As anyone with young children knows only too well, sleep is the holy grail. I can’t think of any time in the last four years that I haven’t craved more of it, and I probably spend a good proportion of my waking hours moaning about not having had enough of it and dreaming about when I can get some more.
Because of this obsession with all things sleep-related, I reckon I have become rather an expert about how to optimise my chances of a good night’s kip. I even compare notes with friends so I can store up their sleep tips to implement into my own routine. How you like to arrange your sleeping space is a very personal thing – some people need complete darkness, others like to wake up to natural light – but these are the top ten things that help me see myself off to the land of nod:
- Get the bedroom space right
- Keep on top of clutter
- Use blackout fabric for window dressings
- Invest in good bedding and bed linen
- Turn the phone off in the bedroom
- Read before going to sleep
- Make earplugs your friend
- Go to loo before settling down for the night
- Make sure you’re warm enough
- Keep an eye mask by your bed to put on if you wake at dawn
When The Fine Bedding Company offered me some help with number 4 on my list, ‘Invest in good bedding and bed linen’, I couldn’t wait to get their advice. After answering some questions about my sleep experience, their sleep expert recommended a duvet they thought would help me get a better night’s sleep. The biggest problem with our old duvet was that I was generally cold in bed, whereas my husband Ben was always too warm. He used to throw off the duvet and it would end up bunched up, annoying both of us. Plus, Ben works nights so regularly has to sleep during the day and finding a duvet to suit both daytime and night-time sleep is tricky.
The duvet that The Fine Bedding Company sent to me to review was their brand new Breathe product (available instore now and online from April 2014), from their range of synthetic duvets. It’s billed as “clever climate control bedding” and is designed to regular a person’s temperature to their optimum throughout the night for the best sleep. The 10.5 tog duvet turned up at the perfect time – just as the nights were getting colder. I was really impressed with the fact that the duvet arrived in a smart bag, rather than a box. This meant I could stuff my old duvet into the bag and store it away more easily.
The duvet itself is like those plush duvets you get in good hotels. Gorgeously fluffy and luxurious, without being so heavy it pins you to the bed. It makes it a real pleasure to climb into bed in the evening (in fact, I can frequently be found sneaking into bed to check my emails during the day, too). But did the Breathe duvet live up to it’s “climate control” claims? Both Ben and I have definitely noticed that we haven’t been too hot or too cold overnight. The duvet hasn’t been thrown off by Ben, and I adore snuggling into it, thanks to the fluffiness of the filling. It would appear that the temperature-regulating properties are doing their job.
One of our first big purchases together when we bought our first house was investing in a good-quality mattress. That made a huge difference to my quality of sleep, and I think that getting the duvet right is another major element that shouldn’t be overlooked. In retrospect, we haven’t hit the mark before, but I think the Breathe duvet has made us realise how much the right bedding can improve your sleep. It gets a major thumbs up from us, and I can’t wait to be able to spend a leisurely morning reading the papers in bed, instead of being woken before it’s even light by two full-of-energy four-year-olds. I’ll keep on dreaming.
In the meantime, I highly recommend you head over to consult the sleep expert on The Fine Bedding Company’s website to find out what duvet they’d advise for you.
I was sent the Breathe duvet by The Fine Bedding Company free of charge for the purposes of this review, but my opinions remain completely honest.
Leave a Reply