Do You Suffer From The Seven Year Hitch?

At Sealy UK, we are big fans of The Sleep Council's Sleep Patrol videos, not just because they are funny but because they have an important message at the centre of each one: after seven years, your bed may not be giving you the support that is required. This is called the Seven Year Hitch.

Here is the first video in their series. The Sleep Patrol are on the look out for someone who is sleep deprived.

 

When was the last time you bought a mattress? Was it over seven years ago?

Sealy Celebrates P&O's 175th Anniversary

Today marks P&O's 175th anniversary celebrations when all seven of their ships will be sailing into Southampton carrying 15,000 passengers and 6,000 crew for the first time in history.



In 2010, Sealy were honoured to become the bed suppliers for P&O owner Carnival and since then, the Azura and Adonia have both been launched. Carnival group cruises also include the Cunard Luxury Liners, which enjoyed the Jubilee celebrations last month.

Carnival has also ordered the largest UK cruise ship to be built. Yet to be named, this 141,000 tonne cruise liner will cost £489 million. And with Sealy mattresses on Carnival's list of suppliers, the 4,372 passengers on board the vessel will undoubtedly enjoy a good night's sleep throughout their travels.

Have you been on a cruise before? Which countries did you visit?

What Keeps You Awake At Night?

With our lives busier than ever and the noise of constant information and modern day living difficult to switch off, it is no wonder why plenty of us struggle to get a good night's sleep. 

As a way of getting to know our fans and followers, we would like to find out what keeps you awake at night.

Is it ...


Your partner's snoring?

Or stress from work?

Could it be backache?

Or do your dust allergies keep you up?

Are your little ones keeping you awake?

Or is it the sound of the traffic outside?

Or maybe it's the internet that prevents you from getting a good night's sleep?

Leave a comment below with your reason by 11.59pm on Saturday 30th June 2012 and you could win one of our pocket sprung pillows! The winner will be contacted on Monday 2nd July 2012. 

If you suffer from bad hayfever, you might also be interested to know that apart from the pillow's springs and built-in air conditioning, it is also hypoallergenic.

Please make sure you include your @ Twitter name or sign in with your email address so that we can contact you.

(This competition is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with Blogger, Facebook or Twitter.)

Cunard's Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Celebrations

This time last week, we were in the throes of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations. And as we look forward to the summer, we are also looking back to one of the Jubilee highlights. Cunard Luxury Liners celebrated the Diamond Jubilee with their 3 Queens in Southampton, which included the Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mary 2 and Queen Victoria.



Queen Elizabeth is the second largest Cunard ship ever built. Accommodating just over 2,000 guests in 1,046 staterooms on board, 85% of which are outside and 71% with balconies, luxury is definitely the name of the game.

Sealy developed specially designed beds for the Queen Elizabeth which include the very latest in sleep technology. They contain zones of the very best pocket springs with sumptuous layers of upholstery that will support and cushion the body to ensure the very best night's sleep as guests drift off to the soothing whispers of the waves and as the liner silently crosses the oceans of the world. Even if the weather gets rough outside, there will be no tossing and turning for guests cocooned and cosseted in their Sealy Posturepedic beds.

These wonderful beds, The Sealy "Cunarder" Range, are also available to buy here, for those guests who want to carry home their wonderful sleep experience and continue to dream of luxury life on the ocean waves.

Would you also like to watch HRH Queen Elizabeth II launch Cunard's Queen Elizabeth ship?

The Magic In Dreams

We have decided to add a touch of variety to our blog posts and to entertain you as much as inform you about sleep facts and our product news.

A short film called DreamGiver caught our attention and we wanted to share it with you. It is just over 5 minutes long and we really enjoyed the magical quality it evokes. It also reminded us about how stories and films affected us when we were children and it made us wonder, do we still dream the same way as adults?

Have a watch of the film and see what you think.


DreamGiver from Tyler Carter on Vimeo.

Have your dreams changed over the years or are they still sometimes as magical as when you were a child?

Sealy Celebrates Over Sixty Years of Sensational Sleep

Lie back on any Sealy bed and you will fall asleep on 125 years of mattress ingenuity. A journey that began in 1881 in the town of Sealy, Texas, when Daniel Haynes, cotton gin builder, filled a request for a cotton-filled mattress. And then another. And then another. His business grew exponentially, which led to more innovations and many patents. These mattresses became known as “the beds from Sealy”.

