We all know what it is like when it reaches early afternoon and you start to fall asleep at your desk in the office, especially after a  heavy night.

Study findings now show that a nodding off for a little catnap during the day can actually lower a person’s blood pressure and protect them against heart disease.

Researchers from Allegheny College in Pennsylvania, USA have revealed that having a 45 minute siesta provides a simple way of improving cardiovascular health.

The results follow reports that the average night sleep is now two hours shorter than it was half a century ago.

The experiment, which saw 85 students split into two groups, was published in Springer’s International Journal of Behavioural Medicine.

One group was given 60 minutes each day during which they could sleep whilst the other participants’ stayed awake during the day. They were all asked to complete a complex mental subtraction sub designed to raise blood pressure and cause stress.

Students who napped had significantly lower blood pressure rates during the post-activity recovery phrase than those who had no sleep.

The authors said the test proves the “recuperative and protective” benefits of a day time snooze.

So that’s set then; deploy a bed into your office for staff to nap on during their lunch breaks and just use a Memory mattress topper or Waterproof mattress protector to hygiene reasons.

Rather a disturbing story this morning, but it seems young prisoners at Forest bank Prison, in Salford, Greater Manchester are being tied up with bed linen and beaten by other inmates.

Revealed during an inspection, the attacks also known as ‘sheeting’, which were recorded on a number of occasions, have been condemned by the Chief Inspector of Prisons Nick Harwick as “serious bullying” which must stop.

It has been revealed that a young vulnerable man came forward and described how he was being tied up inside a duvet cover and ‘battered’ every night.

Mr Hardwick told the BBC: “A prisoner was forcibly put inside a duvet cover and the opening knotted so that he could not release himself while perpetrators carried out random acts of violence.

“Prisoners told us that it was common and we met a number of young people who had clearly been victimised in this way.

“We were concerned that for a small minority of prisoners, it was not at all safe and in some cases, prison officers on the wings had a passive attitude to bullying and unexplained injuries – however good the policies,” he added.

According to the report Forest Bank, a privately-run prison for adult and young adult men, had 1,424 inmates at the time of the inspection between June 29 and July 9.

The A1 wing was where most of the incidents of sheeting took place and inmates identified “serious concerns about their safety”, the inspectors said.

Now the chief inspector has called for the prison which is one of the largest jails in the UK, to investigate “the actual level of violence and bullying on A1 wing, use this information to inform the anti-bullying strategy, and work actively with prisoners to eradicate sheeting”.

Michael Spurr, Chief executive officer of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), said: “The issues about safety for some prisoners are however, a concern and they are now being urgently addressed by the director and his senior managers.”

Studies have revealed that pregnant women who have below five hours of sleep each night increase their chances of having preeclampsia – a serious pregnancy complication related to high blood pressures.

Maintaining a good night’s sleep while pregnant helps maintain the blood pressure at normal levels.

Pregnant women who are getting below six hours of sleep every night during the early stages of pregnancy have systolic blood pressure readings during the last trimester phase. The research found that this was almost 4mm/Hg higher than those women who get around nine hours of sleep each night.

However on the other hand, too much sleep can cause problems as women sleeping over 10 hours each night in their first trimester phase have a twofold increase in the chance of contracting preeclampsia.

1,272 healthy pregnant women took part in the survey.

The first interview was conducted during the first 14 weeks of gestation with their blood pressure periodically checked. Further information on their health and lifestyle as well as sleeping habits was also reported.

They found that the duration of sleep each night did not have an impact on the blood pressure in the first and second trimesters of pregnancy; however it was in the third trimester the effect became more prominent.

It is highly important that pregnant women stay as comfortable as possible when they sleep each night. To do this purchasing high quality bedding products is a sure fire way to ensure a comfortable environment while you sleep. You can find a wide range of duvets and pillows as well as supportive memory foam mattresses and memory foam pillows via the duvetandpillowwarehouse.co.uk website. Their products are of a high standard and all set at affordably low prices.

Canadian scientists have discovered that sleeping pills cause underlying health problems, such as depression, alcohol addiction as well as smoking.

The study looked at data for over 12,000 people who had been taking pills ranging from weak antihistamines to prescription-only Valium over 12 years.

Researcher Genevieve Belleville, writing exclusively for the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, said, “These medications aren’t candy and taking them is far from harmless.”

The team of scientists discovered that the risk of death increased by 36 per cent if sleeping pills were taken.

The study did not look into how many tablets someone needed to take for it to have a detrimental effect on their health, however it did outline how dangerous pill-popping actually is.

The pills proved that patients could see an increased risk of falls, grogginess, as well as a danger of suicide due to the over use leading to exacerbate depression.

Professor Jim Horne, of Loughborough University, was very sceptical over the results, suggesting that other health factors can also affect the life expectancy of the people studied.

He told the Daily Mail, “It is all very well saying people who take these, die, but one has to ask what happens if these people don’t take sleeping tablets.”

If you are struggling to sleep at night then you need to get in online to Duvet and Pillow Warehouse today. The online duvet store has a wide range of goose down duvets and memory foam pillows as well as a wide range of other bedding products that are sure to benefit you when you sleep each night.

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.

Many people think a bed is just a ‘bed’, something which you fall into at the end of a long day, and fall out of first thing in a morning.

A luxury mattress will offer true edge to edge comfort in a different way to a normal mattress, it will offer comfort and support for the joints and helps for the perfect restful sleep.

Also, the materials a luxury mattress are made from will be skin sensitive which will keep you cooler in summer and warm in winter.

A great way to preserve the high quality of a luxury memory foam mattress is to turn the mattress, you should feel a more consistent and softer comfort, this will preserve the foam to allow it to continue to contour the body and support any joints and relieve any pain.

These types of mattresses are becoming very popular with athletes who suffer from sports injuries and problems with weak joints, the duvet and pillow warehouse have a large selection of mattresses like this and will be able to give you advice on which will be the best for your specific needs.