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We care about our impact on you and on the environment, so we’ve done everything we can to make our wool mattress responsible. We think these are by far the best choices for a mattress filling, and here’s exactly why.
Polyester is made using coal and petroleum, and when these are gone, they’re gone forever. Rather than make things worse, we use renewable fibres and materials wherever we can. So, to make sure that we achieve our eco-friendly goal, we only buy sustainably farmed wool direct from the Lake District farmers.
Further reading: Using Herdwick Wool: Helping The Herdwick
While it may take a year to grow every Herdwick fleece we use, we think that through support of our farmers and care for the planet, this is more than worth the wait for a high-quality mattress.
2. A wool mattress lets you breathe
If you’ve ever struggled to get to sleep because you're too hot and sweaty, you’ll love a wool mattress. Put simply, synthetic fibres like polyester just don’t breathe like natural mattresses do as they’re prone to making you overheat, unlike wool that naturally keeps you much cooler.
Not only is wool a great insulator, it also lets air move freely, proven beautifully by sheep's ability to happily live everywhere from the Lake District, right over to the Australian outback. It’s why our Herdwick fleeces keep you warm and comfy in bed, all year round.
Dust allergy sufferers, we’ve also got you sorted. Dust mites—the critters that trigger your allergies—like to stay warm and humid, so synthetic bedding is their dream home. Unluckily for them, the wool, cotton, and cashmere we blend into our luxury mattresses are breathable, reducing humidity and keeping the dust mite population lower for longer so you can reclaim bedtime.
3. A wool mattress is safer for everybody
Not only do synthetic fibres use up non-renewable resources, but they also depend on dangerous chemical treatments. As much as 50% of these chemicals enter the environment from every factory, and we definitely don’t want to be part of that.
We take pride in only using UK grown fleece from sheep raised in the Lake District to fill our cosy, comfortable and natural mattresses. This is cleaned to remove lanolin and dirt (funnily enough, sheep get rather mucky), carded and blended to make the fibres soft, fluffy, and easy to handle, and then shaped into a pad for each mattress.
The final piece of the puzzle is fire safety, and most companies use flame retardant chemicals in order to meet certain legal standards. Not us. Our sleep surface is woven from naturally flame resistant fibres, meaning that your mattress cover is chemical-free and naturally safe. Plus all the natural Herdwick wool in a Herdysleep mattress is naturally flame retardant.
As if you weren’t sleeping well enough already, you can rest easy in the knowledge you’re getting your kip on something natural, non-toxic and kinder to the planet. Bliss.
4. Natural fibres support farmers
Yes, we know that we’ve already touched on this, but as it’s so important to us, we thought it deserved a proper mention. Buying wool and natural fibres supports the rural economy as well as our farmers. If we don’t support our farmers, then food, natural fibres, and green space will become increasingly rare, and we don’t want that to happen now do we?
This is exactly why all our Herdwick fleeces come from flocks of Lake District sheep, and we pay a fair and responsible price for the farmer’s (and the sheep’s) hard work for giving you the best quality wool. It’s our vision to care for our green space, protect our natural resources, and ensure that our farmers are supported for generations to come, all the while making the best natural mattress we can.
5. Wool is naturally elastic
We’re not saying you’ll be bouncing on your Herdysleep mattress (although we won’t blame you if you do jump for joy when it arrives), but as you can imagine, we all move around a lot in bed. When you finally get upstairs after a long day at work, clamber back into bed with breakfast at the weekend, or roll around late at night, a mattress needs to react quickly to support your body properly.
Most of the heavy work is done by our Herdysleep pocket springs, which individually compress and spring out to fit your unique sleeping profile. However, there’s more to a mattress than simply pocket springs. The wool we use to create our cushioned sleep surface is a naturally elastic material which bounces and flexes to fit as you move, and can return to shape over 20,000 times without breaking. This means you’ll be provided with a cosy, warm, and properly supported for years to come.