Fifteen years later, Haynes sold his patents to a Texas company that retained the Sealy name. Soon after, advertising exec Earl Edwards penned the slogan “Sleeping on a Sealy is like sleeping on a cloud.” And with that, Sealy mattresses became an American phenomenon. By 1920, Sealy had 23 licensed plants across the USA.

Then in 1950 came the milestone when the Company introduced its first Sealy Posturepedic brand mattress. A unique advanced coil design, with independently hinged springs, that combined both comfort and lumbar support. In 1956, Sealy became the first Company to display and advertise king size beds. The 1960's saw Sealy commission the first major research study to define the profile of the Sealy Posturepedic consumer. In 1967, Sealy Posturepedic TV commercials ran during prime time on national television - another first for the industry.

Sealy beds were first introduced into the UK in 1974 and have been made at the same site in Aspatria, Cumbria, ever since.  Over the last 36 years, the Sealy UK business has been at the forefront of mattress technology in the UK.

• Sealy were the first company in the industry to be awarded the British standard quality assured award.
• In 1986 they gained BS5750 accreditation (ISO 9002) – an industry first!
• They are frequent winners of the Furniture Industry ‘Bed of The Year’ & ‘Effective Consumer Marketing’ awards
• They were the first company to be awarded the FIRA (Furniture Industry Research Association) Gold Award – for product excellence.
• They were the first furniture company to achieve “Investors in People” standard
• We are a Sleep Council founder member.
• And just as importantly, we are the biggest bed brand in the world

Sealy now operate in over fifty countries across the globe and have a presence on every continent.  A Sealy bed is sold somewhere in the world every three seconds!

They have the biggest R&D facility in the industry (at Group Headquarters in Greensboro, North Carolina). In an industry where size most definitely does matter, Sealy can draw on market information, scientific developments and consumer insights from around the world, to develop the most technologically advanced and thoroughly tested mattresses ever!

Sealy has one goal: to help the world sleep better. And with actions like utilising new sleep technologies and spending more on research, that goal gets closer every day. 

How To Choose The Right Mattress For You

The main consideration when choosing a bed, apart from feeling comfortable, is to ensure the mattress properly supports the body and the spine. Our spines are actually saxophone shaped, with natural curves, and a mattress needs to allow for this so the vertebrae can stretch out and allow the discs in between to recover.

The body also needs to be able to move around naturally during the course of the night to help regulate temperature, encourage disc recovery and relieve pressure points. This is a different type of movement from tossing and turning, which uses energy and leaves us feeling more tired when we wake up than when we went to bed. Tossing and turning happens because some parts of our bodies are heavier than others, creating areas of concentrated weight and pressure.  This pressure causes loss of circulation leading to numbness and pins and needles and the automatic reaction by the body is to move and turn over to layin a different position.

The Solution

You also need to keep cool to sleep – your body temperature needs to drop by 1˚ in order to fall and remain asleep. This is why so many people sleep with a leg outside the duvet! So apart from ensuring that your bedroom is not too hot and that you have the right amount of covers, the mattress itself should not contribute to a rise in body temperature. Having fibres such as Tencel in the mattress covers will help with temperature control and moisture management to keep the body cool.

A lot of mattresses around today offer great support for the body but the more supportive the mattress, the more pressure points are created. Yet, the more pressure relief offered, the less support one gets. This is particularly true of some memory foam mattresses which offer great pressure relief but poor support.  Indeed many consumers find they sweat heavily on a memory foam mattress unless it is covered by a heat dispersing fabric or has channels or springs for ventilation.

Equally, many highly priced non memory foam mattresses, with expensive layers of rich upholstery, provide marvelous comfort but are sadly lacking in both pressure relief and spinal support. At the cheaper end of the spectrum, beds with less expensive fillings can provide a good degree of support but compromise on comfort and pressure relief.

