goose down quilts the Duvet and Pillow Warehouse website has some fantastic bedding supplies on their dedicated online store.

We love bedrooms at Duvet and Pillow Warehouse and love to see what’s going on in the world of interior design and how people are furnishing and decorating their bedrooms.

From the modern to the contemporary look, we love it all and make sure we are updated with the latest styles and trends in the home interior world.

However with the good comes the bad, with the beautiful comes the ugly and with the creative comes the way out there designs.

While scouring the World Wide Web, we come across these rather wacky designs that we think are fab!

Outside looking outside

Two Brazilian artist lived like this for four months during 2009. Their bedroom featured a bed, hammock, sofa, potted plant, chest of drawers situated on the outside wall of a building in Rio de Janeiro. Luckily the pair didn’t expose all of their daily living and scrambled over the wall to use the bathroom in the neighbouring art gallery.

Bed in a box

A Japanese company designed this folding bedroom to allow apartment owners to make more space around their home. Designed for urban living, the idea was to fold down necessary furniture without compromising on form or functionality.

The rather bizarre but very practical design is a great way to create more space in a room, however we are not too sure how comfy those mattresses will be and would definitely have to opt for a memory foam pillow or memory foam mattress topper to sleep on each night.

Mirror room

From Propeller Island City Lodge in Berlin, this Mirror Room is diamond-shaped and lined top to bottom with mirrors created a kaleidoscope effect.

While rather cool and very retro, we are not too sure that waking up would be a easy task, especially having to see your own face in the morning staring back at you!

Whatever your style make sure that your room is super comfortable with a goose down duvet or memory mattress topper from Duvet and Pillow Warehouse.

The online duvet store has a wide selection of bedroom furnishings that are sure to suit your needs and requirements.

If you like to get into the groove before bedtime then the Sound Asleep Pillow is the perfect pillow for you.

The pillow is installed with a tiny speaker which allows you to listen to a few tunes before you go to sleep, a better solution that using headphones. The new pillow is a great idea for hypnotherapy or even to help learn a new language or even as background noise for those afflicted with tinnitus.

The pillow is a soft, round the neck style plush travel pillow with a speaker at either end and a little pouch to hide away a 3.mm jack. That way you can listen to an mp3 or iPod without it annoying the person next to you.

The funky design is the perfect travel accessory to ensure that you get a decent rest whether stuck on a plane, train or in a car or coach.

If you are looking for bedding accessories and furnishings including bed linen and pillows then why not take a trip to Duvet and Pillow Warehouse the online bedding store for all your bedding needs and requirements.

The team specialise in high quality products to suit their customers needs and requirements; and the best thing about it is that their products are all at affordable prices.

For more information and to view all of their products visit www.duvetandpillowwarehouse.co.uk

If you suffer from insomnia then drinking a glass of cherry juice twice daily, is the key to a decent night’s sleep.

The study by researchers at the University of Rochester in New York found that drinking unsweetened cherry juice in the morning and evening regularly helped people enjoy more sleep.

Dr Wilfred Pigeon, the psychiatrist who led the study said that the effect cherry juice has on patients could possibly be down to the fruit’s high content of melatonin – the hormone that regulates the body’s sleep-wake cycle.

In today’s society, insomnia has become one of the biggest health challenges with around one in four adults suffering from it and a fifth regularly getting fewer than five hours’ sleep each night.

The study saw an analysis of participants sleeping patterns on two phases. During the first, the volunteers drank cherry juice every morning and evening and in the second they were given a comparable fruit juice.

The results found that cherry juice led to an average of 17 minutes of more sleep.

Dr Pigeon, said, “Given the side effects of some medications it is encouraging to have a natural alternative.” Dr Russel Reiter, a melatonin expert at the University of Texas said foods like cherries may be a better alternative to boosting the body’s supply than supplements.

The study was published in the Journals of Medicinal Food. 

Whatever sleep problems you are having, why not make sure that it isn’t your bed linen, duvets or pillows and visit Duvet and Pillow Warehouse today for all your bedroom furnishing needs. The online duvet store has thousands of products on sale which will benefit you and your sleeping habits. For more information visit www.duvetandpillowwarehouse.co.uk.  

Zeo sleep coach

A new alarm clock-Zeo- has been developed to track brain waves during a persons sleep to help people learn how much they sleep and whether it is actually enough.

One 30-year-old-girl tested the alarm clock and her results weren’t entirely pleasing.

