As H&G's resident Sleep Editor, my quest to learn how to sleep better takes me all around the world. Last week, it took me to Älmhult, Sweden, the cradle of IKEA. I stayed at the IKEA Hotel, mooched around the IKEA Museum, and visited the IKEA of Sweden headquarters, where mattress manufacturers and interior designers are dreaming up the solutions to common sleep problems.
In our welcome meeting, IKEA of Sweden Managing Director Fredrika Inger shared a shocking statistic: 'On average, people spend 26 years of their life sleeping – and 7 years trying to sleep.' Fredrika theorized what keeps us up at night: physical discomfort, from noise pollution to scratchy sheets, as well as underlying anxieties − how will I perform tomorrow if I can't sleep tonight? 'Worry keeps us awake,' Fredrika concluded, 'but IKEA takes the worry out of bed making.'
