How to | Have a Proper Lie-In

Leave your guilt at having a lie-in at the bedroom door. Done properly, it’s an artform. 

Oh the joy that is waking up early on a Saturday… and then remembering you don’t have to get up at all; it’s like stealing back a couple of hours from the world. While the element of pleasant surprise is a large part of a truly joyous lie-in, there’s a lot to be said for planning it well so you can really make the most of it. 

Here’s how to prepare thoroughly for a thoroughly decadent hour or two of extra duvet time. 

1. Set a date. If you live with others, let them know about your lie-in so there’s no chance of anyone asking you to help with anything come the time. If you have pets or children that need attention in the early morning, delegate these tasks in advance. 

2. Get to bed reasonably early the night before, and definitely don’t drink too much. A hangover is a total waste of a lie-in, You want to be able to enjoy it properly. 

3. Arrange catering. If you’re lucky enough to have someone willing to help with your lie-in, you could let them know whether your preference is for tea or coffee and what sort of breakfast you would like in bed. In our experience, though toast is the ‘go-to’ breakfast-in-bed item, it is the most crumb-sheddy also. A small fruit salad, or a little yoghurt with granola might actually be a better option. Or even a bacon sandwich. If there are no catering staff available, you’ll have to think a little out of the box; a Teasmade is always a good investment, but tea or coffee in a Thermos, taken up to bed with you the night before should stay nice and warm. In terms of sustenance, a cake tin under the bed containing a bit of banana loaf or something else to accompany your tea might work. No need to worry about what anyone thinks about your breakfast choices - no one else need know. 

4. There are a few things you’ll need to hand that can really make a lie-in. Firstly, a good alarm clock that you can set late but then put on snooze if you feel you want another forty winks before you are awake for the day. A radio is also a bit of a must. You can listen to whatever your choice of station is, but we must say The Rev Richard Coles on Radio 4 on a Saturday makes for excellent lie-in listening. Bonus points if you manage to stay in bed until the end of The Kitchen Cabinet at 11am. Also important is a light cardi to throw over your shoulders should you have a sudden burst of energy and decide to sit up in bed to drink your tea. Do also have a spare pillow to hand - because there’s nothing like a nice cold pillow to press your cheek to - a lie-in, after all, is a new event not a continuation of the night that precedes it, and as such it needs a new pillow. 

5. Consider media. You’ve got your radio, of course, but you might like to read a book or magazine as the sun peeks through the curtains. There’s nothing more annoying than not having exactly what reading material you fancy to hand, so take a good selection to bed with you and make sure they are within reaching distance. If you’re a podcast fan, that might also be a pleasant way to while away an hour or two. 

6. We are not fans of mobile phones in bed. Idle scrolling is not luxurious and won’t feel like a morning well spent. However, if you enjoy a natter of a weekend morning, you might like to have a phone to hand to call a friend. Even better, arrange for your friend to synchronise lie-ins with you and you can hold a duvet conference. Please note, this is no time for video calls - unless you know you happen to look very good first thing in the morning. 

7. Regarding a time to actually, rise, we recommend somewhere between 9am and 11am. You don’t want to be downstairs too early or it doesn’t feel like you’ve given the things a proper go. On the other hand, stay malingering in bed too long and it all starts to feel a bit sweaty and unwholesome. Enough is as good as a feast. 

8. When you’re ready to get up, do so slowly. Perhaps put on a little relaxing music and do a few stretches under the duvet before letting your toes reach out and find their way to your slippers. Morning!

The picture above is just one of the ‘views from my bed’ featured in our My Place pages in the February issue. Buy this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

More from our February issue…

More ways to enjoy your bed…

How to interpret your dreams

Looking for definite answers? You must be dreaming

Attempts at dream decoding date back centuries – think of Joseph interpreting Pharaoh’s dream in the Bible (or, indeed, in the Lloyd Webber musical), for example.

Although there are hundreds of ‘dream dictionaries’ available, they are generally lacking any factual back-up – very broad links is about as far as scientists have got. But while you might not figure out exactly what that particularly vivid dream was supposed to mean, there are other useful ways to consider our dreams that can help us in our everyday (real) lives:
       

• Because most believe dreams provide insight, they do affect our behaviour. For example, people asked to imagine they dreamt about a plane crash the night before a trip were more likely to cancel than if a real crash had happened. The dream also produced a similar level of anxiety as a real crash.
• If a dream has produced a strong reaction, it’s probably worth taking the time to reflect on it, and ask yourself if it bears any logical relation to your waking hours – even if that simply means less cheese before bed.

