This is one of the easiest breakfasts ever; perfect for when you want a breakfast ready to go as soon as you wake. Simply combine oats and water or other liquid of your choice in a 1 to 2 ratio. (We love vanilla almond milk.) Add some dried fruit, nuts, seeds or even protein powder, then store in an airtight container in the fridge over night. In the morning, simply give it a stir, top with some fresh fruit and a bit of milk or non-dairy alternative, and enjoy!

- French Toast

This ones also pretty easy, and a great way to use up stale bread. If you don’t have stale bread, toast it first. Then, whisk up a mixture of eggs plus a bit of milk, and sweet or savoury spices of choice. We recommend cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg for sweet, and paprika, black pepper and turmeric for savoury. Always add a pinch of salt and sugar either way. Thoroughly dredge bread slices in egg mixture. Heat a frying pan with a bit of oil or butter and lightly fry toast on either side. Once golden brown, plate up and go crazy with the toppings. Sweet suggestions: fruit, maple syrup and dairy or coconut yoghurt. Savoury suggestions: avocado, tomato relish, bacon or tempeh bacon

- Chocolate Smoothie Bowl

Anyone who has social media or has set foot in any café over the last few months would know that smoothie bowls are all the rage right now. They’re pretty, they’re nutritious, and they’re fun to eat. But they only satisfy when made with the right ingredients to keep you full all day. Our favourite base is ripe, frozen bananas, as they add natural sweetness and a nice, creamy texture. Simply chop up the nanas, add a splash of milk (dairy or non), then blend until you have an ice cream consistency. From there, mix in some berries, a bit of cocoa powder, and perhaps some superfood powders, then blend once more. Transfer to a big bowl and top with granola, more fruit, mixed nuts or other toppings of your choosing.

- Coffee or Tea

No breakfast is complete without a cup of joe. For a quick and low-maintenance option, French presses are ideal and can serve multiple people with one batch. You can also make any sort of tea in a French press. All you need to do is fill it with some loose leaves, add hot water, press and serve.

We know that getting out of bed in the morning can be tough – especially when you sleep on a Hugo mattress – but we hope these breakfast-in-bed ideas can help you wake up a bit easier.

But it can actually have a really big impact – Not just on the way we spend our days from thereon out but also on our sleep health and overall wellbeing. In fact, it can take up for a week for our bodies to recover from the effects of the shift. However, if you prepare for daylight savings with a few simple tips and tricks, you may be able to fast-track the reset of your circadian rhythm and sleep hormones. Here are a few ways in which to adjust to daylight savings and save your sleep!

- Keep your bed and wake times consistent

It may be tempting to go to bed later now that it’s lighter, but doing so can really screw up your circadian rhythm. If you find yourself extra sleepy in the first few days after the time change, try to avoid taking mid-day naps, as this can also affect your ability to fall and stay asleep at appropriate times. Instead, maintain your standard sleep and wake cycle until you re-regulate.

- Start your day with exercise

Having trouble starting the day? Don’t reach for the coffee just yet and lace up your running shoes instead. Incorporating exercise into your daily routine- especially in the morning- is really helpful in increasing energy levels throughout the day while also preparing you for rest once the time comes. (Just make sure you don’t exercise too late in the day, as this can make you hyper and unable to fall asleep.)

- Practice a pre-bed relaxation ritual

It can be tricky convincing yourself to go to bed when it’s light out, as light sends signals to our body that it’s time to wake. To help you wind down, try relaxing, reading something light, listening to white noise for a bit, or doing some other calming ritual that will ease you into sleep mode. This is also helpful in attempting to sleep earlier than normal, as you may want to do on the evening before daylight savings takes place.

- Don’t rely on substances to help you sleep

Popping a pill or pouring a nightcap are just quick-fixes that may help you sleep at first, but don’t resolve the issue. Not only that, but they can actually hinder quality of sleep and energy levels… Many sleeping aids tend to cause drowsiness in the morning, while alcohol may make you pass out easily but can disrupt sleep when it wears off a few hours into the night. If you must take a supplement for sleep, opt for more wholesome natural remedies like magnesium, valerian root or melatonin.

- Spend more time in nature

Being outdoors and connecting with the natural environment is a helpful way to reset circadian rhythm, i.e. your bodies built-in clock that tells you when to sleep and helps you prepare to do so. Walking around barefoot in grass, breathing fresh air or taking a dip in some naturally-occurring water are all great ways to rebalance your circadian rhythm and promote overall calmness, which can also contribute to better rest.

