What makes a good night’s sleep at Millbrook Contract Beds – Part 2

In a previous blog Millbrook Contract Beds walked you through the essential factors involved with getting the best out of a night’s sleep through contract bedroom furniture whether you are a private home, hotel, academic residence or healthcare facility.

Having covered those essential ingredients to giving people the best sleep possible with contract beds, it’s time to discuss the environment itself.

What do we mean by environment exactly?

Well, it’s simple stuff really and these tips can apply to all industries that deal with supplying rooms and beds to people.

1. Room temperature

This is really is important to creating a comfortable environment fit for sleep. A guest or resident needs to have a temperature that isn’t too hot or too cold. In summer there needs to be a competent air conditioning system in place that gives coolness to the rooms at night, while in winter, heating is a must-have option. In an ideal space the person staying in the room will have independent or remote access to the temperature so they can self-adjust it to their own comfort level.

2. Schedules

While you cannot enforce sleep schedules with guests or residents you can provide a guide for them to adhere too. No noise past a certain time is of course a given, simply because other residents can be disturbed by too much disturbance. Also a curfew for closing the front doors and hallway lights out usually gives guests an idea of just what time is the right time for bed. If people stick to a strict sleep schedule they will feel far more refreshed the next day.

3. Exercise

Everybody knows the importance of exercise for general health but what can make it such a great benefit is that it helps people to sleep more peacefully. Hotels can offer gym facilities for guests to use and work out in. People’s bodies use the sleep period to recover their muscles and joints that have been exercised. However, it is only recommended that gym facilities be open until a certain time (usually 8pm or 9pm). Exercise directly before sleep is too stimulating and will make it more difficult for guests to drift off.

4. Limit room services at night

It can be very tempting for guests or residents to call on your services for midnight meals and snacks but by enforcing a curfew on food and drink availability up to a certain time you contribute to guests having a better night’s sleep overall. Eating or snacking before bed (including drinks with caffeine) is the worst thing for sleep.

5. Provide reading materials

And we don’t just mean having a copy of the Bible in the drawers between the contract beds! We mean you should provide a reasonable selection of up-to-date newspapers, fiction books and magazines so that there is something to read before your guests/residents sleep. As most avid readers know, reading a book for bed is the best way to fall asleep as you grow more and more tired the further you read.

This is some of our best advice for providing the right seep environments for guests and residents in any industry that provides sleeping facilities. Millbrook Contract Beds has been in the business of sleep for over 60 years, so when we give you our top tips on the subject, you can be sure its up-to-date, honest and useful.

Contact Us for further information on contract beds and sleep related advice.

Feng shui in the bedroom – completing the journey

Millbrook Contract Beds continues its exploration of the art of Feng Shui in this final part of our blog series.

In the previous blogs we introduced you to the concept of Feng Shui for businesses that use commercial beds and followed that up with a blog on how to create the right environment with contract bedroom furniture to the most positive, balanced and harmonious effect using this ancient Chinese method.

As stated before, feng shui is actually a mathematical science that deals in aesthetics designed to orient places and people in an auspicious and positive way. The reflection of a room reflects on the person, and that can often dictate their impression of the place they are staying in. If a hotel, care home or academic residence wants to make good impressions and provide peaceful, affirming surroundings and environments for their guests, then feng shui is a great place to start in accomplishing that goal.

As we have looked at contract beds and their effect on a room’s aesthetic, mood and feel, we thought it best to offer some ideas to what else contributes to making a room the right environment for sleep and relaxation.

1. Colour contributes to the atmosphere and energy of a room and in fact creates the biggest aesthetic impression. Use soft pastels in shades of beige, blue, green, white and yellow which are ideal for tranquil, peaceful sleep. Think of soothing colours for both the decor of the room and the sheets and pillows for the contract beds.

2. Consider adding a potted plant to the room on a desk or by the window, but not too close to the bed.  By observing nature it is easier to see that the rhythmic movement of plants and trees which are the foundation for cultivating essence and energy. While this may sound preposterous, it really does help people to relax, focus and feel good. Ultimately, that is what you want people to feel after a stay at your hotel or residence.

3. Keep the rooms aired when no one is staying there. If the air is stale, any chance at accomplishing feng shui in the room is already compromised. The same standard applies to having freshly prepared sheets everyday on the contract beds. This is a regular practice for most hotels in the hospitality industry anyway.

