Studies in sleep – conclusions drawn from blogs this week
Now that we have introduced you to the common sleep factor problems students encounter and the potential solutions to them Millbrook Contract Beds would like to lend itself to recommendations on how student residences and students houses can help in their ongoing battle with optimising sleep – our answer is academic contract beds.
Of course, sometimes its not up to the individual student and mostly down to landlords and residential lettings in terms of bed quality but as a student you have a right to demand a decent bed. Just because they’ve given you some dust-mite ridden ten year old mattress and cheap wooden slat base doesn’t mean you can’t demand better.
Our recommendations are that you select genuine academic contract beds intended for the very purpose of making your sleeping life easier and effortless. 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.
The Campus
The Campus is a smart design that features open coil springs and a standard comfort level. This tends to be the most popular bed for halls of residences, student accommodations and hostels. The mattress has a fresh design in an easy to clean stitchbond cover. The bed frame is available with fixed or detached legs. It’s worth investing in a durable bed for student housing because you want the beds to last beyond just one student stay.
The Conference
Meet the bed that is ideal for space-saving! The Conference has an open coil mattress on a metal skid leg base. With a wipe clean breathable mattress cover that can be leaned time and time again. The fabric which we use dissipates body heat too. No night sweats here! It contains high levels of woollen felt to ensure comfort levels are maintained.
The Residence
Sometimes all you need for those short-term student stays are beds that are reliable and efficient. The Residence has a PVC mattress cover and is highly practical and durable in many types of locations. It’s a hard wearing and comfortable design. It’s also ideal for wipe clean hygiene purposes.
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.
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.
This Millbrook Contract Beds signing off for the weekend. Good sleeping to everybody!
An Education in Sleep
In our last blog we discussed the problems that have been documented by scientific studies and surveys regarding the nature of student sleep cycles for both children and teenagers. Students tend to sleep odd hours due to their thirst for nocturnal awareness and activity. Millbrook Contract Beds has very much been interested in exploring these problems further and finding the solutions to what could be described as an epidemic of sleep deprivation for the youth of today.
Following on from our introduction in the previous blog now we want to get into exploring the potential solutions to this problem. For students of all ages – teenagers or even those in their twenties – here’s some advice to help you to focus on, absorb and retain information imparted to you in class through better sleep routines.
1. Revision is a necessity for some students and a pre-requisite of any major course at college or university. We recommend that you stop your revision a good hour or two before you want to sleep. You brain needs to wind down and in order to process everything you have been studying over the course of the evening it needs adequate sleep time.
2. Exercise is a great option, especially if you’re already sporty. It’s a perfect way to reduce stress levels and tire you out to help sleep.
3. One major problem that students seem to frequently cause themselves sis eating heavy ad unhealthy meals just before bed – whether they do this in a drunken stupor or simply because they are pressed for time, it spells bad things for your sleep. Don’t eat a heavy meal too close to bedtime or your body will not be able to relax due to the digestion and acids churning around in your stomach. This is why many people suffer with heartburn during the night.
4. A simple piece of advice is to completely avoid caffeinated drinks such as tea, coffee, or fizzy drinks after 6pm. These only serve to unnecessarily stimulate you when you should be winding down.
5. Enjoy a glass of milk before bed instead. Milk contains a chemical called tryptophan which is an essential component of the body’s sleep mechanism. This is a highly recommended technique, especially if you like to have a cold drink before bed – forget the alcohol and fizzies – and say yes to milk!
6. Make sure your room is entirely prepped to go dark when your lights go out. Complete darkness helps you to feel as though you are already on your way to sleep (like a general form of hypnosis) and there is nothing left to distract your eyes. Turn off all electronics so there are no lights or blinks or beams within eyeshot – yes, this includes mobiles. No one should need to call you in the middle of the night!
7. A strange but effective tip is to wear socks to bed. Feet have the poorest circulation in the body and therefore heat escapes from your body this way. Warm comfort is key though this is not to be confused with making yourself hot. Too hot or too cold can be just as bad as each other.