“You’re sleeping like a 50-year-old,” Michael Breus, a sleep expert on the scientific advisory board for Zeo, told me after reviewing my sleep data.

And according to a recent survey by National Sleep Foundation, half of Americans say they don’t get a good sleep, providing a perfect market for Zeo, the ‘personal sleep coach’ meant to help gauge and manage the quality of your Zs.

Using a sensor strapped to your forehead, Zeo measures brain waves while you sleep and wirelessly transmits the information to a bedside alarm clock, which displays a graph showing your sleep cycle.

When you wake from your slumber, the alarm clock tells you how much time you spent in each of the sleep phases; deep sleep, which is the most physically restorative; REM sleep, which is the best for mental rejuvenation; and light sleep, which fills in most of the rest of the night. The alarm clock tells you how many times you woke during the night, which you might not remember doing. It tells you how long it took for you to fall asleep and how long you slept for. All this information is then combined to produce a sleep quality score, called a ZQ.

The girl’s average ZQ over a seven-day period was 66, well below the average for 30-year-olds, which is meant to be 80. Breus said that it is on par with the average for a 50-year-old, which is 67.

“The biggest thing that my patients get from this is learning how important their bedtime is,” Breus, who runs a clinical sleep practice in Scottsdale, Arizona, and wrote the sleep book, ‘Good Night.’

And the next step for Zeo will be sleep coaching. Through email, a coach may advise you to get more excercise to boost deep sleep to cut back on caffeine and alcohol to improve REM or count back from 300 in threes to quiet a busy mind.

For $199 is Zeo worth it?

We at Duvet and Pillow Warehouse think it is a fantastic idea however we also believe that the right bed linen, duvet as well as mattresses play a massive part in getting a good night’s sleep.

If you are looking for some new duvets or pillows or fancy trying out a memory mattress topper then visit Duvet and Pillow Warehouse today.

Here at Duvet and Pillow Warehouse, we are passionate about bedding, duvets and pillows and love to know all the latest news and information about it.

From time to time, this blog features the latest bedding news stories, the latest offers on the website as well a some funny blog posts about some rather strange bedroom designs and accessories we have come across on the web.

Well as it’s a Monday and we need to brighten up everyone’s day, we have found some of the coolest bedrooms out there! Take a look!

For the author in you!

If you are an aspiring author or just love to have to have a good read at night, then why not get your very own book in a bed.

That way if you get a little bored in bed or can’t get to sleep, you can read a few lines off your quilt before heading to bed.

 For when you want to shut out the world.

We can’t really understand the logic in this bed other than the fact that this person likes his own private time, in the dark under a box occasionally held up by a stick.

Whatever takes your fancy I guess but I don’t think we would like being trapped in a box.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the animal in you.

If you have a bit of a wild side and like to let it out now and again, then this luxuriously rich bedroom design will be right up your street.

Not exactly the classic look, this bedroom is an adventurous way of getting people’s attention; and it certainly got ours!

Whatever your style or fashion just make sure that the bed linen and duvet covers you buy are comfortable and more importantly from Duvet and Pillow Warehouse.

The online duvet store has some fantastic top quality bed linen, pillows and duvets available for you to purchase, and all come at affordable prices.

For more information visit Duvet and Pillow Warehouse today.

British people are finding it difficult to fall asleep each night and have been advised by experts to deal with their stress levels in order to combat the problem.

The Sleep Council has said that stress is an inhibitor to getting a good night’s sleep as it does not allow the brain to switch off.

Jessica Alexander, a spokeswoman for the organisation explained that the body needs to relax and wind down in order to be able to fall asleep. She also added that sleep techniques which help people to relax can reduce insomnia.

“There are many ways but it is about what works best for you - everyone is different. Some people meditate, but the old case of counting sheep is based on good reasoning, ” Ms Alexander said.

“You do something so mundane and boring and it can block out other thoughts. Just don’t end up in bed and worry about not sleeping – that is the worst thing.”

Scientists at the University of Warwick published a report last month, suggesting that people who get less than six hours’ sleep a night are 12 per cent more likely to die prematurely than those who sleep between six and eight hours.”

If you are having trouble sleeping and night and put it down to your bedding and mattress, then visit Duvet and Pillow Warehouse today. The online duvet store has hundreds of pillows, duvets, towels, mattresses and bed linen for you to browse and purchase online today.

And while stocks last the site is throwing a massive sale with up to 50% off many of their items. Take a trip to Duvet and Pillow Warehouse today to grab some of the fabulous offers available.