4. Choose the imagery for the room wisely. Make sure the paintings, photos and artwork (if you choose to have any) reflects positive, aspirational images, not sad, lonely or depressing images.

5. In an ideally designed feng shui bedroom, every item, colour, spacing and position should reflect clear intent for healing and relaxation.

Whether you believe in the healing benefits of Feng Shui or not, it can provide amazing aesthetic designs and ideas that help people to instantly feel at home.

If you are looking to find the right contract bedroom furniture or contract beds for you business, please contact us for more information.

Feng Shui in the bedroom – Creating balance in sleep

In the previous blog, Millbrook Contract Beds took you through the ideas and concepts behind Feng Shui for businesses that use contract bedroom furniture. You can read that blog HERE.

In this second part of the Feng Shui blog series we want to take you through what can be achieved through implementing Feng Shui techniques and ideas. These methods can apply to hotels, care homes, academic residences and even private homes. In part it can be used as a form of interior design. The idea behind Feng Shui is that its about finding and maintaining a healthy balance through aesthetics in an environment which helps to orient places and people.

Most commercial bed buying businesses want to create a guest experience for the people that stay with them.  So, how can you make a normal bedroom into a really good feng shui bedroom that helps to improve the guest experience?

You have start with the most important feature of a bedroom – the contract bed. Everything else is designed to fit around the bed from the wardrobes and desks to the carpets and general decor. The goal is to promote a harmonious environment that lures people in to excite and to calm them.

First of all, a pleasing aesthetic is crucial. Design, style, appearance are highly beneficial to attaining good feng shui. Light colours, practical design. A good looking and well-balanced contract bed that is comfortable and attractive helps set the right tone for the room.

A good mattress and supportive base make all the difference to a guest’s mood and sense of refinement. Make sure that the bed is easily approachable from both of its sides with two symmetrical bedside tables on each side too.

One of the biggest feng shui tips is to never have the bed in direct line with the door as it unconsciously promotes a feeling of uneasiness in the sleeper.

Contract beds with headboards make a big difference. Firmly affixed headboards represent protection. A solid fabric headboard is your best choice.

Purchase contract beds that are comfortable but also “feel” right for a room. Contract beds should help guests to achieve a restful night’s sleep so they can wake up feeling refreshed and renewed. Sometimes you can tell when a certain bed doesn’t belong in a room.

Many of these things operate on an unconscious level, but can make a guest experience better for having tried them out.

Millbrook’s contract beds have been designed to optimise better sleep, and the International Collection’s Executive and Hotel bed ranges are the ideal choices to suit a feng shui tailored environment. Take a closer look at the collection choices to determine for yourself, or alternatively, contact us for further information and advice.

Feng shui in the bedroom – The mathematics of comfort

Millbrook Contract Beds has been doing some reading up on its Feng Shui history. We’ve been wondering just how important the positioning and spacing of your contract bedroom furniture really is. As it turns out; it’s very important. This blog is an introduction to the concept of Feng shui being used for businesses that use commercial beds and other contract bedroom furniture.

In a nutshell; Feng Shui is a mathematical system of aesthetics designed to orient places and people in an auspicious and positive way. Over the years this ancient method has been westernised into a pseudo-philosophy that many have mistaken for something that it isn’t. Feng shui teaches that finding a precision in distance, positioning and space is key to creating the right environment, atmosphere and aesthetic. This “right” environment helps relax, focus and leave a positive effect on the body and mind.

So how does this apply to contract bedroom furniture you may ask?

For any hotel, hospital, care home or academic residence that use contract bedroom furniture, particularly contract beds, they often arrange their rooms by placing the furniture in any old position just as long as it fits in. If the essential necessities are in the room then very little thought goes into what can be achieved through improving the positioning and spacing between objects. As a method for creating aesthetically pleasing rooms, Feng Shui is a successful interior design technique; as a method for improving a person’s state of mind it can and has been known to generate positive effects on the people who practice it. It’s all about finding a balance.

Imagine the guests at a hotel or the patients in a care home or students in a residence being in this kind of balanced, healthy environment. It can do wonders for them in terms of their attitude when they are in their respective rooms whilst also improving their quality of sleep.