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View the sampler here.

More from the January issue:

More sleepy inspiration:

Nest | Sleep kit

With just a few adjustments, you can turn an ordinary bedroom into a decadent den of slumber

• Choose the right bedlinen and bedclothes If you get chilly, brushed cotton is snug and comforting. If you easily overheat (or have hot flushes) opt for silk or bamboo, both of which wick away heat. Silk pillowcases are heavenly – keeping your head cool and preventing wrinkles. Patra (patra.com) has a great selection of all these.
   
• Play a relaxation track
  Headphones are impractical when you’re trying to sleep, so play your favourite music or coloured noise through your pillow. Try the Sound Asleep Pillow (£19.99, soundasleeppillow.co.uk).
   
• Spritz your pillow with a sweet-scented mist Try Tisserand’s Sweet Dreams (£12.95; tisserand.com) or Calm Sleep Mist (£19.99; calm.com/uk/sleep-mist).
   
• Wake up gradually with increasing light courtesy of the Lumie Bodyclock (£59.95; lumie.com), which helps to reset your Circadian rhythm. The fading sunset light is also the ideal wind-down.
   
• Combine light, sound and aromatherapy with the dinky Alto Aroma Diffuser (£79.99; madebyzen.com). It mists your bedroom for an hour at a time, and you can play soothing sounds via its Bluetooth speaker.
   
• Add slumber-friendly potions to your bedtime bath or shower
  Try Bloom and Blossom’s Sleep Night-Time Bath Oil (£25; bloomandblossom.com) or Spa Magik Organiks’ Deep Sleep Lavender Bath Salts (£12.50; magikorganiks.com), which also contain sleep-friendly magnesium.
   
• Sip a soporific herbal Pukka NightTime (£2.49; pukkaherbs.com) and Free Soul Sleep Tea (£6; herfreesoul.com) sedate and soothe.

Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

View the sampler here.

More from the January issue:

More sleepy inspiration:

The comfort of things | Layering up

There are certain things in your home that are like good friends: they always cheer you up. This month we feel the love for a well made bed. 

A bed can have many layers, each of varying quality, cost and sophistication. Take your pick from the smorgasbord of tog ratings and thread counts and assemble yours to your own specification.

Mattress

The foundation of a good night’s sleep so worth investing in. The perceived wisdom is to change it every eight years, but this depends on the quality of the mattress.

Mattress protector

A thin, often quilted, cover to keep the mattress unsullied.

Mattress topper

An affordable option to changing your mattress. Padded with feathers or made from Memory Foam, it is an extra layer of support.

Electric blanket

A necessity as the temperature drops, even when the central heating is on: little makes you sigh with pleasure like getting into a toasty bed.

A sheet  

Flat sheets beat fitted in our book: you can fold them easily before putting into the airing cupboard, and you get to show off hospital corners. Thread count of 300 is ideal; it’s high quality and launders well. Ironing sheets may be considered a waste of time, but slipping into a bed made with freshly laundered cotton sheet is a civilising thing.

A duvet

There are too many choices of fillings and togs to go into here but a tog of 10.5 suits most, reduced to 4.5 in summer.

Duvet cover

Tempting though patterns and designs are, plain colours are more versatile, with white top of the heap.

Pillows

A better-quality pillow really does mean a better night’s sleep. Try a firmer pillow (mixture of down and feather) topped by a pure duck down pillow (expensive but dreamy) for a blissful combination.

Pillow cases

Choose between the annoyingly named ‘housewife’ (simple and plain, fits snugly over pillow) and the Oxford (has a fabric border with a mitred corners). Ideally, they should match the duvet cover.

A pillow protector

(a plain pillow case slipped inside) to prevent staining and ensure longevity of the pillow is a sensible addition.

Bedspread or quilt

An extra layer of warmth and handy for covering up rumpled bedding and toast crumbs.

Throw

Adds a touch of interior designer show-offiness and handy on chillier nights.

Cushions

Can be changed at whim. Also useful for propping yourself up if reading in bed. Pile neatly on to an ottoman at night.

Turn to page 114 of October's The Simple Things for more on the comfort of beds, including how to get that elusive plumped up showroom look.

