Before you go to bed there are things you can do to ensure a more comfortable and relaxing sleep. Make sure your mind, body and your bedroom are optimised for a great sleep by keeping a tidy room, resulting in a tidy mind.

If you feel like you can’t find the time to read that book from last Christmas, or you haven’t had chance to catch up on your favourite TV programme, putting your room in order could save valuable time, allowing you to make time for the more enjoyable things in life.

If you can make cleaning up your bedroom a regular habit in a similar way to brushing your teeth you will have considerably more time to get some good shut eye.

Keeping a tidy home does not only give you more time, it can help you be more productive, leaving you more time to enjoy your social life. Waking up to a tidy and organised bedroom by reducing that never ending clutter is a great way start to the day, clearing the mind for the day ahead at the workplace.

The environment around you can have a strong effect on your mind, thus if your room is a mess it is likely that your mind will be too. Tidying your bedroom could make you feel more positive about life, as a wonderfully clean room can make you feel extremely satisfied and content.

Even changing your bed covers, duvet and pillows for new and fresh ones can make a huge difference and will affect your sleep, allowing you to go to bed feeling energised and reinvigorated.

For a head start with your tidy room, tidy mind regime, why not visit the Duvet and Pillow Warehouse to refresh your room with bedding of the highest quality.

Give your bedroom a fresh look for the summer with our fantastic light linens, cottons and decorative bedding products.

Brighten the room up to correspond with the airy outdoors and beaming sunshine by ditching that old heavy duvet and swapping for a lightweight one that won’t overheat you during the night.

Ditch those old pillows you’ve had for years and get some quality cushions from Duvet and Pillow Warehouse; they are perfect to rest upon during the soaring heat without getting all hot and bothered.

Lightening and updating the décor is a sure-fire way to bring out the warm aura so why not opt for summer colours like blues, whites, greens, yellows and oranges?  Even simple neutral colours can be effective but watch out for those streaky tan marks in case you try to fake it this summertime!

Replace the duvet cover with a fabric that swings for the season and use a Waterproof mattress protector all year round to ensure health and hygiene. Swap heavy patterns for floral designs, vintage prints, nautical themes and stripes to really bring the bedroom alive and put away those woolly throws for another six months.

Get a sound sleep with bedding that enables you to breathe with The Duvet and Pillow Warehouse and get blooming ready for the warm weather and heat waves.

Sometimes the food that we eat before we go to bed can affect how quickly we fall asleep.

If you struggle to nod off when your head hits the pillow then it may be down to your diet and choice of food that you’re eating in those few hours beforehand.

Consuming certain foods can help you sleep better though and improve the quality of sleep.

Here at Duvet and Pillow Warehouse we care about you getting a good nights rest, so here are the top 10 foods to munch on to help you drift off…

Almonds: They contain magnesium which promotes both sleep and muscle relaxation.

Bananas: An excellent source of magnesium and potassium, which can help relax overstressed muscles.

Oatmeal: A warm bowl is rich in calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, silicon and potassium, all important nutrients that support sleep. But go easy on sweeteners as too much sugar can have an anti-calming effect.

Hard-boiled egg: High in protein, this satisfying snack can help you stay asleep.

Edamame: Especially helpful for women who are dealing with menopause-related sleep symptoms; the natural estrogen-like compounds found in soy based products can help control those night time hot flashes that can disturb sleep.

Cherries: Whether frozen, dried, fresh or in juice form, researchers found that they naturally boost the body’s supply of melatonin.

Cereal: A small bowl of whole-grain cereal that’s low in sugar may also help you sleep soundly.

Chamomile tea: This is one of the oldest garden herbs which was considered a universal remedy in ancient Egypt as it has a relaxing effect.

Honey: Recent studies have discovered that glucose, like the one contained by honey, can stimulate the brain to reduce alertness.

Flax seeds: These little seeds are rich in omega 3 fatty acids, acids that act as natural mood lifters. So, when you are a lot on your mind that is preventing you from drifting off, these seeds should be considered as an antidote.

As well as being careful what foods to eat, it is also important to have good quality Pillows, Duvets and bedding to get a good night sleep.

We all know what it can be like going back to work or school after the Christmas holiday; a bore.

This is especially the case with regards to getting your-self back into the routine of waking up early and going to bed at a reasonable time.

So you can imagine that this might be a tad little bit harder for those grumbling adolescents who want to sleep in all day and do nothing.

Here are some top sleeping tips for parents and your teenagers living at home, to avoid the annoying effort of trying to drag them out every morning.

• Talk to your kid about the importance of sleep and the need for at least eight hours’ of sleep on school nights.
• Encourage regular exercise; at least 20 minutes three times a week will help them fall asleep better.
• Suggest a reduction of caffeine intake that means drinking fewer fizzy drinks such as coke as well as coffee.
• Show them that eating too much or too little close to bedtime can an over fill or empty the stomach which prevents sleep onset, or causes discomfort throughout the night.
• A bed routine, doing the same things in the same order before going to sleep every night, can help sleep patterns.
• Have a good sleep environment: a room that is dark, cool, quiet, safe and comfortable makes a relaxing atmosphere.
• A comfortable bed is extremely important to a good night’s rest as is fresh clean bedding.
• As well as a bed mattress and bedding, a good quality Duvet and Pillow ensure a peaceful sleep.