8. Ever tried counting sheep when you have had trouble getting to sleep? The night before an exam can cause a lot of stress and keep you awake as the anxiety gets to you. Try counting sheep. It focuses the mind on a mundane task instead of your worries and stresses. Although it is recommended that if you really cannot sleep you should get up and do something to make yourself feel naturally tired such as read a book.
9. Try to avoid the presence of TV, co mputers in your bedroom unless of course you don’t have anywhere else for them to be as it can be all too tempting to take a peek at Facebook or your email instead of sleeping– we do realise this is the least likely tip to ever be taken up by a student. Internet access and televisions are such commonplace in a student room that it would hardly be a student room without them. But see if you can do without them for a day and see how you do.
10. The night before an exam can be a very stressful one. Often the adrenaline keeps you awake and sees yout rhough into the next day. Our only recommendation is that you don’t start taking sleep medication to assist you. Unless you have a diagnosed sleep disorder and have been recommended by a doctor to take it you don’t need it.
And those are our top tips for student survival when it comes to sleep and study. In the next part in this blog series we will talk about sleeping environments and the academic contract beds we have designed to optimise sleep for those who have educational commitments.
We’ll see you soon. In the meantime please follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
Students Need Sleep – An Introduction to Catching Zzzz’s
Poor sleep can affect a student’s grades, motivation, concentration and their emotional state. With more and more stories popping up in the news about 11-20 year old age groups suffering in education simply because they do not have consistent sleep patterns Millbrook Contract Beds thought it was time to take a look at some of the issues behind this and some of the potential solutions.
Recent studies conducted in different countries by a range of highly respected sleep clinics has determined that younger persons really do need to get roughly 10 hours per night. That includes teenagers. Remember, their bodies and minds are still developing and to nurture that they need adequate sleep time.
College and university students are among the most sleep-deprived out of all demographics simply because of their 24 hour party lifestyle and then vigorous hours of study and research crammed in between. It can be seriously crippling to a young person. Many of these students settle having between 4-6 hours worth of sleep yet it is the first two and last two hours of sleep that matter most hence why 8 hours should be the minimum in order to fully recharge and reset.
The all-nighter is infamous as being an opportunity to study or an excuse to socialise, hard. Sleep deprivation has been proven to impair mental function and ultimately weaken the immune system. Sleep is essential, and has been scientifically proven, to maintain memory, mood, and overall cognitive performance.
If the students are still in school and under the roof of their parents then it up to the parents to enforce stricter bedtime rules and ensure their children are getting the hours required for them to be alert and aware come the morning ring of the school bell. However, once teenager reach 16 they begin to flirt with independence in their learning and education by choosing college and courses that suit their desires and pursuits. This is when they begin deciding what they want to do with their lives and how they choose to live them. Usually, bed time rules cease to apply to them and they begin making their own.
So if you’re a student and you’re independent from home without rules and restrictions from parents; stay with our blog this week for an in-depth exploration of how sleep can be optimised to help academic studies. We can help you achieve a better quality of sleep and fully realise your potential for absorbing more information in classes/lectures.
Ideally you should be getting 9 hours of sleep a night as a teenager. That won’t always be possible of course. Sometimes circumstances just make that impossible and we understand that.
If you want to be on top form in an exam then it’s essential you get a good night sleep. In the next part in this blog series we will tell you how!
Millbrook Contract Beds is dedicated to providing the best sleep experiences for everyone and we hope we can be of help in our blog from time-to-time. For academic contract beds please follow the link or for general sleep advice follow us on Twitter and the blog.
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.
Revisiting the Millbrook Contract Beds collections – Academic
At Millbrook Contract Beds we’ve started down a road of revisiting our contract bed collections to refresh our customers on just what makes us such leading experts in sleep and comfort. With the anticipation alive for the 2012 Olympics this year, we thought it pertinent to get back to the basics of our business. Read what we had to say about our International Collection for the hospitality industry HERE. Continue reading »
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 »
Comfort zone – a guide for the hotel sector
It’s been a while since we covered the basics of comfort in hotels and hotel contract beds. Our main interests lie in helping people find their comfort zone when it comes to sleep. In the lead-up to the 2012 London Olympics we think the pressure on hotels meeting the demands of service and quality is going to be pretty huge, so our back-to-basics advice on contract beds is probably timely. Continue reading »
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.