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More from the October issue:

More home comforts:

Sponsored post: Five ways to make your bed cosier

Believe it or not, we spend a third of our lives sleeping and while most of us may be thinking that our 7-hours-a-day is the best we will ever get, there are some small changes that can make a big impact on the quality of your sleep.

Here are five ways to make your bed cosier.

1. Manage your sheets

Although tightly tucked sheets and blankets have long gone (replaced by the marshmallow loveliness of the duvet), sheets still have their place on the modern bed. And that place is on top of the mattress (and possibly the mattress topper, see below) not on top of you – top sheets that lie below the duvet may keep it clean but always, always, get tangled around your legs. But what sheets to choose? Thankfully the days of brushed nylon are over, replaced by easycare, no-iron cotton polyester but, really, breathable natural fibre is what you want. Cotton with a long staple such as Egyptian or Pima (grown in the US, Australia and Peru and sold under the name Supima) is considered best for strength and comfort. Sheets made from organic cotton, grown using methods and materials that have a low impact on the environment, are becoming increasingly available and worth looking out for. But linen is the queen of bedlinen. Spun from the fibres of the flax plant and repeatedly laundered in the manufacturing process,it is especially soft and becomes more so, the more it is used. It is also stronger than cotton, stays cool in summer and requires no ironing – if you are happy to live with rumpled sheets, which is part of the appeal. The downside is its price, which can be prohibitive, although H&M sells a linen double duvet cover and pillow set for £60.

Martha Stewart, who gets her bed changed almost daily(!), recommends replacing cotton and linen sheets with flannel (brushed cotton) sheets as the nights get colder. We’re with her on that, though not on the daily change thing. A word about thread counts: all bedlinen comes with a thread count. This is the number of threads per square inch or centimetre, which indicate how closely woven a fabric is. Finer threads produce smoother or softer fabric so a higher thread count is considered better quality: luxury bedlinen can have a thread count of 350 to 500 or higher. PS: Don’t even think about satin sheets.

2. Don’t ignore your pillowcases

Square pillowcases (65x65cm) have begun to appear on more beds as the ‘boutique hotel’ effect is aped by an increasing number of us. Too bulky for actual sleeping on, they are mostly decorative and sit behind the more conventional pillowcases: the Housewife, a plain fabric envelope (50x75cm), and the Oxford, which has a wide fabric border. It’s easy to forget to change pillowcases but considering the amount of time we spend with our faces pressed up against them, it’s worth doing so every couple of weeks. If you don’t, you face the grim prospect of facial oil, dead skin and residue from shampoo and general grime, clogging up both pillowcase and facial pores. A pillow protector prevents all of this besmirching the actual pillow (Marks & Spencer has some quilted ones). Some people swear that silk pillowcases make hair shinier and less static and skin less creased, and it’s certainly true that are lovely to lie against. Worth giving a go.

3. Create a pile-up

Propping pillows against the bedhead, magazine-rack style, gives the bed an extra dimension and prevents it slumping into limp student grunginess. Chuck a few cushions in front and you’re pillowscaping. Consider square pillows, too – they look good piled up in front of your regular pillows – and come with the added benefit of being a reading-in-bed prop (a bolster is also good for this). Whatever you do, avoid pulling a bedspread over the pillows unless you want the unwary to think they’ve stumbled across a dead body. Bedspreads look best folded back to frame your pillowscaping work and reveal your lovely linen sheets.

4. Chuck on a throw

A throw or blanket in a co-ordinating colour or pattern, draped over the duvet, is an easy win in the bed-styling game. Keep it folded at the foot of the bed and it will also keep toes toasty, or higher up within grabbable distance for shoulder-wrapping warmth when TV-in-bed watching.

5. Go for extras

Anyone bitten by the bedlinen bug will know that it’s hard to stop buying it, once you start. Fortunately, there are no end of options to pimp your lie-in. Mattress toppers come filled with down, cotton fibre, topped with merino wool or made from memory foam, and add a layer of softness and ease to the bed (although an old duvet makes an adequate substitute). Bedspreads and quilts are handy for dragging over everything else when bed making really is too much to contemplate, and of course they bring colour and pattern. Valances, ra-ra skirts for divan bases, are good if you like flounce and can’t bear the sight of an undisguised bed base. And finally: if you have never considered an electric blanket, now might be the time to do so: a whole world of snuggly winter warmth and luxuriant comfort awaits you.

The design and sleep experts at Hästens can advise on the best bed buys that will have you waking up bright eyed and bushy tailed every day.