Press & News

Beds are getting loftier, plusher and taller, says Conor Stapleton, spokesman at Kaymed, which designs and manufactures Kaymed, King Koil and Odearest beds. The mattress stuffing and bed-base technology have more substance, more cushioning, more layers and feel much more comfortable.

"The sensation is softer, and deep sleep is infinitely deeper," explains Stapleton. "It really is the Princess and the Pea syndrome."

"Mattresses are getting deeper so beds are, by design, getting taller," adds Neville Hodgins of Kenneth Hodgins Interiors.

"We’ve supplied beds, as in bases and mattresses to some of the best hotels in the country, incluing the Lodge at Doonbeg, the Dylan, Monart, the Merrion Hotel and the Aghadoe Heights," says Stapleton. "And it’s people’s hotel experiences that are making them aware of the huge advantage of a good night’s sleep." Guests are not content to walk away from that experience. "They’re definitely getting nosier and taking off the covers to investigate the brand of bed they’ve been sleeping on," he continues.

"The Shelbourne, Dylan, Monart and G are hotels whose names keep coming up on the list of great bed experiences," says Brian Giilivan, bed buyer at Arnotts. "We have customers name checking these establishments and coming to us wanting to replicate that sleep experience."

The beds in Doonbeg are King Koil Spinal Pocket Pillow Top, which also feature in Monart and the Merrion Hotel. The Penthouses of the Dylan and Doonbeg showcase the Kaymed Visco Pocket 2000.

"There was a time whern a good mattress had to be rock solid to be perceived as good for you and your back. That is no longer the case," says Pat Carty, bed buyer at Clerys. "Your mattress should be like a big made to order sandwich stuffed full of fillings to help you nod off. There’s a move away from synthetic foams back to natural stuffings, such as wool, horsehair and even cashmere," he continues. It’s far healthier for someone with allergies.

Interior designer Gregory Curran, formerly the senior interior designer at Burke Kennedy Doyle Architects, agrees. "One of the best beds for the contract market is King Koil." He chose the King Koil Spinal Pocket Pillow Top beds for the Merrion Hotel. When it comes to beds, mattresses are the key to a good night’s sleep, Curran explains. "King Koil mattresses are, in my opinion, one of the best on the market." And he practices what he preaches, having invested in the Merrion Hotel standard mattress for his own home.

In terms of design, Curran prefers a slatted base to a classic divan because it allows air to circulate. He doesn’t believe the bed base is as importatnt as the mattress.

"As long as the bed base itself is sturdy it can be in whatever shape or style you prefer or that suits the style of your room. I would recommend you buy a King Koil mattress and buy the bed elsewhere."

Arnotts’ bed market is worth a cool €10 million per annum to the store and they have noticed buyers becoming more indulgent with the average spend on a bed doubling in the last two years from around €1,000 to €2,000 - bringing a whole new meaning to the word mattress money.

"Most of these buyers originally bought a cheap bd when they purchased their first home, so this is, in effect, an upgrade," says Stapleton.

Pure cotton sheets and goose down duvets also help enhance the bed experience. If you prefer to count threads instead of sheep then invest in Frette Linen, which is favoured by some of the worlds best hotels. It is available at Bottom Drawer in Brown Thomas, Dublin.

Television Presenter Caroline Morahan is big on pilow talk. "I’m very pillow particular, and like at least four on my bed. I bring special pillows with me on planes to help me sleep."

She admits to having a certain passion for sleep. She recently visited Aghadoe Heights hotel and spa and was so enamoured with their pillows she ordered pillows for her and her entire family. They’re big square pillows - a mix of goose down and feather and duck down and feather. Her mattress is an Odearest Orthopaedic P500, which she bought three years ago as a new house purchase, and swears by.

Marie Chalke, owner and manager at Aghadoe, has sold about 100 of these Savoy pillows in the past year to guests keen to bring the experience home with them.

They cost €80 and there are pillowcases available to fit. They also sell a standard pillow size using the same goose and duck mix of feathers and down for €50.

