Category - Well-being
What is the best mattress for allergy sufferers?
A hypoallergenic mattress is the best. It prevents dust mites from penetrating the surface and settling inside the mattress. The anti-bacterial cover provides a clean and healthy sleeping environment. Dial a Mattress offer a silver active mattress which has a special fabric with hypoallergenic properties.
Well-beingHow to fall asleep when you’re not tired?
A number of us find it hard to fall asleep at a reasonable time, we know that we need to be up the next morning, or even don't want to lose half the day sleeping in, we just can't fall asleep counting those sheep. So how can we get ourselves to sleep even when we aren't that tired? There's a number of tricks that you can try, and while some may not work for you, finding the right combination can leave you feeling refreshed the next morning. The biggest impact on falling to sleep in the modern day is technology. We are using technology right up to bedtime, from TVs to phones our eyes are open and glued to a blue screen. Setting a time to put down these gadgets and turn off any screens can help our brains slowly relieve pent up energy. Pre-bedtime, after your screens are off, find something to use up the last of the day's brainpower. Pick up a book, or some simple puzzles, word searches are great, and use a dimmer light, preferably not LED or bright white. Ensure that your room is at an optimum temperature. Keep your room between 60–67°F (15.6–19.4°C) to regulate your body temperature throughout the night. You can also adjust your bedding to suit the temperature outside. Colder nights need thicker duvets and more blankets, whereas summer nights might reduce you to a single sheet rather than a duvet. Avoid looking at your clock while you are trying to fall to sleep. Noting the time when you open your eyes can have you calculating how much sleep you will get if you were to fall straight to sleep. This will have your brain working overtime. We should all know this, but just in case, avoid naps. Napping during the day will mean that you are not as tired at night. Napping can have you fall into a cycle of that nap during the day, leading to less sleep at night and needing that nap again the next day. Watching what you are eating/drinking and when can help you to find sleep easier than before. Avoiding caffeine and alcohol after a certain time can ensure that its levels are reduced by the time it comes to falling to sleep. Eating healthier overall can help your body feel comfortable and at ease, meaning that you are not kept awake by painful night time encounters brought on by processed foods. Standard advice it to eat your evening meal before 8pm at the latest, but ideally around 6pm. Exercising your body during the day can help you to feel more tired when it comes to bedtime. Not only does exercise help you to be healthier, but it also releases feel-good endorphins and uses up your energy, allowing you to fall into a deeper sleep. Ensuring that you have an appropriate and comfortable mattress will also help you to fall to sleep quicker than one you cannot get comfortable on.
Well-beingHow many calories do you burn when your sleeping?
A person burns 0.92 calories for every kg in one hour of sleep. This will vary with your metabolic rate, so someone that is very active during the day, will also use up more energy when they are asleep.
Well-beingHow often should you change your bed sheets?
Weekly or every other week, although allergy sufferers may need to change their sheets as often as every day. If you are sick or the sheets are soiled these should be changed immediately.
Well-beingHow can I naturally sleep better?
Finding yourself wide awake hours after you planned to be asleep? There are a number of ways to naturally help yourself to get a better night's sleep. Firstly, ensuring that you have the right mattress for you can help to have a big impact on your sleep, or indeed how quickly you can drift into the land of nod. Find yourself a mattress that supports your back whilst offering you the comfort you need to settle down with ease. Ensure that you pair this with the right bedding, including lighter duvets in summer to reduce overheating. If your home is warm throughout the night in winter, you may not need a winter duvet, as you will find yourself unable to cool down.You may find that you cannot fall to sleep easily due to your lifestyle. Unfortunately, this is where you may need to listen a little closer to the advice of healthcare professionals. Ensuring that you are healthy physically will help you to get a better night's sleep. Having a healthy diet, cutting down on alcohol and stopping smoking are all ways to help improve your sleep. A good amount of exercise each day will also help to encourage deep sleep, we aren't saying you need to train for a marathon, light exercise will be enough. Reducing your screen time coming up to your bedtime will also help to improve how quickly you fall asleep. The blue light of your screen keeps your brain active, meaning that even after you switch your devices off, your brain is awake and working in overdrive, meaning you can't fall straight to sleep. Give reading or a crossword puzzle a go so as to avoid screens.If you find yourself requiring a new mattress more suited to you, head over to our mattresses page to see what we have that will be right for you. If you require more information on our mattresses please contact us today and a member of our expert team will be happy to assist you.
