Eat Organic, Sleep Organic

Eat Organic, Sleep Organic

Guest Post

Eating and sleeping. Chowing and snoozing. Nom nom nom and zzzzzzzzz. No one can deny that eating and sleeping is pretty cool all around, and many of us wouldn’t ask for much more than to be left alone to enjoy these two pastimes.  In fact we’ve managed to elevate these basic survival needs to the status of art forms.  Who in their right mind could turn down a slap up meal or a big soft comfy bed. But just fulfilling or indulging in these needs isn’t where the buck stops, because we all know that it’s not just what you get, it’s how you get it as well.

Say “organic” and the first thing that springs to mind is organic food.  Every diet guru and celebrity chef will have probably, at some point, espoused the benefits of organic eating.  Organic food, for those not in the know, is produced without any artificial or synthetic chemicals from field to table.  This includes fertilisers and pesticides as well as additives and preservatives.

With modern methods of farming only really kicking off in the latter part of the 20th Century, you could say that organic farming is food going back to its roots (if you’ll excuse the pun).  Even though science might not have made its mind up about whether organic food is better than the processed stuff, as a consumer you can be safe in the knowledge your food is free from freaky chemicals, as well as free from the ethical concerns associated with ‘Frankenstein’ foods.  Also, with a lot of organic food being produced locally, even for big supermarkets, you know exactly where your dinner comes from, and it keeps your carbon footprint down.

There’s no doubt that organic eating is growing in popularity, with 86% of UK families regularly buying organic food.  If you haven’t already got on board, maybe now’s the time to get to your local shop or market and get involved with organic food.  Having less chemicals in your body, and lending support to local farmers, can’t be bad.

So once you’ve snaffled down your organic meal and it’s time for bed, how do you sleep organic?  With organic bedding, of course.

The basic idea is the same as food; organic bedding is created from 100% natural products with none of the laboratory created nastiness.  Cotton, lambswool and cashmere are just a few of the natural products that can have you counting organic sheep in minutes.  Comfort is not an issue, with these products being among the softest natural fibres that can be squeezed from a plant, or brushed up after an animal’s haircut.

With the average person spending a third of their life asleep, you can’t ignore the fact that you need a good place to get your 40 winks.  Synthetic bedding and mattresses are a hotbed (excuse the pun again) for accumulated chemical compounds that release into the air as you sleep.  These compounds have the potential to harm you as you sleep, when your body is supposed to repairing and regenerating itself.  Synthetic bedding has been shown to inflame allergies and even to cause flu-like symptoms such as coughing and rashes.  Organic bedding is made from materials that do not produce these chemicals, and are safer for you to hunker down in.

Organic bedding is a great for kids who might be allergy sensitive, and spend more time sleeping, but is also a good idea for grownups who want a healthier night’s sleep.  The most important item on the organic sleeping checklist is a good quality organic mattress.  Not only do they have the obvious health benefits of being free of harmful chemicals, they’re also much comfier than their synthetic counterparts.

This article was contributed by naturalmat.co.uk