So how do you know what bed is right for you? Buying a bed takes time, says Gillivan. "You need to be prepared to lie on a bed for 15 or 20 minutes, to try to get a feel for it as you would at home. Pressing on the mattress, as you would a piece of fruit, won’t give you any idea of what it feels like to lie on."

"We would encourage you and your partner to both try out the bed together," adds Carty. "You can’t really buy without lying on it."

The bed department at Arnotts is on the top floor of the department store and has a wide selection of beds on offer. It is relatively quiet but when you finally work up the courage to lie down on the flat of your back all you see is white light and unattractive dropped ceilings.

"We’re not trying to create a mood," Gilliavan explains. "Buying a bed is much more serious business than that. It’s like buying a car and there is a wealth of differentiators and preferences."

What are you feeling? This is the question you should be asking yourself, he explains. I feel like an eejit, but when you get over your self consciousness you realise there are some delicious beds on sale.

They have cloud soft cushioning that renders you completely weightless, free of the troubles that weigh you down during the day. You feel light enough to float off towards the land of nod.

With a good bed, you sleep better, work better and enjoy a better quality of life, Gillivan says. And he admits they get a lot of calls requesting information on which hotels would be good for a client to visit to sleep-test a bed.

"We do recommend sleeping in a hotel to try out a bed for a night, although to date most of these clients suffer from a back complaint."

Sleepspa has a new gel therapy bed that borrows technolgy from medical beds. It’s perfect for bad backs.

You can still test a bed succesfully in a shop, Gillivan adds, but when you consider the cost involved in buying a good bed it’s worth going that extra mile and spending an additional €200 on an overnight stay at one of the hotels Kaymed or Arnotts recommend.

Consider it a test drive of the sleep experience, Gillivan laughs.

Gillivan, for those interested, sleeps on a Vi-Spring Regal Supreme, a seriously luxe label to lie on, with prices starting from €4,699 for the mattress only.

What intrigues this traveller, however, is that for all the marketing involved in modern hotels, relatively little is said about the reason we stay there in the first place - the bed.

A hotel bed can make or break a place. Staying at the Jean Michel Cousteau resort in Fiji, for example, I remember spending a hypnotic night on a king-size, custom-made mattress imported from California. I awoke feeling like I’d added a day to my life.

On a recent stay at Belfast’s Merchant hotel, I collapsed onto a King Koil Pillow Top mattress, a cloud-like confection designed "to ensure the best night’s sleep anywhere outside your own home."

Give me a bad night’s kip however, and a wretched Mr Hyde emerges.

I’ve stayed in package holiday beds that felt like benches, and remember one four-star establisment in which the mattress dipped so badly, I awoke feeling like I’d been sat on by Marlon Brando.

The trade is beginning to cotton on, however. Westin’s ‘Heavenly Bed’, the original super-scratcher, contains a mattress with 900 individual coils; three sheets ranging in thread count from 200 to 250 and five varieties of pillow.

Sheraton’s ‘Sweet Sleeper Bed’ offers a ‘cushy mattress’, ‘petal-soft blankets’ and hypoallergenic pillows. Such was guests’ enthusiasm, both can be purchased online.

Back home too, Dublin’s Radisson St. Helen’s hotel has just undergone a €6.5m overhaul to coincidewith its 10th anniversary. Part of the refit sees all 151 tooms getting extra-long beds and duck down duvets ‘for a better slumber’ – as well as tailoring to taller guests.

I’m getting tired just thinking about it.

As the longest day approaches, summer insomnia is on the increase.

A survey by bed manufacturers Kaymed found that 76 per cent of people said their least favourite aspect of the summer was increased difficulty getting to sleep.

One in three people sufer from summer insomnia on a regular basis and almost 100 per cent have been affected at some time.

Being too hot in bed, insect activity and the disctraction of extra daylight all conspire to rob us of our precious beauty sleep.

Sleep expert Rosemary Turley from Kaymed said: "Wherever you live in the UK, you can’t completely escape from one or other of the negative aspects of the summer season.