It has been reported that habits learned in adolescence often become lifetime habits; so make sure good sleep habits are learned early with value-for-money Goose down quilts at Duvet and Pillow Warehouse.

We all know how frustrating it can be and what it is like to not be able to nod off at night time.

The tossing and turning; getting up and pacing your bedroom or putting a film on; but nothing works.

No matter how sleepy you are, for some reason you just can’t shut your eyes and dream.

So here are some top tips to get a good rested night sleep…

 - Bath Before Bedtime

A hot bath can be a great remedy for sleeplessness!  You might think that raising this temperature in a hot bath is what triggers your body into feeling sleepy but in fact, it is the cooling down that occurs when you get out of the bath that makes you sleepy. If you’re having trouble sleeping, try having a warm bubble bath about an hour before bedtime.

- Insomnia

Insomnia is in which a person has very erratic sleeping patterns. Hundreds of people in the UK struggle with the condition and once the body is in the irregular pattern, it can be very hard to break.

Sleep restriction therapy is one potential method, in which you spend less time in the bedroom. The aim of this treatment is to make the subject so tired that their body will be forced to re-establish a normal sleeping pattern.

- The Art Of Napping

Napping is a fantatic way of boosting energy levels, and no matter what people say you are never too old to nap. Naps are most effective when taken in the afternoon between two and five and the best nap duration is 30 minutes. Apparently, your body will naturally resist attempts to nap between seven and twelve o’clock in the morning, and between six and eight o’clock in the evening.

- How to Stop Snoring

It’s estimated that 15 million Britons snore. It can be linked to serious health conditions and as it can affect the sleep of more than just the sufferer, it can have a negative effect on relationships. It is due to the muscles controlling our airways relaxing, causing the air passage to narrow. As a result, when we breathe the soft tissues in the mouth, nose and throat vibrate, which we then hear as snoring. Nose strips can be used to help the problem. Alternatively, mouth guards can prevent the tongue from falling to the back of the mouth.

- Don’t Mess With Your Sleep Cycle

A good night’s rest is usually an indicator that the body has undergone five specific stages of sleep, drowsy, drop off to sleep, deep sleep and Rapid Eye Movement. The best way to ensure you have the right mixture of sleep stages is to avoid caffeine and alcohol before sleeping, as they can distort the natural sleep pattern, and ensure that you sleep for between seven and nine hours every night.

- Eat To Sleep

In recent months the Hacker publication decided to compile a list of 2,600 words that are restricted by Google Instant.

Yes the new web giant’s Google Instant Search feature won’t work with certain words unlike its big brother Google.

Their intentions are simple. To not allow anyone to see pornographic or violent results they may find disturbing unless they really are searching for them. They are more specifically in place according to Google’s Johanna Wright to protect children.

However Google has opened a can of worms in the PR World because many of the omissions will be at vest bewildering and at worst offensive to particularly sensitive users who do not understand how Google Instant actually works.

So when you type a word into Google that is on the restricted list, it will ask you to confirm that you actually want to search for these types of results before it gives you any. You can still search for certain terms, it just means that Google stops reporting results on the fly and you must further hit ‘enter’ to see any results.

Google Instant is designed to remember your previous searches and results and predict what you are going to type. It’s the same algorithm that handles auto-complete or the Google Suggest pop ups in the original Google search.

So basically it goes a bit like this. If you type in the word dirty pillows or dirty duvets and you are genuinely wishing to find out how to perfectly wash dirty pillows or duvets then Google Instant will certainly stop showing you results because they don’t want to show you anything dirty…if you catch my drift.

So next time you are looking to wash some clothes, try and think of a more inventive and appropriate way to write it in Google Instant search bar, else you never know what might come up!

Dieters can improve their chances of losing weight if they get a good sleep each night.

Sleeping well not only increases fat loss for the dieter, it also helps control feelings of hunger.

The study conducted by the University of Chicago was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The research studied ten people aged 35-49 years old, ranging from overweight to obest who were placed on a calorie restricted diet.

The ten volunteers underwent a fortnight where they spent eight and a half hours in bed each night and getting an average of seven hours and twenty five minutes of sleep. They also went a fortnight where they were given give and a half hours in bed with an average of five hours and 11 minutes of sleep each night.

Results revealed that dieters lost the same amount 6.6lb or around 3kg during each 14 day session, if they had a full night’s sleep or less.

However if they got adequate sleep then more than half of their weight loss was fat in comparison to only a quarter when they cut back on sleep. Having a good night’s sleep allowed for them to control their hunger.

