The Sleep Council is funded by the National Bed Federation, the trade association for British bed manufacturers.
Established since 1995, it is the consumer education arm that aims to:
• Raise awareness of the importance of a good night’s sleep to health and wellbeing.
• Provide helpful advice and tips on how to improve sleep quality.
• Provide helpful advice on choosing the right bed for optimum sleeping comfort.
We produce a number of information leaflets and guides – the main one being our Bed Buyers Guide. The Guide is packed with information about how to choose a new bed and what’s available in the marketplace. It is frequently requested by GP surgeries, osteopaths etc.
Other leaflets include: the Sleep Good Feel Good Guide and the Goodnight Guide for Children.
We have also worked with other organisations in the production of useful information leaflets and guides on beds, such as Back to Bed – a guide to bed buying for back pain sufferers, produced by BackCare, the national organisation for healthy backs.
Over the years, we’ve carried out many surveys and sponsored or commissioned a number of research projects. We’ve looked at how people with back pain and back care experts view beds and bed buying. We’ve compared sleep habits around the world. We’ve looked into beds, bedding and dust mites, examined in detail how beds deteriorate over time and compared people’s quality of sleep on a new bed versus their old ones; and on king size versus standard double beds, to name but a few.
Our library of articles and facts sheets covers advice and tips for senior citizens, for children, teenagers and twenty-somethings, shift workers, travellers, hot weather, cold weather and many more.
Every year we organise a couple of awareness events – often backed by promotions run by bed retailers or manufacturers. National Bed Month is in March – it’s our longest running promotion, started in 1990. We also organise National Sleep In Day in the Autumn: it’s the day the clocks go back when we all get an extra day in bed!
The Sleep Council focuses on giving advice and guidance on healthy sleep habits and would like to stress that we are not experts or specialists in the fields of sleep disorders or insomnia.