In order to develop a mattress range which would provide a solution to all these key requirements, and working in conjunction with the American Orthopaedic Advisory Board, over a four year period Sealy  carried out thousands of profiled pressure maps of people of every size, shape and weight  from countries all across the globe. As the world’s biggest bed manufacturer, Sealy also has the industry’s biggest R&D facility at its HQ in Carolina in the USA, and is at the cutting edge of the science of sleep technology.  They analysed data from some 50 countries -  height, weight and BMI, side sleeping positions and duration of positions using the 2 key pressure levels agreed as being key by medical practitioners.  Essentially, below 20mmHG of pressure there is a good level of pressure relief for the body; above 30mmHG, pressure points occur on the body that are sufficient to close blood capillaries. Using the results of this far-reaching research, Sealy developed their new Posturepedic range of beds which contain 5 to 7 zones of different push back support.  

This means:

o       the spring systems of all new Posturepedic beds will sense the sleeper’s weight and movement and adjust accordingly throughout the night

o       the top of the range models will contain a new system of lumbar bars within the springs to give even greater push back support for the lumbar regions  

o       beds will have Sealy Edge Guard which is a construction around the edge of the mattress which gives the sleeping surface greater stability which allows you to sleep right up to the edge of the mattress without it buckling. This extends the real sleeping surface by about 6 inches compared to other mattresses

o      all beds will have Tencel, a revolutionary fabric, woven into them; Tencel’s unique, hypo-allergenic properties help control body temperature by dispersing excess heat and regulating body temperature

o       finally, and most importantly, the new Posturpedic beds have pressure relief inlay pads.  These contain layers of memory foam and latex which offer different levels of density across the sleeping surface and are able to adapt and conform to the weight and shape of the sleeper.  This dissipates the body’s weight across the sleeping surface, minimizing pressure points and keeping the spine straight: all the basic constituents of a great night’s sleep

Other points to consider when choosing a new bed are the springs. The pocket spring system is one of the greatest innovations in the bedding industry and the idea was originally patented in America just over 100 years ago before rolling out more generally in the 1930s. Unlike traditional coil springs, pocket springs were individually created and then placed in their own fabric pockets, which allows the springs to move independently of each other.

Spinal alignment with a standard pocket sprung mattress

Spinal alignment with a Sealy pocket sprung mattress

100 years on from their first appearance, pocket spring systems now come in a range of tensions which cater to different requirements. 

A further variation is the number of active turns in the spring itself — that is, the number of turns that are absorbing and supporting the weight of the body. The thinner the wire and more turns, the softer the bed and the longer the springs will last because their work is spread around.

Surprisingly however, although pocket springs were invented over there, these days they are not perceived to be the mattress filling of choice by American consumers who generally prefer an advanced open coil spring system. Conversely, this side of the Atlantic, for reasons lost in the mysteries of time, British bed buyers aspire to own a pocket spring mattress as this is perceived to be a more premium product.

Now, however, continuing their ground-breaking sleep science development, Sealy have taken spring technology a stage further. Newly launched in April, the latest addition to the renowned Posturepedic range is a selection of new pocket spring beds that will offer consumers the best of both worlds: all the support and benefits of a Posturepedic and all the comfort of a pocket. This new mattress contains multiple zones of newly designed motion and weight responsive pocket springs for total spinal alignment.

But our bodies are not uniform – we are tall and short, fat and thin - so why should our mattresses be uniform? Bed comfort is such an individual thing – one person’s soft and comfy nest is another person’s squashy nightmare. A nice firm bed for another is someone else’s idea of a night of torture. So, Sealy customers can choose a special orthopaedic bed which is extra firm or extra long, or beds with extra layers such as cushion or pillow top - and then there are water beds, memory foam beds, sofa beds, futons too. 

Does your mattress provide you with proper and adequate support?

Win a luxury breakfast-in-bed-tray with Sealy!

To celebrate The Queen's Diamond Jubilee, we would like to give our fans the chance to feel like royalty for a morning and to win a luxury breakfast-in-bed tray. The black fluted tray will include:
Fairtrade Orange Blossom Honey; Organic Fairtrade Sumatran Takengon Coffee; Jean-Paul Deville Carte d'or N.V. Champagne; French Madelienes; Organic Coffee Hazelnut Chocolate Spread; Fine Cut Marmalade; and Raspberry Jam.

