Stress and Sleep

Sleep and stress are inextricably linked. If you don’t get enough sleep, you’re generally stressed. The more stressed you become, the more difficult it is to sleep.  It’s a no-win situation for many.  Here are six reasons why it’s crucial to get adequate sleep, according to Harvard Women’s Health Watch.

• Learning and memory: Sleep helps the brain commit new information to memory through a process called memory consolidation. In studies, people who’d slept after learning a task did better on tests later. 

• Metabolism and weight: Chronic sleep deprivation may cause weight gain by affecting the way our bodies process and store carbohydrates, and by altering levels of hormones that affect our appetite.

• Safety: Sleep debt contributes to a greater tendency to fall asleep during the daytime. These lapses may cause falls and mistakes such as medical errors, air traffic mishaps, and road accidents.

• Mood: Sleep loss may result in irritability, impatience, inability to concentrate, and moodiness. Too little sleep can also leave you too tired to do the things you like to do.

• Cardiovascular health: Serious sleep disorders have been linked to hypertension, increased stress hormone levels, and irregular heartbeat.

• Disease: Sleep deprivation alters immune function, including the activity of the body’s killer cells. Keeping up with sleep may also help fight cancer. 

If you’re looking to achieve a stress free life via a good night’s sleep,  check out The Company Store (www.thecompanystore.com) for a broad selection of PrimaLoft® pillows, comforters, duvets, body pillows, mattress toppers and blankets that will wrap you in hypoallergenic, PrimaLoft® luxury.

-Rich Meddaugh

The Art of Power Napping

In honor of Better Sleep Month (May 2012), we’re going to explore the topic of sleep through several blog posts each week this month.

Today, we explore the art of power napping. Is a “power nap” possible to squeeze in during your day? If so, how should you go about selecting 30 minutes or so to grab a snooze, and what are the benefits?

Here are some tips to find a way to work a nap into your daily routine:

Focus on you: Try and figure out what times are best for you to nap and keep on that schedule. Sometimes varying your nap schedules can throw you off your game.  Keep a constant time in mind and try to keep it consistent.

Don’t go overboard: Try to keep naps to a 15-30 minute time range. Anything over thatand you’re not napping but straight out sleeping. Keep the nap to a minimum tocause less drowsiness from occurring.

Find a sleep spot: Unlike Seinfeld’s George Costanza, try not to sleep under yourdesk or a hall closet. Find a place that works best for you. The biggest partof the nap is the ability to be comfortable. Go to your happy place!

According to lifestyle and health blog ManageYourLifeNow.com, there are proper benefits to power napping:

-Strengthens our consciousness

-Wakes up our senses

-Helps us to make better decisions

-Reduces the risk of heart disease

-Improves our mood

-Strengthens our memory

-Improves our productivity

-Improves the functions of the brain and our reflexes                                                

One final note to add, consider one of the main sources of comfort when napping, the pillow. Many people don't realize the important role that their bedding plays in obtaining a good nap, or a good night's sleep.

According to sleep experts, pillows should be replaced every few years and sleeping with a comfortable pillow that supports your head and neck can greatly improve sleep quality. Along with proper nutrition and regular exercise, the quality and quantity of one’s sleep cycle is central to health and wellness and contributesgreatly to overall productivity and well-being.

Shop The Company Store, www.thecompanystore.com for a broad selection of luxurious PrimaLoft® bedding and pillows.

Happy napping!

- Written by Rich Meddaugh

Luxurious new PrimaLoft® bedding unveiled at Spring 2012 New York Home Fashions Market Week

Twice a year, each spring and fall, 295 5th Avenue in New York City becomes a nest of activity. Textile and home furnishing executives, retail buyers, merchandisers, specialty catalog execs, marketing execs and members of the press buzz throughout the storied building during Home Fashions Market Week.

295 5th Avenue: Home to many of the world’s largest and best known textile and home furnishing showrooms 

PrimaLoft® - The Luxury Down Alternative™, attends each NYC market week to meet with our bedding license, DOWNLITE, as well as dozens of retail and specialty/catalog brands, and trade press to discuss new products, innovations and marketing efforts for the PrimaLoft® brand.

Pillows, comforters, and blanket collections feature ultra-luxurious PrimaLoft® fibers for down-like loft, warmth, softness and comfort – without the drawbacks of down.

Here’s a sample of some of the new products unveiled at Home Fashions Market this week in NYC:

PrimaLoft® Thermo Comforter Collection: A premium comforter collection which features PrimaLoft® Thermo, a proprietary formula of ultra-fine fibers that mimic the loft, softness, warmth and comfort of down. This collection offers a selection of products providing varying warmth levels, as well as luxurious satin piping, 350 thread count 100% cotton covers, and a sophisticated and fresh signature pattern called Boutique Stripe.  

PrimaLoft® Thermo Blanket: This premium blanket provides ultimate warmth due to the luxurious PrimaLoft® Thermo ultra-fine fibers, and will be offered in a variety of colors with self-flange, and a sophisticated double diamond decorative quilt stitch.

Ultra Lite Zero Gravity PrimaLoft® Comforter: This new ultra-lite comforter provides luxurious warmth without the weight. Filled with PrimaLoft® Thermo ultra-fine fibers which mimic the loft, warmth, softness and comfort of down, this comforter also features a premium German-milled, micro-modal shell. It is outrageously soft and luxurious!

The PrimaLoft® brand is everywhere at NYC spring Home Market! These luxurious pillows are filled with PrimaLoft® - The Luxury Down Alternative™ fibers, and also proudly display the PrimaLoft® brand name and logo on side gussets.

