What in England is called a 'double' mattress is only 4 ft 6 inches wide and, if two people are sleeping on it, it offers about the same amount of personal space as to a baby in a crib. I cannot understand why that is the standard size there as it is more than a little cramped. Here in Thailand mattresses are generally either 'Queen', 60 inches (around 152 cm) wide or 'King', 72 inches (around 183 cm) wide. If you like to sleep in close proximity then 'Queen' size is fine, if you enjoy more personal space then 'King' size is the better option.

If you want maximum personal space then you can buy 2 'Single' beds which are typically 36 inches (91 cm) or 3.5 feet (107 cm) wide in Thailand. Or, of course, have separate rooms…

Sleep tight

According to the Wall Street Journal thousands of dust mites may be calling your mattress home. In February 2000 they reported that, on average, a mattress will double in weight over 10 years because of dust mites and their associated debris/waste.

Sleep well! 

Hugs Mattress Phuket

The saying 'sleep tight' originates in the 1600's when mattresses were supported by ropes under them. These ropes needed to be tightened regularly otherwise the mattress sagged.

Hugs Thailand  

Whilst the ancient Egyptians created what is known as the 'Chester Beatty' document written on Papyrus, one of the earliest documents about dreams, a Roman named 'Artemidorus' wrote the first comprehensive book regarding dream interpretation, in about 140 AD. It is called 'Oneirocriticon' which, perhaps unsurprisingly, translates as 'The Interpretation of Dreams' . Artemidorus is thought to have been influenced by earlier works though with many of his own ideas added. In his book, which consisted of 5 volumes, Artemidorus expounds the view that a persons dreams are influenced by their social status, occupation and health and that the symbols in their dreams reflect that. He also states that ‘the rules of dreaming are not general, and therefore cannot satisfy all persons, but often, according to times and persons, they admit of varied interpretations.’

An example of Artemidorus' interpretations is that he believed a dream about bathing in clean water foretold much good fortune and bathing in muddy water the reverse.

A second Oneirocriticon was written by a man who called himself 'Astrampsychus' though many scholars attribute it to 'Nicephorus' a Byzantine writer and think it was written much later than Roman times.

Many of the interpretations in both these books are similar to those still in vogue today which, considering the fact that Artemidorus was heavily influenced by earlier texts, demonstrates that some of these ideas have been around for thousand of years, with little change.

Sweet dreams!

Hugs Mattress Thailand  

A famous hotelier wrote:

"the secrets of success for a hotel are:

1. plenty of hot water

2. clean rooms

3. A comfortable mattress"

In Phuket, indeed in Thailand, 'plenty of hot water' isn't so important as even cold water isn't freezing and I'm sorry to say we can't help with cleaning the rooms.

What Hugs Thailand CAN do however is to help you ensure your guests have a comfortable mattress!

Our mattresses are already used by many, even most, of the 5 star hotels in Thailand. Why not join them so that your guests have a great nights sleep?

Sweet Dreams

The Greeks didn't begin seriously considering dreams until 8th century BC. Homer, in his Iliad, describes a scene wherein Agamemnon receives instructions from the messenger of Zeus in a dream. Greeks also believed that dreams carried divine messages, but they could only be interpreted with the aid of a priest similar to those of the Babylonians and Egyptians. It was from these two groups the Greeks also inherited many occult techniques. Dreams also aided in their practice of medicine, sending sick people to particular temples in those places where the "gods of the body" had their shrines. The ailing Greeks would visit these temples, perform various religious rites, sleep, and hope to have a dream that assured a return to good health. Night after night they would sleep and sometimes this would go on for weeks or even months until they had the "right" dream. The most famous for dream pilgrimage was the Aesculapius at Epidaurus.

It is uncertain whether or not the first dream interpreters were legend or reality. Pliny the Elder suggests that the earliest interpreter was a man named Amphictyon, son of Deucalion. It was Deucalion, who in Greek mythology, was the son of Prometheus. Yet, Herodotus, an early historian claimed that the people of Telmessus, which was located in southwest Asia Minor, specialized in dream interpretation. In fact, it was even heard that King Croesus, the last king of Lydia, consulted them for an interpretation of an important dream.

The first steps into modern dream interpretation were taken in the 5th century BC when the Greek philosopher Heraclitus suggested that a person's dream world was something created in their own mind. This went against the other philosophers who believed dreams were the result of outside forces, such as the gods. Most Greek philosophers, in that time period, pondered dreams and what they might mean. Plato was one of these philosophers, and realized how much dreaming could affect a personality or someone's life. In the Phaedo, he tells how Socrates studied music and the arts because he was instructed to do so in a dream.

Aristotle finally put an end to Heraditus' idea that dreams were messages from the gods. He began to study dreams and the dreaming process in a rational way. In his De divinatione per somnum, he states, "most so-called prophetic dreams are to be classed as mere coincidences, especially all such as are extravagant," and later includes that "the most skillful interpreter of dreams is he who has the faculty of absorbing resemblances. I mean that dream presentations are analogous to the forms reflected in water." Aristotle's Parva naturalia suggests that dreams are in fact believed to be a recollection of the days events.

Aristotle also helped advance the theory that dreams reflected a person's bodily health. It suggested that a doctor could diagnose a person illness by hearing a dream that they had. Hippocrates, the founder of modern medicine supported this theory, and is still practiced by some doctors of today. Galen of Pergamum, a Greco-Roman physician, picked up where Aristotle had left off. A patient of his dreamed that his left thigh was turned into marble and later lost the use of that leg due to palsy. A wrestler, he had treated, dreamed that he was standing in a pool of blood that had risen over his head. From this dream Galen concluded that this man needed a bloodletting for the pleurisy which he labored. By this means of treatment the man was cured.

Yesterday was King Bhumibol Adulyadej's birthday.

As the King of Thailand is highly revered and considered the father of the nation it is also 'Fathers Day', a national holiday.

He is 85 this year and looking quite frail, however he still made the effort to come and speak to the hundreds of thousands of people wanting to wish him a happy birthday.

It is an amazing spectacle, all of the people are wearing yellow, clutching both the Thai and Royal flags together with pictures of their, much loved, monarch. All shouting 'long live the king!'.

For the first time since I moved to Phuket (2 years now) I actually went to the beach! As the King's birthday coincides with the bosses we went to Surin Beach in the west of the island and had a great time. I must make sure it's not another 2 years before I go again... 

LONG LIVE THE KING!

Insomnia is the triumph of mind over mattress

It seems that drinking beer is good for you after all!

A newly released study shows that people who drink are less likely to die prematurely than those that don't.

Yes that's right, drinking alcohol makes you live longer  

Even heavy drinkers do better than teetotallers.

This with thanks to: http://www.mnn.com/food/beverages/stories/study-abstaining-from-alcohol-significantly-shortens-life

The full report is available to download at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1530-0277.2010.01286.x/pdf

Though I think you have to pay for it.

Cheers! 

There is no direct comparison with these two and the sleep assessment & advisory service, the closest is:

'Log position - If you sleep on your side with both arms down, you are a social, easy-going person who is trusting, sometimes to the point of being gullible. The study showed 15% of people sleep like a log.'

However they are all different, which makes me think they are just making it all up