Well-beingHow Do I Get a Great Night's Sleep This Winter
It probably doesn’t need to be said, but getting a good night’s sleep is incredibly important. Not only does the amount of sleep you manage to get directly affect your productivity the next day, but sleep is very important for your health, too. This is particularly important during the winter, when the lack of light can interfere with your circadian rhythm and make getting rid of illnesses much harder. But despite the importance of getting a great night’s sleep, it can be very difficult. Sometimes we have stress and responsibilities that keep us from falling into a deep enough sleep, other times we just don’t have time required to get a great night’s sleep. In order to help you get that all important good night’s sleep, Dial a Mattress have put together this handy how-to-guide. Get the Temperature Right The first thing you should think about is the temperature. Whether you have a single bed, a memory foam mattress, or a king size bed, the thing that most dictates the quality of your sleep is the temperature of your body at bed time. According to webMD, body temperature tends to fall as night time approaches and tends to lose temperatures as the night continues on. As a result, you’ll want to make sure that you’re warm enough before going to bed. There are three ways of doing this (that don’t involve keeping the heating on all night). Thicker Bedding The first of these involves using thicker bedding or using multiple blankets in order to keep you from getting cold. Multiple sets of bedding help to keep heat from escaping while also creating a seal against cold night air. Invest In An Electric Blanket The next step you could take to improve the temperature in your bedroom is to invest in an electric blanket. Electric blankets work just like smaller heating pads: they have a small insulated wire within the electric blanket that heats when plugged in. Electric blankets are a great way of keeping warm during the winter. But while electric blankets are great, they can also be expensive, and they are not always ideal. Depending on the layout of your home, you may not have an electrical plug nearby which to power the blanket. As well as that, you may not be comfortable with having a live electrical product over yourself while asleep. Hot Water Bottle If any of those are applicable to you, then your next option is to use a hot water bottle. Hot water Bottles are a fantastic solution to keep you warm during the winter months for a number of reasons. The first is that you always have total control over how warm they are, and there’s no chance that they will get hotter than you are comfortable with. Furthermore, because they’re passive (in the sense that they don’t need any more heat or power once they’re hot. As a result, hot water bottles are a great choice for people looking for a low-cost heating solution that can be easily controlled. Look After Yourself But making sure you're at the right temperature isn’t the only thing you should keep in mind when trying to improve your sleeping experience. The other extremely important thing you should keep in mind is how you treat your body. Use the Right Fuel It’s been well known for years that what you eat and drink has a drastic effect on your ability to fall asleep. Cheese, for example, has been known to cause nightmares. But if you want to get a great night's sleep, the best thing to drink is to drink a milk-rich drink, such as warm milk or hot chocolate while also avoiding caffeine. Caffeine is a known stimulant that impedes the brain’s ability to relax Keep a Consistent Sleep Schedule Next, you should make sure that you have a consistent sleep schedule. This is because your body is set to a specific sleep schedule, and if that sleep schedule is interrupted or thrown off -- say, by a randomised sleep schedule -- then it can have a seriously negative effect on your energy levels during the following day. Get a Quality Mattress From Dial A Mattress This November For the best results this winter, you should order yourself a quality mattress from DIal a Mattress. We carry a wide range of mattress sizes and mattress types, from pocket spring mattresses to orthopedic mattresses. For more information on our range of mattresses, get in touch with us today.
Well-beingWhat Happens When We Fall Asleep?