Here’s some basic tips to help get you started with changing up the “feel” and “mood” of your rooms:

1. Clear some space from the rooms that seem too cluttered. Excessive debris and objects scattered about the place lead to a scattered mind.

2. Try to get the right lighting, avoiding the harshness of fluorescents bulbs or strip lights. Softer lighting reflects a softer and more peaceful environment.

3. Brighten up those walls with lighter tones. Dark, drab walls make people reflect that in their moods.

4. Any potted plants and greenery will help promote a natural feeling environment. Plant are unconsciously soothing to people.

5. When it comes to the placement of your contract beds and bedroom furniture within the room it may come down to factors such as the room’s shape, size and the number of items that need to be in it. This is not always such an exact science.

In the next, follow-up blog, Millbrook Contract Beds will take you through the process of Feng Shui for contract beds and contract bedroom furniture with some more examples and ideas of what you can do to improve the mood and feel of a room.

For general information on our ranges contact us and we will be happy to help you.

Preparing for the influx of summer students this year?

It’s not just the Olympics that will be bringing people to our shores in 2012. Summer in the UK brings with it a huge influx of tourism and foreign students. They come from all over the world, packing up their cases and heading for the airport to make the most of their summer studying in the UK.

With all these extra numbers flooding to our sunny shores in search of a place to stay, it can be a struggle to keep up with the demand for beds. Campuses all across the country will be looking to make the most of the space available by choosing the most compact, space-saving beds available, which is why Millbrook Contract Beds have designed an entire range of beds specifically targeted towards Academic Residences.

Each of the contract beds in this dedicated Academic range are ideally suited to the unique challenges posed by an academic setting, being highly durable and hardwearing while at the same time representing an economical option.

The first solution in our practical range of Academic Contract Beds is the Conference bed, available in a range of sizes from Single to Super King Size – in fact we even offer the convenient option of bespoke non-standard sizes made to fit your needs perfectly. The Conference’s open coil and woollen felt stuffed mattress design ensure a comfortable night’s sleep, while the breathable fabric is sure to keep you cool on even the hottest summer night. The solid metal frame and wipe-clean mattress style also mean this bed will last for many Summer seasons to come.

Next on the list of Millbrook’s dedicated Academic Contract Bed collection is the stylish Residence bed, available in the space-saving Single size of 90cm x 190cm. The sophisticated wooden headboard of this elegant design is sure to add a touch of class to any academic residence and fit in with any decor scheme without breaking the bank. At the same time, the easily cleanable PVC covered mattress perfectly addresses the paramount priority of hygienic bedding solutions.

Finally, Millbrook’s Academic collection is rounded off with the Campus bed design, a comfortable and versatile contract bed with an open coil type mattress and the option of detachable or fixed legs, allowing you to adjust the height of the bed to best suit your accommodation needs. As with all Millbrook’s Academic styles, the Campus is easy to clean to save you time preparing your rooms. What’s more, it’s also available in a wide range of sizes to fit every room.

Whichever of these quality student contract beds is right for your Academic Residence, we hope we at Millbrook beds can help you ensure your busy summer season ahead goes by without a hitch.

Student sleep cycles versus Millbrook contract beds

Sleep studies are suggesting that students of the college and university variety are losing sleep due to overindulgence in party lifestyles, bad diet regimes and ramshackle sleep cycles. This comes as no surprise to anyone we’re sure. Part of the attraction to being a student for younger people is the pure unadulterated freedom to act out and go wild. Millbrook Contract Beds would like to step in to give our two cents on this particular matter – and no we’re not old granddads without any sense of fun over here! We just know that sleep matters… A lot. Continue reading »

Hibernating this winter with Millbrook Contract Beds – An Introduction

Let’s face it; the winter has arrived. There’s no sense in denying that the temperatures have dropped significantly, the mornings are far darker and the weather is increasingly wet and windy. Getting quality sleep during these winter months is one of the most difficult dilemmas in the annual sleeping calendar. It’s cold, damp and a breeding ground for illnesses of all sorts.

When darkness falls, our internal body clock begins to wind down and our bodies prepare for rest. Lots of people feel far more tired during the winter because of the harsher conditions around them and the shorter days. It’s a combination of factors that lead to this greater sense of tiredness in a person including the shorter periods of sunlight, losing that extra hour of sleep when the clocks go back, the body’s burning of more energy in order to stay warmer and battling against various cold and flu symptoms.