PrimaLoft® Support Pillow Collection: A new collection of premium pillows featuring PrimaLoft® Support, a proprietary formula of ultra-fine fibers which provide down-like™ softness and comfort for pillows and mattress pads. The PrimaLoft® fibers provide a customizable sleep solution which cradles and supports the head, neck and shoulders. This collection features custom woven gussets, and a 300 thread count 100% cotton sateen cover.

PrimaLoft® Core Support Pillow: This pillow features a supported PrimaLoft® Memory inner core and a soft and luxurious PrimaLoft® Support surround. The PrimaLoft® Memory inner core features layered polyester fibers to create a foundation of comfort that forms to your head and neck and provides excellent memory recovery. The PrimaLoft® Support surround provides down-like™ softness and comfort for the best of both worlds. This pillow also features a 300 thread count cotton sateen cover.

One of our favorite products at spring market: a new Eddie Bauer travel blanket, filled with luxuriously soft PrimaLoft® fibers. Completely packable & ideal for travel, it comes with its own travel case and can pull double duty as a pillow when compressed.

-Diane O'Connor

How to Catch More ZZZ’s in Your Tent

How many of us have woken up in a beautiful campsite, with a super fun activity ahead of us for the day – hiking, biking, boating, climbing – only to be cranky and red-eyed because our night in the tent included little sleep and lots of tossing and turning?

In honor of Better Sleep Month, we thought tips for “how to sleep better while camping” was in order. Although sleep can be a very personal practice, what has worked for me over the years while camping has involved putting some thought into the following:

 Temperature regulation: Choose the right sleeping bag for the season. The last thing you want is to shiver all night, or wake up damp with sweat. For this very reason the almost-Jedi-like moisture-control capabilities of PrimaLoft make it a great choice for sleeping bag insulation. PrimaLoft is also much easier to care for since it’s machine washable – and a clean sleeping bag is a more pleasant one to sleep in.

 Noise control: Have you ever noticed how sound travels easily across camp sites, or how having a conversation with your friend in the next tent is so easy? If you are a sensitive sleeper to the point that other campers coughing, snoring or zipping a bag can wake you up, earplugs can help. The only time you should not wear earplugs are: when it’s raining, because rain drops on a tent are very soothing, and when you are camping next to running water, which is lullaby-like as well.

 Light control: Going to sleep when it’s dark and waking up when the sun rises can help fend off the early morning sunrise blast on the tent (and the heat that comes with it). Or, if you’re the type to sing songs around the campfire well into the night, try an eye cover for the morning hours.

 Comfortable ground position: This may seem obvious but it’s important to go as far as lying down and testing your chosen position on dirt before you stake down the tent. You may feel a rocky bump or incline that you didn’t see.

 Comfortable sleeping pad: If you are a movable sleeper, you can buy a sleeping bag with a pad sleeve to avoid the dreaded roll-off.

 Comfortable, compact pillow: The Quixote Design Classic synthetic pillow with PrimaLoft http://www.quixotedesign.com/ in size small (11x14) is an awesome camping pillow that travels well. Compressible, water-resistant and durable, this 10-ounce pillow is machine-washable, and its small shape fits perfectly in the hood of most sleeping bags.

  – By Christine Rasmussen

Stressful Job? Lack of Sleep? Find Out What You Can Do About It...

Since May is ‘Better Sleep Month,’ PrimaLoft® is providing helpful tips to get a better night of sleep.  This week’s feature:  Work-related stress and what you can do about it.

Recently, CareerCast released their annual list of the 10 Most Stressful Jobs of 2011, and the results may (or may not!) surprise you.  The 2011 list is populated with jobs often considered to be glamorous and well-paid, but whose workers pay the price in work-related stress:

1) Commercial Airline Pilot

2) Public Relations Officer

3) Senior Corporate Executive

4) Photojournalist

5) Newscaster

6) Advertising Account Executive

7) Architect

8) Stockbroker

9) Emergency Medical Technician

10) Real Estate Agent

Professionals in these fields often work long hours, have irregular work schedules, and many find themselves awake at night --stressed out about work.  

A great night of sleep is not something to be taken for granted – Harvard Medical School reports that a full night (7-8 hours) of sleep allows for major restorative functions  - muscle growth, tissue repair, protein synthesis, growth hormone release – which are necessary for survival and oftentimes only occur during sleep.  Harvard Medical School also reports that sleep deprivation inhibits the ability to perform a variety of cognitive functions over time, and sleep debt accelerates this, a theory known as “brain plasticity.” Yikes.  

So, how can you reduce work-related stress for a better night of sleep?  For starters, the way that you personally handle work-related stress has a great effect.  A Tel Aviv University study found that people who focused on their emotions during times of intense stress - those that became anxious - tended to lose sleep.  People who focused on the tasks at hand tended to have far more restful sleep, and slept longer overall.  

Another proven stress-buster is exercise,  for a number of reasons.  Exercise releases endorphins that put you at a more relaxed state, and as you focus on an exercise routine, you’re less likely to concentrate on work related stress, which results in clear, rational thinking. 

Speaking of rational thinking….If you’re interested in reading more about how to catch some zzzzz’s, check out PrimaLoft®’s previous blog posts about avoiding electronics in the bedroom and visit again soon for more well-rested tips. ‘Till then, sweet dreams!

//Nick Martin

Photo credits: © iStockphoto.com/jhorrocks