Talking Sleep and Bedroom Plans with Drift

November 09, 2016


Hello! How are you? Hope you had a good weekend. I'm excited to talk all things sleep and our plans for bedrooms today with Drift Sleep. 


I don't know about you but sleep is my biggest health hack. Get enough sleep and you feel SO SO good, energised and ready to tackle everything and anything. Your skin glows, you feel all shiny and new again. Get too little and you feel so cranky and start to get run down. 

I'm lucky in that I tend to be a very good sleeper the majority of the time {typically getting 9-10 hours a night} but I would put that down to a few key things that I've learned over the years.

  • I need to feel tired out by the end of the day. I get restless if I've been indoors too much or not active enough. But if you exercise too close to bedtime you're brain will be too wired to sleep for a while. I do my exercise in the morning and then have a walk just before/after dinner.
  • Conversely, if you laze around too much you feel tired. This to me is fake tired and you'll get all antsy when you go to bed. Get outside and get walking/running/active. Fresh air and natural day light are the best triggers to your brain to prepare you for sleep at the right time. Try to keep the lights down and soft before bed so your brain knows it's nearly time for lights out.
  • Eat well and as healthily/whole as you can. I've talked about our favourite smoothie which we have every morning here with Equi London. It's formula will give you goodness that helps your body to work at optimum levels and combat low energy. 
  • Don't eat too late at night. We try to have dinner by 6pm, 6.30 at the latest most of the time as it gives your body time to digest food before you get into bed and lay horizontal. It's also proven to keep you slimmer, excess energy from food eaten before you go to bed is likely to be converted to fat as you sleep. I hate the feeling of going to bed feeling too full!
  • Don't drink caffeine if you can help it. We don't drink any caffeine or alcohol at all but if you do then try to limit it close to bedtime. Especially coffee! Alcohol may help you fall asleep quickly but it's likely you'll then wake up in the middle of the night. It's also very dehydrating.


  • Have a hot bath before bed. The raise in temperature and then lowering will make you sleepy. There's nothing I love more than feeling boiling, almost faint and then going to lay in a cold bed and feel all sleepy. Heaven. 
  • I sleep so much better when it's cold. Temperature plays a huge part in falling to sleep and staying asleep all night. I have 4 different types of pyjamas for different temperatures, thick thermal ones for times like the last couple of night that I tuck into socks. We don't like to have the heating on in our bedroom overnight so I love feeling all snug under the covers.
  • I try to keep off my iPad before bed and my iPhone has the 'non blue light' setting on from 7-7 every night/morning to avoid stimulating my brain before sleep. I always fall asleep to the TV though or occasionally reading my kindle. If I get into bed without something to watch or read I think too much and then end up stressing. I need to be distracted {but when it's something gripping like The Fall or The Missing I often have to put something dull on afterwards!}.
  • If I do ever have too much to think about when I should be trying to sleep, I write it all down and literally force my brain to deal with it in the morning. It's so unhealthy to stress through the night. And everything always seems much less scary and more achievable in the morning.
  • I'm scared about how much this will all change when we decide to have children. I'm terrified of being woken up into the small hours and feeling almost dizzy/swaying from tiredness like you get when you're jet lagged. But we'll deal with that when it comes. Everyone seems to survive! 

This post is good timing as our bedroom has just been featured on Rock my Style {here} where I talked about what's on my bedside table. We've purposely tried to keep our bedroom decor as calm and neutral as possible. We have a small TV tucked away on the back of the wardrobe door. I also try and keep as clutter and mess free in here as it makes me feel like it's a good sleeping environment at the end of a busy day. 



In addition, choosing a good mattress, bedding and pillows are crucial for a good night's sleep. It's one of the most important factors you can improve. I'm allergic to feathers so we have hypo-allergenic pillows and soft 200 thread count cotton bedding {this set online here}. You want your bed to feel like you're staying in a top hotel every single night if you can, hotels just get it so so right. 

Choosing a mattress is such a personal decision but I've recently been introduced to Drift Sleep who are revolutionising the mattress game. Instead of trawling round shops trying different types out, not wanting to get your shoes on the mattress, you can browse online with Drift and they'll deliver it straight to your door with a 100 day satisfaction guarantee. Drift mattresses are made in Yorkshire using 100% natural wool as a top layer to keep your temperature regulated. Forget sleeping on foam which will cause you to oversleep, natural materials will work with your body. There are 4000 pocket springs in every mattress {the more springs the comfier it is} and a supportive foam layer for healthy spines. 

I think this is such a great idea, you're getting a quality quality mattress delivered straight to your door the very next day {for free} in a handy rolled up bag so you can easily manoeuvre up stairs, you can sleep on it for up to 100 nights and if you're not completely convinced then Drift will come and pick it up and refund you. There's also a 10 year guarantee. We're planning to buy one as soon as we finish our spare rooms. 


I like companies that give something a little extra to remember them with, Drift are VERY good on social media which I love. They also send you one of these adorable Jelly Cat soft lambs, a prize sheep! Being made in Yorkshire with natural sheeps wool, I love this little touch. If you share a photo of him you could win your mattress for free. 




Writing this has made me realise that we need to up our bedroom game. I love how our master bedroom has turned out {you can see the full transformation here} but we just haven't got round to finishing the other two in the house yet. We wanted to wait until we're in chaos with the kitchen extension {starting in just a couple of weeks} to spur us on to finish everything else. We don't need the extra bedrooms at the moment with just the two of us and it was nice living here without having to paint them, make decisions etc after stage 1 of renovations. 

But now I'm bored of the boxes and unfinished floors. I'm excited again about the idea of finishing it all. So this is our situation right now:

We've half done one of the rooms, the smaller of the two. It's been painted but we want to finish the floor in here, think we'll carpet it, put some blinds up and a few pictures on the wall. I may sort a headboard for the bed too. It acts as our second wardrobe/chest of drawers for holiday clothes. So handy having extra wardrobes! This room has basically reconstructed our spare room in our last house.










Our other spare room however is embarrassing. Fillled with boxes we haven't even got around to unpacking, a place to store tools, paint tins, radiators and a roll top bath we're storing to create a new bathroom. 

My plan for this room is to board over the ceiling and patch up the walls before painting the floorboards white and making a feature out of the character in there. There are three big sash windows, coving, original floorboards, picture rail and a chimney breast. I want to put a fireplace on the chimney breast. There's still some uncertainty over dividing it up and adding an en-suite bathroom in there but I think we will wait. We'll renovate it as one large room for now. I think we'll get a King size mattress in here, it's a big enough room to take it. 





So that's the plan for the next few weeks/months! It won't actually take very long once we get round to clearing it. So watch this space! My dream is to have everything in the house finished by the end of March time. The kitchen extension, dining room/snug, upstairs landing and these two bedrooms. I'm so excited. 

Are you renovating your bedroom or need a new mattress? Sleeping well is THE BEST. 
You can find more out about Drift Sleep and their fab mattresses here {and use the code DRIFT£50NOV16 for £50 off your mattress in November}. 


Some of the photos were taken by Adam Crohill for the Rock my Style feature here.

{This post is sponsored by Drift. Thank you for supporting the brands that enable this blog to continue. All opinions are 100% my own and I would never ever promote something that I don't truly love/believe in.}

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1 comments

  1. Ha, so glad I am not the only one storing a bathtub in my spare room! Hopefully it will be fitted within the next few weeks though, fingers crossed.
    Love these two rooms, gorgeous shapes and lovely features. Look forward to seeing your renovations. x
    http://www.annainternationalblog.com

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