It’s the worst time for trying to get a good night’s sleep, that’s for sure. People want to be comfortable, warm and secure more than ever when it comes to their sleep environments. Millbrook Contract Beds is prepared however… Here’s what we think on the matter.

We see winter as a time of hibernation where people spend more hours in bed and much more time indoors. For industries dealing with guests, residences and patients that require the use of contract beds in their rooms, how these wintry issues are handled is of paramount importance. You have to treat it like you would in your own home.

Contract beds are only one part of the issue. A room must be a fit environment for winter sleep. That’s why looking at the bedroom as if you were creating a nest for hibernation is a good strategy to use. Create a dry, warm, comfortable and clean room that is heated correctly and isn’t full of unnecessary contract bedroom furniture items or distracting elements like computers with Internet access. It may seem like it doesn’t make a difference but it does.

Make the room a place of rest and sleep so your “human hibernation” can take place each night without interruption or distraction. This way the correct amount of sleep can be achieved in maximum comfort.

Central heating and insulated walls, floors and ceilings plus double glazed windows are essential parts of completing a suitable, satisfactory sleep environment this winter. Anyone who has ever slept in a room without double glazing and insulated surroundings can tell you how cold it can get! There are other things to look out for too such as drafts from under the door, condensation, dampness, blankets and duvets and of course the contract beds you use.

In the second part of this blog to prepare you for the cold months ahead we will delve further into how to get a good night’s sleep this winter. Don’t forget you can follow Millbrook Contract Beds on Twitter and like us on Facebook to stay in touch with us and our community.

Contact Us for more information on our contract beds and sleep advice.

Quality of sleep affects students academic performance – Millbrook Contract Beds

Recent studies by medical and health professionals have indicated that the amount of sleep that students receive each night can affect their academic performance.

Millbrook Contracts Beds has investigated further into this by undertaking some research of our own into this area.

From what multiple studies we have found, teenagers who sleep between 7-8 hours per night score significantly higher in exams than students who sleep too much or too little. This is clearly down to a lack of sleep inhibiting normal growth and development of the brain. In turn this affects the synapses need for communication.

Sleep deprivation during the most sensitive time for development during adolescence can lead to even more serious learning and functioning problems further down the line.

So what is it that students are doing wrong to cause themselves such restless sleep cycles?

Well, the first and most obvious factor involved here is their lifestyle choices. Late nights spent watching television, eating junk foods, having many distractions in the bedroom from internet access to computer consoles, all contribute to bad sleep cycles.

How can we help?

Millbrook specialise in contract beds that are handmade to create the ultimate in luxury sleep. Our 60 years experience has given us the blueprint from which to base our incomparable designs. When it comes to the comfort needs of the academic industry we offer our Academic Collection.

Essentially, this collection combines practicality, comfort and economy to create an ideal sleep scenario for younger persons who need to get a good night’s sleep. There are models to suit every situation and location with durable and hard wearing mattresses and frames.

There are multiple choices available for bed frames and legs with these contract beds giving them a flexibility and space-saving potential that most other beds cannot provide.

The Campus contract bed is one of the most popular choices for academic residences from boarding schools to university campuses where smart design features, open coil springs and a fresh mattress give the precise level of comfort required.

The Campus Contract Bed

Students MUST have high quality beds and they MUST be maintained to the same standard of quality.

However, at the end of the day when all is said and done, we can only offer the most comfortable option for students to help them get the best sleep possible, but it is up to the individuals to make sure they regulate their sleep environments to make them fit for a peaceful night ahead. Get rid of the distractions in the room, set yourself regular sleep hours and avoid all the pitfalls of sleep affecting behaviour.

For a list of top tips on what to do and what not to do before bed CLICK to read our “What makes a good night’s sleep” blog HERE.

Contact Us for more information on our Academic Collection or any of our other contract beds.

The aftermath of student living and the damages inflicted to the contract bedroom furniture

If you’re a private landlord or a lettings agency that lets out to students you may well be aware of the potential risks or indeed already accustomed to renting properties out to groups of students. Remember, for some of them it is their first time away from home and living with people of a similar age to them results in providing plenty of opportunities to party. Not to say you can label all young students as crazy party-goers; there are many that are a pleasure to have as tenants, but there will always be those that cause considerable problems for a landlord or lettings agency.

