Post by Kyle St. Romain.

Ever get a full night’s rest, but still wake up feeling tired? This phenomenon may be due to problems associated with hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar. I first learned that low blood sugar might affect your sleep from my roommate who said he saw something on television about it; like I need anymore crackpot medical advice…. Anyways, I did a little research and found that there may be some truth to this claim.

Here’s what I learned:

• People who have hypoglycemia have trouble stabilizing their glucose levels


• Glucose is your brain’s primary source of fuel


• When your brain runs low on glucose, it can either send a signal to your liver to release its glucose reserves into the blood or to your adrenal glands for adrenaline, which are stress responses


• Stress can lead to chronic fatigue, especially if you’re stressed while you’re body is supposed to be repairing itself, i.e., sleeping.


• Low blood sugar can either affect the depth of your sleep by keeping you from reaching that critical REM cycle of sleep, or by waking you up and keeping you from sleep all together

As you can see, low blood sugar is best to be avoided. The good news is that it’s relatively easy to fix, and one possible solution is to incorporate a pre-bed snack as part of your routine.

One snack in particular that can help you sleep better is almond butter stuffed celery sticks.* Almonds (including almond butters) are high in monosaturated fat – the good kind – as well as beneficial minerals and vitamins. They are said to help lower cholesterol levels and improve heart health; factors that make them a healthy snack anytime of the day.  However, almond butter taken before bed can help stabilize your blood sugar throughout the night, which can help you sleep better.

Commentators, including Dr. Oz, go so far as to claim that eating almond butter before you go to sleep can increase the benefits you get from sleeping by as much as two fold. I’m not sure how they measured that, but it sounds great.

Always looking for a way to shortcut sleep time when I’m short on time, I tried this trick out for a couple weeks. The first few nights, I did notice I was sleeping better and waking up feeling more refreshed (I usually feel pretty groggy in the mornings). Towards the beginning of the second week I tried this, I did not notice the effect as much, which I think is because it’s harder to notice things that aren’t a problem. In any event, it is definitely something I’m looking to include in a more disciplined, long-term routine and would recommend trying it.

Do you have any pre-sleep snacks that help you rest better? We’d love to know in the comments below.

*I tried smearing Almond butter on bread and eating it straight out of the spoon, but I found that the moisture from the celery makes it much easier to chew and adds a refreshing texture. Definitely stick with the celery.

Tags: Almonds, bed, bedroom, Bedtime Snacks, Charles P. Rogers

Post by Craig Jenkins.

Hello out there! We’re closing in on the final stretch of winter, but we haven’t really had a winter yet. In our neck of the woods, it snowed twice, and the total accumulation of the last five months worth of snow can’t be more than two to three inches. Temperatures have been unseasonably balmy all around. It’s truly a relief, especially considering the way last winter’s grip of blizzards dumped multiple feet of snow on top of everything, crippling transportation and business alike. Just another week, and it’ll be time to shelve all the winter gear we never really had to use in the first place. Sweater weather season is upon us! High five!

We’re not really going to get into any technical stuff this week. Instead we want to direct you to our official Charles P. Rogers Youtube channel, where you can find all sorts of helpful information about our company. You’ll find anything from video recaps of events we’ve held in our Manhattan showroom in the past (like last year’s Ready, Set, Write event, where up-and-coming rapper Stalley dropped by to help mentor a group of young creative writers) to various advertisements that we’ve run on television to a charming video created by one of our customers to show their love of their Charles P. Rogers bed. Best of all, we have a series of assembly videos to help our past and future customers understand how our beds tick and how to put them together. Feel free to head over and take a look around, if you can pry yourself away from the gorgeous spring weather preview we’re getting this week.

Tags: bed, bedroom, Cable Ad, Charles P. Rogers

Post by Mark T. Locker.

We spend a lot of time (well, almost ALL of our time) here on the bed blog talking about how to sleep comfortably, how to beautify where we sleep and how best to make the falling asleep and the waking up as pleasant as possible. But what about sleep itself? That’s what all of this revolves around, after all. Well, I have decided to troll the depths of the Internet to find some fascinating factoids about that most-beloved pastime, sleep.

Ducks sleep with one eye open.

It’s true! Needless to say, being a duck can be hazardous to one’s sleep. In order to avoid being eaten by crocodiles, coyotes or owls looking for a midnight snack, ducks keep one eye open. What’s even better is that if they are dozing in a row, the middle ones close both eyes. Fun!

The Weird Truth About Light on Knees

Apparently, if you shine a bright light on the back of your knees, it can reset your internal clock. I don’t know what kind of scientist decided to try the old light-on-the-back-of-your-knees trick, and I’m not totally sure what this means or what purpose it may serve, but it’s good to know!

Dolphins Sleep One Half at a Time

Not unlike the duck, dolphins are susceptible to predators when sleeping. They also need to be conscious to breathe. So their fantastic way of dealing with this is to sleep half a brain at time. Imagine how much we could accomplish if we could do that! I’m pretty sure my brain is only half-awake most of the time anyways!

For Further Reading

There is a great episode of Radiolab about sleep. It’s full of very interesting stuff: http://www.radiolab.org/2007/may/24/

Nova on PBS also had something on sleep: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/sleep.html

The Internet seems to have a few resources as well. Some of my facts I got from this site: http://listverse.com/2007/10/29/top-20-facts-about-sleep/

Happy Sleeping!

Tags: bed, bedroom, Charles P. Rogers, Facts, sleep

Post by Craig Jenkins.

Hello out there. This winter is starting to look like a copout, isn’t it? Minimal snowfall, spring-like temperatures, all that good stuff. Unless a cold snap or a shock storm hits us, we’re home free! The groundhogs didn’t even see their shadows around these parts. Warm weather is hopefully upon us!

So anyone who follows this blog knows that more than loving making beds, we love to see the creative ways our customers work our beds into their homes. Cruising the Internet this week, we encountered a lovely blog called Third Story(ies) that is dedicated to documenting a family’s home redecorating efforts. One of the most recent posts detailed the family’s process of decorating their daughter’s upstairs bedroom. Taking a look at the finished bedroom, we noticed our own Cottage trundle bed smack in the middle of the room. Much thanks to everyone at Third Story(ies) for choosing Charles P. Rogers. We love the bedroom. Thanks and take care.

Tags: bed, bedroom, Charles P. Rogers, Cottage trundle bed, Design

Post by Mark T. Locker.

We spend so much time here on the Bed Blog discussing a lot of great ideas, helpful hints, and offering fantastic recommendations. So I thought today we could look at some more…unorthodox approaches to bedroom design. Most of you may enjoy the spectacle but have no intention of transforming your bedroom into, say, a giant princess castle. For those who yearn for such things, you are welcome. Please enjoy the following alternative takes on interior decorating.

This brings a whole new meaning to the word waterbed. I don’t recommend this design to anyone with a propensity for somnambulation!

This little piggy made his bedroom out of straw! You may want to wear several layers of thick, soft pajamas if you are planning to sleep in the straw bed. In movies, they always put straw down to sleep on in a barn, so perhaps it’s quite comfy!

Don’t you hate the cumbersome activity of climbing out of bed, walking across the miles-long cold linoleum floor to get yourself a midnight snack? Save yourself the trouble by turning your room into your own little diner! I’m disappointed to note you don’t get to climb under the bread, but you can’t have everything.

…and if comfort and coziness are not your style, you can always move into a big stone culvert. In a field. Surrounded by a bunch of other stone culverts.

Tags: bed, bedroom, Charles P. Rogers, Design, Weird Bedrooms