While spring-time daylight savings is a great thing in many ways, it’s not worth losing sleep over. Consider these five practices to increase your energy and decrease your chances of poor sleep once daylight savings takes place.

We won’t tell you to tone down your busy life, but we will teach you a few ways to optimise it so that you can rest better and have the energy needed to maintain your schedule. While we always stand by a good mattress as the first step towards optimal rest, we also recognise that other factors can play a part in your ability to sleep through the night.

After you’ve made sure that you have a decent mattress support your sleep, try following this routine to otherwise enhance your slumber.

- Wake at 7am. Experts say that sleeping from 11pm until 7 in the morning is the perfect timeline for a good night’s rest. These are the times that align best with your body’s circadian rhythm.

- Don’t look at your phone! Not just yet anyway. Turning to your phone first thing in the morning can be a source of stress, whether you’ve got work emails coming in or social notifications to attend to or alarms and reminders thrusting you into reality. Instead, try to ease yourself into the day before connecting.

- Stretch a bit. Maybe do some light cardio as well. You can even do it in bed! (Bicycles are a great in-bed exercise.) This not only helps wake your muscles and your mind up, but will also help you be more relaxed when you’re ready to sleep.

- Eat a balanced breakfast, consisting of protein, carbs and a bit of fat in appropriate quantities. (For example, oats with sliced banana and a scoop of natural peanut butter, or toast with sliced avo and an egg.) This combination is optimal for maintaining a steady metabolism and blood sugar throughout the day, and then triggering melatonin when it’s time to sleep.

- Take breaks throughout the day. If you sit a lot, stand up and move a bit. If you work indoors, make sure you get outside for some fresh air and sunlight every now and again. Natural light, in particular, is a helpful remedy for sleepless nights, as it re-regulates our bodies’ internal clocks.

- Keep lunch moderate, and dinner light. As our body winds down to prepare for bed, it doesn’t have as much digesting power as it does earlier in the day. Therefore, lessen the burden you place on it by opting for fresh produce and clean proteins at your later meals, and reducing carbs. That being said, eating light doesn’t have to mean you have to go hungry. In fact, night-time hunger can inhibit sleep. Ensure you are satiated by choosing foods with fibre and water to keep you full.

- Put the phone (and laptop) away. Screens aren’t great first thing in the morning, but they’re even worse at night. They can halt melatonin production, which is the hormone that helps you sleep. Try to avoid using them within a few hours before bed.

- Practice pre-bed relaxation. Perhaps a bit of drawing, a walk around the block, a mug of chamomile or valerian root tea as you stare at the fireplace. Whatever you pick, make sure it’s something that can help get you into a relaxed and sleepy mindset.

- Sleep by 11. We know, we know, it’s early (for some!). If you’re in bed later on the weekends, we won’t judge, but at least try to follow the 11 to 7 schedule on weekdays. If you typically have trouble dozing off, aim to get into bed 30 minutes early, close your eyes, take a few deep breathes, and try to initiate a restful state.

For more tips and tricks for better rest, be sure to stay tuned here on The Hugo Blog!

But what’s the deal with sleep hygiene, a hot-topic issue you may have already heard of? Despite how it sounds, sleep hygiene is not about keeping your sheets spotless nor your pillowcases fresh. It actually has little to do with hygiene as we know the term and more to do with our general night-time rituals and how they affect our sleep patterns.

Sleep hygiene refers to the habits surrounding our bedtime routine. When we optimise our sleep hygiene, we are likely to achieve better rest and relaxation, which ultimately benefits mental and physical wellbeing.

There are various ways to improve sleep hygiene, many of which can easily be incorporated into your normal routine. Here are a few of our top tips:

- Limit blue light exposure – Especially before bed. Blue light is the high-energy light emitted from screens. Not only can it be harmful for your eye health, but can also significantly inhibit your sleep. Blue-light blockers are a helpful way to limit its effects if you must use screens before bed, while reducing overall screen time is optimal.

- Cut your caffeine and nicotine intake. Both of these substances are stimulants that can disrupt your sleep routine when taken in excess. Try to avoid them at least 5 hours before you go to sleep. Also take note that alcohol, while a depressant, can also lead to poor sleep if consumed in excess.

- If you’re a napper, make sure you’re napping right. There’s something to be said for a power nap, hovering around 30 minutes. This is the ideal length to recharge without ruining your sleep. Any longer and you may end up too groggy and/or unable to sleep when bedtime comes.