The issues that properties can often suffer from are noise pollution, late payments for rent and sometimes damage to the property itself from the interiors, exteriors and contract bedroom furniture.

Millbrook Contract Beds wants to address what happens if you find that during the academic seasons that a property you are letting has incurred damage to its contract beds, its table, chairs, carpets etc. You only need to perform a quick search on the Internet to see and read some of the nightmare stories of landlord clean-ups after wild students vacate a property. Some don’t even care that they won’t see their deposit returned. This creates the problem of what to do next. You may have the money available from the non-refunded deposits to afford new contract bedroom furniture but you have to consider your options.

As one of the best contract bed suppliers in the business, Millbrook knows where you can start – by contacting us!

We have extensive experience in the business of contract bed replacement where once the old contract beds have worn out their welcome or been treated with poor care, we deliver the new beds and get rid of the old ones for you. This can help many lettings agencies and landlords sidestep the landmine of what to do with those contract beds that have been decimated by their previous tenants.

The Academic Collection is a Millbrook favourite that can be sued as temporary or permanent replacements in a student house.

Temporary solutions to contract bed problems can be found with the use of The Residence – a highly practical and durable bed with PVC mattress that is hardwearing in many types of locations. It has no drawers, which means there is space for storage beneath it. This type of contract bed is better as short-term solution to bed problems or as a “back-up” bed to help create extra sleeping space.

The Campus contract bed is designed especially for student residences and campuses (hence its name). In a crisis you need to ensure that you have the right contract bed replacement option available to you. it’s a smart design with open coil springs and standard comfort level. The bed frame is available with fixed or detachable legs with a mattress that has a fresh design in an easy to clean stitchbond cover.

Millbrook Contract Beds is always open to giving people impartial advice on their contract bed options. Contact Us for more information or you can always follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook and ask us your questions there.

New Term, New Beds – A Guide to Choosing Contract Beds for your Halls of Residence

As we mentioned in the last blog article, it’s rapidly approaching that time of year when a whole new crop of eager students say goodbye to their parents and head for a new life at University.

For owners of student residences across the country, this means time is running out to choose, order and install a new set of contract beds. We already led you through exactly why you’ll benefit from replacing the beds in your academic halls of residence in our last blog, by mentioning the fact that students have become more hard working and more sensitive to the need for a good night’s sleep.

Now, however, we’re moving on to the next stage in the process; how to make your choices once you’ve decided on bringing in a new set of beds.

We offer three different ranges of contract bed designs especially for an academic setting at Millbrook Contract Beds, so there’s bound to be a model to suit your academic halls wherever they are located. Each of these different beds have been specifically designed to provide the perfect balance between quality and affordability, providing a rare touch of class to the task of buying beds in bulk.

The Millbrook Academic collection consists of three different beds, named the Conference, the Campus and the Residence, each with its own unique special features to meet your needs. Both the Campus and the Conference options are available in a range of sizes, from the standard single to a giant Super King size, plus the option of custom sizes to fit individual rooms.

A zip and link design which allows a double bed to be transformed into two singles is another handy alternative. This can come in especially useful if your halls are rented out as tourist accommodation or conference suites outside of the academic year, when twin rooms and double rooms are more likely to be needed than they are for students.

Each of the beds is designed to include space beneath it as an extra place for students to store their belongings. However, if a lower bed is needed, for instance if the room already contains a low bedside table, or even if you want to avoid hard-to-vacuum areas under the bed, the Campus design’s removable legs mean it can be effortlessly lowered.

Mattress material is another important thing to consider. The Campus and Residence designs are expertly stuffed with warming woollen felt for an affordable way to create a comfortable sleep experience. The Conference is a little more luxurious, on the other hand, and is made using decadent lambswool, cotton and soft white fibres to dissipate body heat more effectively.

All options are built using an open coil design to support the sleeper’s back and have wipe-clean surfaces for hygiene in a variety of different patterned or plain designs. There’s also a choice of material where the bed-frame and headboard are concerned, where wood, metal and fabric-covered options are all available.

If all these choices seem a bit much for you however, why not just contact Millbrook’s dedicated team for specialist advice on which of our range would suit your academic institution best? Just make sure to get in there fast, as before you know it, the new students will already be walking through your doors, ready for an exciting year ahead.

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