Sleep is, to be honest, a pretty strange experience. One second we’re conscious, somewhat active, able to think. The next moment we’re not -- our mind has fallen into unconsciousness and we are now unable to move. It’s pretty strange. From childhood, we’re taught that sleep is a way of resting after a busy day, and this is true to an extent. However, we’re rarely taught what happens when we fall asleep. The truth is that sleep impacts a wide variety of systems throughout the body, including our brains. In this short article, we’ll be going over the effects of sleep on our bodies. Our aim will be to give you an idea of just how important a good sleep pattern is for your overall health. The Brain By far, sleep’s biggest effect is on the brain. Normally, we think of sleep as the time when the brain relaxes, but this isn’t necessarily true. In fact, the brain is arguably even more active during the active part of the sleep cycle than it is when we’re awake. Light Sleep During the first stage of sleep, the so-called Light Sleep stage, your brain is still processing information, much as it does when you’re awake. In this stage, the brain moves memories from the short term memory to the long term memory and processes and processes the most information. As such, it’s best to think of the Light Sleep period as the after hours at a shop -- the time where the staff sort out displays and sort out new stock, ready for the next day. During the next stage, the intermediate stage of sleep, your brain starts to slow down its processing and starts to prepare for the next stage of sleep. Deep Slow Wave Sleep Stage The next stage of sleep is defined as Deep Slow Wave Sleep. During this stage of sleep, you get the most rest as your brain waves start to slow down. However, with this comes the caveat that being woken up from this stage of sleep means that you’re far more likely to feel groggy and suffer from the effects of sleep deprivation. This is because Deep Slow Wave Sleep is the stage wherein you’re most tired. Rapid Eye Movement Stage The final stage of the sleep cycle is called the REM or Rapid Eye Movement stage. This is the stage where we dream. This is the stage where your memories are truly fixed in your long term memory and given context; where they are modified and where your brain cogitates your new memories. The Rest of the Body But your brain isn’t the only organ that’s affected by sleep. The truth is that the rest of your body is effected, too, Your Body is flooded by Hormones To start, sleep releases multiple hormones into your bloodstream. The first is melatonin. Your brain starts to manufacture this hormone just after it starts to get dark. When you are ready to fall asleep, your brain releases it into your bloodstream -- causing sleep. Melatonin regulates your sleep pattern, putting you to sleep at night and waking you up in the morning. Another hormone released during sleep is Cortisol, which is part of the body’s stress management system. This hormone increases the amount of sugars in your bloodstream, enhances your brain’s use of glucose, and ultimately helps to repair tissues. Another pair of hormones released during sleep are Leptin and Ghrelin. These two hormones regulate your appetite -- Leptin suppressing it and Ghrelin increasing it -- and are to blame for why you normally wake up feeling hungry. Without Leptin, your body would have no way of monitoring its own fat levels. As a result, you would experience a near constant hunger as your body would have no way of knowing how much it actually weighs. Likewise, without Ghrelin you would never experience hunger regardless of how long it had been since you actually ate. The next hormone released during sleep is Somatropin -- the human growth hormone. This hormone helps to regulate body shape in adults and help young people to grow. A deficiency in this hormone causes numerous issues, including: Depression Anxiety Decreased sexual function Fatigue Lack of strength Reduced bone density As well as a host of others. Muscles During sleep, your muscles relax as Cortisol floods your body. This allows your body to heal, to repair damaged or bruised muscles. It also allows for general maintenance of your muscle-skeletal system. Studies have shown increased accuracy, faster reaction times and speeds, and improved performance are common results of sleep. Contact Dial A Mattress The best way of ensuring that you have a great night's sleep is to ensure that your mattress and bed are as good quality as possible. At Dial a Mattress, we manufacture first-class beds and mattresses, designed to make sleeping as easy as possible. For more information on our products, get in touch with us today.
Well-beingWhat Happens To My Mattress In the Cold – And How Does The Cold Affect Sleep?
Everyone loves the cool side of the pillow, right? It’s the cool embrace after a long, hard day – the gentle hand that helps guide you to sleep. But did you know that the cold can dramatically affect your mattress? In this short knowledge hub article, we’ll discuss the ways that your mattress is changed by the cold weather – as well as the ways that cold can both help and hinder your sleep. Dial a Mattress have been in the bed and mattress industry for over fifteen years, providing first-class mattresses in Shropshire and Shrewsbury. Memory Foam Mattress No doubt the most dramatic of changes occurs in memory foam mattresses. Instead of spring systems – like most other mattresses – memory foam mattresses use foam in order to cushion your body and provide comfort and support during sleep – thus ensuring a good night’s sleep. This material is notoriously temperature sensitive, and in colder temperatures it’s very common for it to cool into hardness. As a result, when you lie down on a cold memory foam mattress, it’s very common to be surprised just how hard the cold mattress is. However, while this cool hardness is no doubt