- Try to calm your mind before bed. If you go to sleep stressed, you’ll definitely feel it when you wake up in the morning. Even 5 minutes of meditation before you sleep can help you relax and rid your head of pesky thoughts and anxieties that can distract you once your head hits the pillow.

- Choose an appropriate room temperature. Too hot and you’ll wake up in a pool of sweat, too cold and you’ll have trouble winding down to sleep. The best bedroom temperature is moderately cool, as the body needs to cool down in order to initiate sleep. Just not too much, as this can have the opposite effect.

- Update your mattress. Have you been sleeping on the same old mattress for the past twenty years? If so, it’s time for a swap. Over time, mattresses sink and break down. Once they form to your body, their support may diminish and therefore your sleep may suffer. Aim to replace your mattress every decade maximum and turn every few months.

If you have tried all of these methods and your sleep is still poor, you may need to seek professional guidance. But hopefully integrating these practices into your life can help you get the rest you need.

What other sleep hygiene methods have you found helpful? Contact us to let us know!

While diet and fitness are, no doubt, big factors in weight loss or management, they’re not quite the golden tickets that they appear to be. There is one other key player in the journey to weight loss, and that is sleep. Sleep is integral to maintaining a healthy weight, for a number of reasons.

For one, sleep regulates hunger cues, while lack of sleep can cause us to be hungry when we’re not. You’ve surely experienced this for yourself. You wake up at 6am for work after a late night, and you’re ravenous. Usually you’re not much of a breakfast person, but today you down two big bowls of cereal plus a plate of eggs and bacon yet you’re still hungry.

Lunch can’t come soon enough, no afternoon snack can suffice, and by dinnertime, you binge a big bowl of pasta and pass out. Does any of this sound familiar? If so, you know the woes of a sleep-deprived appetite.

The reason for this is because lack of sleep stimulates ghrelin, the hormone that triggers hunger. It also reduces leptin, which is the hormone that tells us to stop eating when we’re full. Without it, we can easily overeat without realising what’s happening until it’s too late.

But that’s not all – Sleep loss also elevates cortisol, a sometimes harmful stress hormone. When our bodies are under stress, we do not digest food as efficiently, and we go into panic mode, thinking that times are tough and therefore storing any energy we give it rather than burning it off. A stressed body also tends to produce insulin at higher rates, which may send us reaching for donuts and other sugary or fatty foods. Cortisol can even cause us to store fat in unideal places (like our abdomen), as this is where most of our cortisol receptors are located.

Are you convinced yet why sufficient sleep is important for weight loss? If not, consider this – Will you really have the energy to work out if you barely slept the night before? Probably not. Will you have the willpower to reach for nutritious foods or the brainpower to think about which food choice is healthiest? Doubt it… Exercising and eating well just got a whole lot harder. But none of this needs to be difficult.

When you get adequate sleep, weight loss may not feel as difficult. Suddenly, the sun is shining a bit brighter, so you’ll want to get outside and move. You’re feeling fresh and rejuvenated, so you’ll want to maintain that feeling by eating water-rich and fibrous foods. And best of all, your metabolism will be functioning efficiently which will help facilitate your weight loss.

The path to weight loss starts with good sleep, and the path to good sleep starts with a great mattress. We’re confident it will set you on the right track in your journey to healthy fitness and wellbeing.

Change your room’s purpose

As we’ve mentioned, it’s important that bedrooms be used for sleep and sleep alone rather than for leisure or work. When you do other things in your bedroom, you associate the space with activity rather than relaxation. If you must do homework or watch Netflix in bed, at least try to limit these things within the few hours before you rest so you have ample time to wind down.

Limit electronics

Speaking of winding down, one of the greatest obstacles in doing so is using electronics right before bed. When we stare at phone, TV or computer screens, our brains produce less melatonin which is what helps us get and stay to sleep. This is because screens emit blue light, which messes with our circadian rhythm and overall alertness. While it’s ideal to completely eliminate electronics a few hours before bed, you can also install a blue light blocker than neutralises the intense colours on your screens past nightfall.

Declutter

As they say, a cluttered environment is akin to a cluttered mind, and vice versa. As you’ve probably recognised during more hectic periods of your life, when our minds are full, we tend to have difficulty getting to sleep. While spring cleaning isn’t a quick fix solution to an overly crowded mind, it sure helps ease some of the symptoms. At least then you won’t be stressing about your dirty laundry in the corner when you should be counting sheep.