All you have to do is sign up to the giveaway on Facebook, here so that your name can be entered into the draw. If you are not already a Sealy fan, you can Like our page, here and sign up to the giveaway by clicking on the Win with Sealy! tab in the top right hand corner of Sealy's Facebook page.

We will be picking one lucky winner on Wednesday 6th June 2012 and fans must be 18 years old or over to qualify. The deadline for entry is 11.59pm on Tuesday 5th June 2012. 

So this is how we are celebrating the Diamond Jubilee. How will you be celebrating The Queen's 60-year reign? Will you be visiting London to watch the river procession?

Where Do Mattresses Come From?

Having something comfortable to lie on, where we can rest and get a good night’s sleep, has always been a challenge. Our cavemen ancestors slept on the hard ground on piles of leaves, straw or animal skins – and near a fire if possible, to keep them warm and away from predators.

Those who could soon realised that being off the ground was a much better idea and considerably less draughty, cleaner and free from creepy crawlies. Wealthy Romans had mattresses filled with reeds, hay, wool or feathers, and sometimes these were raised on top of basic primitive metal, stone or wooden bedsteads. But the less well off and the slaves still had to make do on the floor. 

The word ‘mattress’ is actually derived from Arabic words meaning “to throw” or a “mat, cushion” and as a result of their involvement in the Crusades in the early middle ages, Europeans started to adopt this Arabic method of sleeping on cushions thrown on the floor. And the word ‘materas’ eventually descended into Middle English. 

Bed manufacturing has come a long way since then - with mattresses now containing a variety of materials as both fillings and technology have progressed over the centuries. Where once straw or feather mattresses were standard, 21st century consumers are now spoiled for choice with everything on offer in their bed: from water to foam to a variety of types of springs.

Although we have come a long way with our sleeping arrangements over the centuries, people today still suffer disturbed nights and struggle out of bed, bleary-eyed in the mornings, complaining of stiffness, back ache and general lethargy. What is amazing is that so many don’t realise all this could be easily cured if they would only invest in a proper supportive mattress to sleep on.  

Sleep expert Dr Chris Idzikowski found that swapping an uncomfortable old bed for a comfortable new one could account for an average of 42 minutes' extra sleep - four times that achieved by over the counter sleep aids. So, improving the quality of sleep can be helped enormously by making sure you're sleeping on the right bed.

However, until they lie down on one, unbelievably most people don’t appreciate just how great it is to sleep on a really comfortable and supportive mattress – and also just how many different types of beds and mattresses there are to choose from. And of course there is the confusion, how do you know which mattress is right for you?

Free Tickets to The London Allergy and Free From Show and a Chance to Win a Sealy Bed

The Allergy and Free From Show will be taking place at Olympia, London from 18th - 20th May 2012.

Sealy Posturepedic and Smart Fibres will be sponsoring the Seminar Zone, which will cover topics from 'Living Successfully With Severe Allergy' to dietary discussions including food allergies and tips on what to eat if you suffer from bloating or IBS. The seminars will also cover subjects such as eczema and how to manage allergy treatments.

On Sunday 20th May at 1pm, there will be a keynote session on 'How to avoid dust mites, pollen and other airborne allergens'. This session will be led by Dr. Robert Boyle who is a Consultant of Paediatric Allergy. 

Advanced tickets for the show are £7.50 and £10 on the door but Sealy fans can sign up for free tickets here!

There is also a chance for you to win a Sealy bed with Smart Fibres. Sealy's Smart Fibres contain Purotex that has probiotic friendly bacteria to keep dust mites at bay and reduce allergens for a fresher mattress throughout. If you want to find out more about Smart Fibres, click here.

If you are planning to be at the show, tweet us. We would love to know which seminars you are sitting in on. 

Here is the seminar timetable. Do any of the topics interest you?

Why Do We Sleep?

Our lives are inextricably connected with beds and sleep. More often than not we are conceived, born and die in a bed and in between it is estimated we spend at least a third of our lives asleep in one – that’s some 26 years, which compares to 11.5 yrs at work and 11 years watching TV.  However Napoleon, Florence Nightingale and Margaret Thatcher famously got by on four hours a night and Thomas Edison claimed it was waste of time!

But why do we sleep? This has baffled scientists for centuries and the answer is, no one is really sure. Some believe that sleep gives the body a chance to recuperate from the day's activities but, in reality, the amount of energy saved by sleeping for even eight hours is miniscule - about 50k Cal, the same amount of energy in a piece of toast.