a surprise, it doesn’t last because, as a temperature sensitive material, it quickly warms up and becomes malleable once again. As the memory foam ages, it will become much less susceptible to changes in temperature. Because of that, if you find that you’re consistently with the firmness of your mattress when you get into it, it’s a good idea to wait a few weeks before deciding whether or not to send your mattress back. Traditional Spring Mattresses The changes that occur in traditional spring mattresses are much less noticeable than in memory foam mattresses. Indeed, the effect of lower temperatures actually has the opposite effect in traditional mattresses: while memory foam mattresses get tougher in the cold, traditional spring mattresses actually get weaker. This is due to the way that traditional spring mattresses are constructed. Traditionally, these were made using metal springs which, in combination with material, supported the sleeper. As metals expand when heat is applied, in colder temperatures these springs shrink – causing a loss of tension. As a result, the mattress will become somewhat more malleable. However, owing to the ways that spring mattresses are designed, this malleability is much less noticeable for most people. As a result of this, it’s best to think of spring coiled mattresses as being unaffected by the heat beyond everyday considerations of comfort. However, if you find that your mattress is perhaps a little too weak, you could warm it up a little by lying on it or placing an electric blanket over it and seeing how it feels once it’s been warmed up a little. How Temperature Affects Sleep While the preferred toughness of the mattress in relation to your comfort is entirely subjective, the ideal temperature is not. According to most scientists who study the subject, the ideal temperature for getting a good night’s sleep is between 65 to 72 degrees fahrenheit. The reasoning behind this is relatively simple: when we go to sleep, our body temperature drops naturally in order to aid the slowing of our metabolic processes. By bringing our body temperature down to those same temperatures, falling to sleep is made much easier and a deeper, more restful sleep is more likely. Contact Dial a Mattress Today Having worked in the mattress and bed industry for almost twenty years, Dial a Mattress has gathered a deep understanding of how to help people get to sleep. We’ve channeled that understanding into our curated catalogue of beds and mattresses. We’ve curated this catalogue for the quality of the pieces therein. Browse our catalogue to find your ideal sleep today. If you have any questions, get in touch with us.
Well-beingWhat Are The Different Types of Mattresses?
At Dial-A-Mattress, we supply a wide variety of mattresses to suit all bed frames and budgets. We understand how important it is to have a top quality mattress to support your back while you sleep comfortably. In this knowledge hub article, we’ll detail the different mattresses we offer instore and online, as well as going into more detail about each mattress type. Traditional Sprung Mattress For an affordable option but still providing excellent quality and comfort, our traditional sprung mattresses are one of our most popular styles. These mattresses are made from high-quality fabric, traditional fillings and open coil springs. Choose between soft/medium or medium/firm support to suit your requirements. Some of our mattresses are rotable and suitable for sleeping on both sides. Perfect for spare bedrooms, hotel rooms, rental properties, and student accommodation. Our range comes in a variety sizes, from single to super king. Pocket Sprung Mattress For a superior sleeping experience, try our pocket sprung mattresses. They are made with springs attached in individual pockets, enabling them to work independently and provide you with medium/firm support while sleeping. So if you’re looking for a mattress that moulds perfectly to your body shape and sleeping position, this is the one for you. Perfect for couples who enjoy their own space or anyone who doesn't like the memory foam feel. With this in mind, the pocket sprung mattress makes a great all-rounder! Memory Foam Mattress Memory foam mattresses are usually made from high-quality polyurethane foam, giving it a unique texture and soft feel. If you’ve tried a memory foam mattress before, you know how super comfortable and luxurious they are to sleep in. Not only do they give body hugging comfort, they are suitable for all sleeping positions, provide excellent back pain support, and point pressure relief. These mattresses are available in a variety of firmness and sizes. Combination Mattress Looking for a combination of the above types? We supply mattresses made with a unique combination of a traditional spring, or a pocket sprung base with a memory foam topper. Ensuring luxurious and breathable comfort at a reasonable price. Giving you the best of both worlds! Latex Mattress Our latex mattresses are an excellent alternative to a memory foam mattress, if you’re looking for ultimate comfort and support. Ensuring you’ll get the best night’s sleep and wake up not wanting to leave your bed! The design of this mattress allows elasticity to spring back into its original shape as you toss and turn during the night. Not only that, they have many other benefits including: being naturally hypoallergenic (ideal if you suffer from allergies); mould and dust resistant; and having great spine alignment. While latex mattresses are a more expensive option, if you consider the number of benefits, premium quality, and design, you’ll be getting more than your money’s worth! Do You Need A New Mattress? At Dial-A-Mattress, we have a wide range of mattresses, bed frames, furniture, and more to choose from. All you need for your bedroom under one roof. For enquiries, contact our friendly team or visit our showroom in Shropshire.