Average levels of ghrelin, a hormone that triggers hunger and reduces energy expenditure, didn’t change when dieters spend eight and a half hours in bed. When they spend five and a half hours in bed, their ghrelin levels in all dieters rose over the two weeks.

Most people are unhappy about their weight and around 90% of us have tried some sort of diet at some point, to fail miserably and even resulting in actually gaining weight!

But a recent study has proven that there may be a very simple reason as to why some of us struggle to loose weight and keep it off, and this is lack of sleep. This study has shown that lack of a good night sleep can increase hunger and affect your body’s metabolism, which will make it hard to maintain weight loss or lose weight in the first place. 

This is because sleep loss makes you feel hungry even if you are full, this is because it affects secretion of cortisol, which is the hormone that regulates your appetite, so people who get less sleep will still feel hungry even after they have eaten enough food.

Lack of sleep can also increase your fat storage, and this will also interfere with the body’s metabolic rates, causing you to store carbohydrates which will turn into fat and also increase your blood sugar levels – all of these side affects just from not getting a good eight hours?!

What better excuse do you need to get yourself to the duvet and pillow warehouse pillow sale and duvet sale to ensure you are as comfortable as possible and get the eight hours sleep that we all need!

If you loose weight it is a fact that it can improve your sleep pattern, as well as your partner’s if you have a problem with snoring… after losing weight there was a reduction in snoring from a massive 82% to just 14%!

So there you have it, forget spending hours at the gym, and just snuggle up under your duvet for a great night sleep whilst losing weight!

We all know how important sleep is and how it effects us if we don’t get enough, we struggle with work, and find it hard to focus and life in general just feel like hard work!

Sometimes we wish we could live without sleep, it takes up so much time, and we miss out on so many other things we could be doing whilst we are asleep, but it is still essential that we get 8 hours of rest each night, so staying out clubbing and drinking until 3am and being up at 7am for a lecture isn’t such a great idea, but if you are a student, or have ever been a student you will be very aware that this happens, and for most students very regularly.

And when most sleeping problems occur when alcohol is involved, whether this be from being knocked out and dead to the world whilst sleeping off a monster hangover, or being wide awake due to too much vodka and red bull, the duvet and pillow warehouse will try their best to give you little snippets of information regarding sleep problems to ensure you enjoy the best night sleep, even at the weekends…

If your not completely tired and you have things on your mind you will struggle to drift off into dreamworld naturally, so our advice is that if you have been led awake whilst trying to fall asleep for more than 30 minutes, the best thing to actually do it get up… no we haven’t gone mad, we did say, get up!

Try to do something calm and relaxing, such as reading a book or having a nice warm drink, anything that doesn’t cause any mental strain that will make you brain even more active, and make sure the light in your room is low, even just have a candle lit, and after a while you should start to feel tired and drowsy so thats when you should return to your bed and peacefully drift away to the land of nod.

As you probably can tell, we love duvets and pillows. Some say we are a little bit obsessed and need to get a life, but we feel this is our life and we are really reluctant to change!

You may think, ‘Oh my days, I wouldn’t want to be friends with this lot, they sound really boring;… but we think you should be our best friend as we give you the best advice and products to make sure you have the perfect night sleep each and every night.

Sometimes we write funny articles, other times we write informative articles, really anything that takes our fancy, but we always have our customers in mind and want to make you laugh out loud, feel fully informed and in the know about the world of duvets, pillows and bedding.

Well as it is Friday, and the weekend is here, we want you to have a bit of a laugh about the world of duvets and pillows and have found some rather strange bedding concoctions that we have found on the web.

Coffin Bed

Sleeping in a coffin is some people’s idea of fun, but it definitely isn’t ours. However someone mental person out there has made a coffin bed which costs as little as $4,000. Bargain!

What is even more disturbing is that ‘locks and latches’ are available at an added price. Lovely!

Funky Eye Mask

All you will need is a piece of ’self-adhesive’ black felt, a hot glue gun, some satin, and a selection of decorations including sequins and glittery puff paint, throw it all together and you have your own Funky Eye Mask! Gosh, we feel like we are on Blue Peter, except without the ‘Here’s one we made earlier’ because our first attempt was rubbish!

Floating Bed

The other night I was dreaming about a $1.5 million dollar magnetic floating bed for my bedroom, woke up the next day and found the exact one I was looking for the web!

As If!

The floating bed is tethered down with four cables to prevent your bed from floating out and taking a spin, with the bottom of the mattress is covered with enough magnets to keep almost 2000 pounds floating in the air.

To be honest the concept is pretty cool but we like to keep our feet on the ground and keep to what we know best! Yes you can call us boring but do you have $1.5 million in your back pocket! We think not!

However, if you do, we think it would be money well spent if you visit www.duvetandpillowwarehouse.co.uk to buy all of your bedding products. As the winter season approaches you need to keep super warm during the chilly season and the best way to do that is with Duvet and Pillow Warehouse who have some fabulous winter discounts on offer on all their duvets and pillows.