Human beings seem to sleep anywhere between 5 and 11 hours per night, with an average of about 7.5, but animals also need to sleep too: elephants make do on just 3 hours, unsurprisingly chimpanzees are more similar to us with around 9 hours, cats need 12 and pythons an amazing 18 hours. All that slithering around must be truly exhausting.

What we do know for sure is that while we are asleep:
·        our body heals and repairs itself
·        our spinal discs re-hydrate and we get up in the morning up to 1 inch taller (we lose up to an inch in  height during the course of a day as the spine and gravity and exercise compress the discs)
·        our brains carry out maintenance, archiving and data processing
·        our immune systems strengthen
·        we get an emotional reload
·        it is the ONLY time children and teenagers grow

How important is sleep for you? Does it feel like a necessity or a waste of time?

Did You Know Children Grow When They're Asleep?

Most parents would think twice before putting their children’s feet into ill fitting shoes which could potentially harm their development, so why are many parents unaware that a thin, cheap and unsupported mattress can affect a child’s growth?

A two year old child can grow 2 ½ inches (6cm)* per year until adolescence. After this it usually slows down but growth can continue until the early 30s. To ensure a child grows properly, deep, restorative and uninterrupted sleep needs to occur. It is only when in the deep sleep phase that the important growth hormone is released into the bloodstream.

To ensure the best possible night’s sleep, Sealy have developed some of the most technologically advanced beds in the world. With the largest research facility of any bed company, their latest bed range is unparalleled in comfort and support. Each bed is zoned along its length to provide greater “push back” support to different areas of the body according to where weight is concentrated. The beds also contain the newest technology to prevent allergies which can disturb sleep for so many.

A recent survey by Allergy UK predicted that potentially 12 million people in the UK are allergic to their homes, that’s 1 in 4 of us, and more specifically house dust mites, which reside in pillows and mattresses. House dust mite allergies cause runny noses, sneezing, wheezing, coughing and headaches – all of which cause disturbed sleep, which could in turn affect a child’s growth. They are also a serious irritant to children suffering from asthma.**

Only Sealy beds have the latest in sleep technology called SMART FIBRES. These fibres contain probiotic friendly bacteria which keep house dust mites at bay and reduce allergens to create a fresher mattress. The innovative mattress material is completely safe for children to use, the results are achieved naturally, as the fibres have not been chemically treated in any way. By reducing the presence of allergens and dust mites in the mattress the children have a healthier and cleaner sleep environment which should prevent them from being disturbed during the night and so allow them to grow to their full potential.

References

·       *    http://kidshealth.org/parent/growth/growing/childs_growth.html

·       **  www.asthmas.org.uk

·       1.1 million children are currently receiving treatment for asthma in the UK. That’s 1 in 11 children

·       At least 1 child in 7 will have ‘wheezing’ at some point during their first five years

·       Out of 56 countries worldwide, the UK has the highest prevalence of severe wheeze in children aged 13-14

February Competitions

It's almost February, so we thought we'd give you a hint about what's to come next month. On 1st February we'll be launching two competitions:

Facebook: Hotty vs. Hottie

You'll have two choices to pick from and all you have to do is vote for your favourite hot thing. We're not going to tell you what they are just yet but we will tell you what the prize is going to be:

A Valentine's Day hot water bottle. We have two to give away!

Twitter: Dating Horror Tweets

Share with us any dating horror stories you may have in 140 characters and you could win a bottle of bubbles and a box of truffles on Valentine's Day. 

We of course can't fix the past but we can make sure that someone receives some good  news on 14th February.

Both competitions will launch at 8am on Wednesday 1st February 2012 and both will end on Monday 13th February 2012. The winners will be announced on Tuesday 14th February 2012, before noon.

And after Valentines? You'll just have to wait and see.

In the meantime, don't forget our January Twitter photo competition is still running until 11pm on Tuesday 31st January. To enter, tweet us a photo of your favourite pillow or cushion for a chance to win our pocket sprung pillow.

Good luck!

(These competitions are in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with Blogger, Facebook or Twitter. Tweets may be retweeted at Sealy UK's discretion.)