Bedrooms Are The Hub Of The Home

By Lisa Artis on October 25, 2013 in Blog

How the Sleep Council thinks the bedroom of the future will look – what do you think?

I love my bed. And I love to sleep. In fact, I think I could permanently move in to my bedroom! And now our latest survey to celebrate National Sleep In Day (October 27, the day the clocks go back and we all get an extra hour in bed) has found that over two thirds of us (68%) agree with me – with the bedroom being the room we spend most of our time in.

As the bedroom – and the bed in particular – increasingly becomes the ‘hub of the home’, our survey findings were very clear about what we want from the Bedroom of the Future.

Here’s the top five features – see if you agree:

1. Self-cleaning / bacteria resistant materials i.e. mattresses with self-sterilisation systems (47%)

2. Heat/humidity adaptive materials i.e. mattresses that heat/cool in response to conditions (42%)

3. Smart Bed monitoring your vital statistics as you sleep i.e a bed that can warn you if you have an infection, an oncoming cold or if you are about to have a heart attack etc (33%)

4. Seasonally adaptive lighting i.e. lights that turn on during the darker winter months to help you wake up in the morning (32%)

5. Energy-harvesting flooring and fixtures i.e. carpet that attracts the light and transfer this to useable energy (24%)

What do you think? It’s interesting that the majority of these responses relate directly to the bed and the bedroom environment which indicates that, while we do many other activities in our bedrooms, sleep remains the most important thing to do in bed!

We did have a little chuckle at some of the quirkier responses we got from respondents as to what features they would like their bedroom (and bed specifically) to have in the future:

- A hologram of Mr Darcy to read to me (yes please!)

- Ambient sounds; fall asleep to rainfall or wake to birdsong

- In the future (when arthritis hits) a bed that raises me to standing position on awakening

- Personally adapted supportive mattress that will ensure the body wakes up without aches and pains!

It’s no secret that technology is affecting our sleep. There’s not a month goes by where there isn’t another report or study into how we’re not switching off properly before bed. So it wasn’t surprising to find that:

• Surfing the net isn’t restricted to the office… 27% of us now use our desktop computers/laptops to surf the net in our bedrooms compared to only 11% 10 years ago

• Only 55% of us are intimate in our bedrooms with our partners, a 10% drop from 10 years ago (65%)

• Talking to our friends has never been easier…. 17% of us now like to chat on the phone in our bedrooms compared to only 10% 10 years ago

• 62% of 16 – 24 year olds like to eat in their bedrooms compared to only 22% of respondents overall…. in fact 16 – 24 year olds like to do most things in their rooms, 28% like to do hobbies/crafts (compared to only 8% overall), 76% like to listen to music (compared to only 36% overall) and 28% like to exercise (compared to only 12% overall)

• Reading is still one of our top bedroom activities coming out second (65%) in the things we do in our bedroom. What’s first? Sleeping of course!

Wishing you all a very Happy National Sleep In Day – hope you get a lovely lie-in with that extra hour in bed!