Sleep for anyone of any age means having the right linens. This includes not only pillows and the bed itself (frame and mattress), but also the right fitted sheet, bed sheets, blankets, and anything else. This keeps a person warm and comfortable during sleep, and this is important for children and adults alike. The National Sleep Foundation conducts regular studies and surveys to study how Americans sleep and how they should sleep, and the National Sleep Foundation has set up some general guidelines and suggestions on this topic. A person who reviews the National Sleep Foundation’s guidelines and findings may also find out the safest and most effective bedding solutions for babies, since babies have particular needs when it comes to sleep. This may range from hypo allergenic sheets to fitted crib sheets to baby waterproof sheets and more.
On Sleep
The National Sleep Foundation has found some general trends on how American adults and children alike get their sleep, including survey results. For example, fresh and clean sheets may make sleep easier and more enticing, as 78% of Americans report being more excited to sleep if their sheets have a fresh scent. Many Americans are in fact sleep-deprived due to a busy or stressful lifestyle, and that even includes children. Most grade school aged children get an average of 9.5 hours of sleep, but the recommended amount is more like 10-11 hours instead. Meanwhile, many adults fall short of their sleep needs, and 82% of surveyed Americans say that getting just one more hour of sleep each night is quite valuable. Adults are recommended to get eight hours of sleep, but many get anywhere from five to seven instead, and this may accrue a sleep debt as a week goes on. This can have some consequences, so Americans are urged to not only have a healthy and regular sleep schedule, but also make their bedding as comfortable as possible.
Beds for Children and Adults
A bed for a child or adult will be not only the frame, mattress, and pillow, but the right fitted sheets and blankets, too, and there’s some variance where this is concerned. The linen industry often deals with thread count as a metric for fabric, and often, a higher thread count is to be desired. This describes how many parallel threads may be found in one square inch of the fabric. Thread count can be as low as 200, but some fabrics have thread counts closet to 500 or even 700. A lower thread count is preferable for warmer weather, such as summer, when a person might get too warm in thicker blankets. Meanwhile, a higher thread count is better for winter, and high thread count blankets and sheets may be very soft and feel luxurious to sleep with. Some industry experts say that a thread count of 200 or so is ideal for warm weather, and something more like 700-800 is suitable for colder weather.
For both hygiene and satisfaction, Americans are urged to wash their bedsheets, clearing away unwanted remains such as dried sweat or skin flakes while giving sheets a fresh scent. In fact, laundry hung to dry may have fabric scent sprays or softeners applied to them for extra luxury, and such products can be found in many grocery stores. But what about babies?
Infants and Sleep
Infants sleep in cribs, rather than beds, and they have particular needs when it comes to sleep. Babies sleep for many hours a day, with newborns getting 10.5 to 18 hours of sleep per day. During that sleep, a baby must not have any suffocation hazards present. To make the crib safe and comfortable for their baby, parents will not have any blankets or pillows in the crib while the baby is unsupervised. Instead, a baby’s crib first has a mattress, then a fitted sheet that goes right over it. Then, for warmth and comfort, the baby will wear full-body pajamas and often a hat during sleep, a sort of full-body blanket that poses no suffocation hazard. This setup might look pretty bare-bones compared to an adult bed, but it’s all that babies need, and babies will be free of the suffocation hazards that blankets or pillows might present.