"We are not trying to be killjoys. Of course we all love the warmth and sunshine but summer insomnia is one of its undoubted downsides. Insomnia can be a problem at any time of the year and can have major health implications. If you are not getting your proper slep quota, it will affect your energy levels, memory, mental alertness and general enjoyment of life. Your performance at work will decrease rapildly and your immune sustem will not work as well as leaving you more open to infection."

How to beat the summertime blues

Rosemary has compiled 10 handy hints on how to avoid the sleepless summertime blues.

If you have an alarm clock with a large bright display, place it out of sight. The last thing you need when trying to sleep is a constant reminder of how late it is - stressing over being awake will keep you awake. Eliminate as much light as possible, including light from alarm clocks and LCD panels.

Choose a mattress that offers the most comfortable night’s sleep you can afford. Research has shown that top quality memory faom mattress can reduce tossing and turning from 70 or more times a night to 35 or less.

If your sleep is interrupted by outside sounds, try masking them with the sound of an air fan, a radio tuned to static or by using a white noise machine.

Keep a moderate ambient temperature - if it’s too hot your body won’t want to relax. If you can’t afford air conditioning, at least make sure you have a seasonal duvet with a low TOG value.

Avoid stimulants such as caffeine or nicotine. Its best to abstain from these altogether, but, if you can’t, then try to avoid them after the late afternoon and early evening.

Don’t watch TV just before bed, especially adrenaline viewing such as sport or war films.

Don’t exercise too close to bedtime (at least three hours) as your body needs time to wind down and will keep your mind awake.

Adopt a ‘going to bed’ routine, a ritual that signals your brain that the day is ending and it’s time to shut down. Don't do any work or any puzzle-solving during the ritual.

Only use your bed for sleep. Don’t fill your bedroom with computers, televisions or anything not to do with restful activities.

If you haven’t dropped off to sleep within half an hour, don’t lie there stressing over it. Get up and do something relaxing until you feel sleepy.

For more information on Kaymed products and stockists, visit Kaymed World.

Sixty per cent of women don’t get a good night’s sleep, according to mattress, bed and pillow company Kaymed, and it could be because your mattress is too old or doesn’t suit you.

If you are tossing and turning and think you might need a new mattress you should ask yourself the following questions, says Kaymed. Do you wake up with stiffness, numbness or aches and pains? Have you had a better night’s sleep somewhere other than your own bed, for instance, in a hotel or friend’s guest room? Does your mattress show visible signs of overuse such as sagging or lumps?

As a guide to how a mattress and pillow work best, you should aim to be supported so that, when you are lying down you are in the same position as a person with good posture who is standing, and you should spend time testing out a mattress in the shop, says Kaymed.

"Lie down and imagine yourself asleep, relax and give yourself a couple of minutes to let your body tell you what’s comfortable," says a Kaymed spokesperson.

"Put a pillow under your head to achieve your normal sleeping posture. Test it with your partner: Are you both comfortable when the other partner tosses or turns? Imagine the effect night after night for years and be sure you are both happy."

And while in the past we thought firmer mattresses offered better support, apparently with today’s advacements, certain softer mattresses can give you as much, and sometimes better, support.

Plenty of companies offer a range of mattresses, such as Flanagans in Mount Merrion and Donegal who have in-store advisors; department stores such as Arnotts, Marks & Spencer, Littlewoods and Ikea, among many others.

BEDDY BUYS

Cost

Spend as much as you can afford. It is true, that the more you spend, the better the quality. Just think, that a bed is an investment to your health and well being, not just somewhere to lay your head.

Size

When choosing a bed, measure your existing bed at home so you know what size is most appropriate to you. And ensure you’ll be able to a) trasport it from the shop and, b) that it fits through your bedroom door onto the base.

Storage

Do you need extra storage? Most divan beds are available with drawers, although it costs a little more, it may well be worth it.

Support

A quality mattress and base should gently support your body at all points and keep your spine in the same position as good standing posture. When selecting a mattress, keep in mind that your body should be able to relax, with your spine supported in its natural curve.

Position it

Try the bed in all of the sleeping positions you tend to use, not only on your back, and try a selection of beds for comparison.

Durability

Like all products, a mattress and foundation will gradually wear out. That’s why you should re-evaluate your sleeping solutions regularly.