Opt for a relaxing interior design

Cleaning up your bedroom is one way to make it look more inviting. Some other tactics include repainting the walls a soothing shade such as blue, cream or light grey, hanging nice images on the walls, choosing plush bedroom furniture and arranging the space in a visually appealing way. As for more intense design choices like bright colours and bold prints, save it for a room that’s not used for sleeping.

Invest in a quality mattress

Finally, we will address to the most obvious element of a decent rest… A good mattress. Mattresses are the foundation of a good night’s sleep. And when you spend 8-plus hours a night on it, it’s important that you invest in a one that meets your needs. You need to find a mattress comfortable enough to send you to sleep and firm enough to support your frame while you’re dead to the world. We specifically designed Hugo to be the perfect balance of firm and soft. We love our mattress, and with our 3-month in-home trial we know you’ll fall in-love with it too. Visit our mattress page to learn more and don’t be afraid to contact us if you have any questions you’d like answered – we’re friendly like that.

Impaired Memory

When humans suffer from sleep loss, their hippocampus takes a toll. If you never took a psych 101 class, here’s a brief lesson - The hippocampus is an area of the brain responsible for consolidating and storing new memories. When you don’t get enough sleep (or quality sleep), you may experience trouble remembering new bits of information.

Emotional

Imbalance Many past studies have indicated that when people get a restless night’s sleep, they express much more anger, stress and hostility than those who slept well. The main reason for this is because sleep deprivation impacts the amygdala, which manages and stabilises our emotions. When you don’t sleep enough, your amygdala is more apt to rapid-fire emotional queues, which may put you on edge and prone to outbursts.

Reduced Risk Aversion

If you are already prone to risky behaviour, make sure you’re getting proper rest. Otherwise, a lack of sleep may trigger your daredevil behaviours. After even a single night of poor sleep, you may be more prone to risky decision making. This is because sleep deprivation can trigger us to make decisions without fully assessing potential risks while attempting to maximise gain, as the sleep deprived may also be optimistic than normal and will have trouble distinguishing between positive versus negative outcomes.

Decreased Focus

When you miss out on valuable sleep time, your frontal and parietal lobes are impacted. This may influence your ability to focus, whether you’re at work, at school, commuting, or simply watching mindless television. Low-quality sleep has been linked to reduced motor and cognitive functioning, including slower response times and a hard time paying attention to both what’s is in front of you and what may be creeping around the corner.

Inability to Regulate Appetite

One great danger of sleep deprivation is the way it affects our hunger and eating habits. Lack of sleep sends all sorts of hormones into a frenzy, including the ones that control our hunger and fullness queues. This means that when you don’t sleep enough, you may feel hungry when we’re not and have trouble deciphering when you’ve had enough to eat.

While these five risk factors may seem like they pose a big threat, they don’t have to. Even if you’ve been suffering from sleep deprivation for a while, just a few nights of decent sleep are enough to restore your brain. Usually, all that’s required are a few simple changes in your daily routine in order to get to sleep easier and stay asleep longer.

One of the first things to consider is whether your mattress needs replacing and if the one you use currently is suited to your needs. At Hugo Sleep, we can provide you with a mattress guaranteed to help you sleep soundly through the night. View the Hugo Sleep product range to learn more. 

We’ve been helping our lovely customers all around Australia get their best night’s sleep since early 2016. And in the last few years we’ve received an incredible range of questions from our customers looking for tips on sleep health and advice on how to make the most of their overnight. So we’ve decided it’s time to continue the conversation and give you an insight into our learnings. Welcome to The Hugo Blog.

When we started developing our mattress in 2015, we set out with the goal of improving Australia’s experience in getting a great night’s sleep. We found an industry riddled with holes. The buying experience was outdated, and the products being sold across the country were overpriced and poorly designed. We set out to create a product we would be proud for our friends and family to buy. An incredibly well designed mattress, using high quality materials at a fair price, and with the peace of mind that comes with an in-home trial period.

Since then we’ve helped Australians from Darwin to Tassie to sleep like a log. Over that time, we’ve been listening to our customer’s feedback and collating our learnings. We’ll be using The Hugo Blog to share these with you. We’ll be discussing the best ways to set yourself up for incredible, restful sleep. Hot tips straight from the mouth of our well-rested customers. We’ll include some fun lifestyle content in between to mix things up a bit! If you have anything you’d like, please reach out to us! We would love to hear from you. Feel free to contact us via hugosleep.com.au or call us on 1300 951 185. Hugo has, and always will be a customer focused brand – we want to engage with you.