World Sleep Day – Win A Pair Of Goose Down Pillows

A Good Night’s Sleep Is What You Should Be Paying For When Staying At A Hotel

It is World Sleep Day on Friday 15th March so I thought a piece about sleep would be appropriate from a hotel that prides itself on delivering a good night’s sleep, which is, all too often, so underrated.
If you’ve ever stayed at our Brecon hotel then you know what a peaceful night’s sleep feels like. But if you’re struggling to get your full quota, don’t be fooled by what you might hear – a lot of sleep does not equate to  true rest.  Experts consistently preach the benefits of a good sleep. Health, Environment, Attitude and Lifestyle all need to be considered. In this blog, we will be offering some of our own tips to ensure you have a good night’s sleep.

The Benefits of Sleep

Sleep has been shown to protect the immune system, but how much time we all need to spend sleeping is different; it is recommended that a healthy adult should sleep between seven and nine hours a night. Accumulating these hours will mean that you awake refreshed, having been allowed your brain to process all the information from the previous day.

Circadian Rhythm

This is your body’s natural sleep-wake cycle, mastering your unique circadian rhythm is one of the most important strategies for sleeping better. Continuity for when you go to bed and rise will set your internal clock and it will ensure that you have true quality sleep. We all want to wake up without an alarm and  full of energy. It is possible! Light exposure can help regulate your sleep-wake cycle but if your melatonin is disturbed then your circadian rhythm can suffer. Remember – more melatonin is produced in the dark, less in the light, so allow bright sunlight to wake you up in the morning and keep your room dark and cool at night.

Top Tips

• Support good sleep by the types of things you do in the day – fresh air and exercise always help, something our hotel has an abundant supply of on our doorstep. A walk over the hills of the Brecon Beacons will help you connect with nature, get your blood pumping and the fresh country air can be like medicine to a city dweller.
• Don’t get too carried away with food and drink at dinner – it can be tempting when your dining with us but feeling uncomfortably full before bedtime won’t help your body to relax.
• A dark room to block out any light. Melatonin is produced in these conditions and this tip offers a fantastically easy way to support your circadian rhythm. At Gliffaes we are fortunate to be within a designated “Brecon Beacons Dark Sky Reserve”, so light pollution ceases to be an issue in our corner of the world.
• A cool room, with fresh air. Unlike most other hotels at Gliffaes you can open the windows.
• A quiet room. At our hotel, the only noise you should be able to hear from outside will be the fountain in the courtyard or the river below the hotel.
• No screens for at least an hour before bed – these stimulate your brain and may disrupt your circadian rhythm
• A good quality bed that you will feel comfortable on, that fine balance of firmness against softness.

Beds, Linen and Pillows

The aforementioned final tip can be one of the most important and one that the hotel has the most influence over. To begin with we don’t buy hotel contract beds, we buy top quality Vi-Spring Elite divans and mattresses, handmade with all natural fillings. These we get from Webbs of Crickhowell. We invest in luxurious White Company linen, laundered in-house so we can ensure freshness and quality. This is topped with a goose down duvet.
And the crowning glory of a luxury bed,  luxury pillows. Our pillows are the, ‘Heritage Lucy Goosedown’ pillow from Mitre Linen, based just over the hill from Gliffaes in Merthyr Tydfil. We think these pillows make a huge difference to a good night’s sleep compared to unforgiving foam pillows often found in hotels.
You could win a pair of Lucy Pillows in our Sleep Awareness Day Giveaway. In conjunction with Mitre Linen we’re giving one of our lucky newsletter subscribers a pair of Heritage Lucy Goosedown Pillows. If you want to be in with a chance to win please make sure you are subscribed to our newsletter.
We hope these tips have been helpful – a good night’s sleep is guaranteed at our Brecon hotel. To experience a stay at Gliffaes book online today.