The following is a guest post from Patric Seeley.

If you’ve ever gone bed shopping with a Brit, you might have noticed a lot of going back and forth about
a certain manufacturer or a certain model. Among all online shoppers, Brits tend to be more scrutinizing
of product descriptions and specifications than others. This is why most online bed and mattress
retailers who cater to UK buyers do take the time to make their website as detailed as informative as
they possible.

But what exactly motivates the English to be rather picky about their beds? A research commissioned by
the National Sleep Council a few years ago had some rather revealing answers, while we provided the
humor and conjecture.

Compared to the rest of the world, the British are less likely to take sleeping pills. About 7%
of British people pop sleep aids while about 18% of people from other countries resort to
pharmaceuticals if they are having trouble with sleep. This means that for the most part, the
British will have less tolerance for an uncomfortable bed or mattress because they need to be
comfy in order to get in the right mood for sleeping.

The British are also more likely to go to bed without anything on. As you could probably
imagine, scratchy bed linens and bare skin don’t mix well together. It can be expected that
people who sleep in the buff would find beddings with high thread counts to be a worthy
investment, especially during the summer, when an estimated 51% of adults wear their birthday
suits and nothing else.

About 39% of adults perceive “relations” to be an effective sleeping aid. (Incidentally, this may also
explain the relatively lower reliance on sleeping pills.) And for people who have err.. more
trouble sleeping than most, sturdy bed frames and supportive mattresses do earn their [Read more…]