You’d think that after a summer spent testing the greatest insomnia cures known to science and TikTok, I’d be sleeping like a Calpol-stuffed baby. Well, for weeks, I wasn’t. I half-dozed by night and dragged myself through each day; slow, unsmiling and stripped entirely of mojo. Because just as I’d packed away the sleep aids, my cat, Iggy, died.
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You’ve met Iggy. He was that hopelessly beautiful creature who served as muse, home office manager and testing director for every Filter article I’ve ever written, chiefly the mattress reviews. The Ikea Valevåg triumphed in his claw-sharpening test, but the Origin Hybrid Pro was his favourite for sleeping, especially when it was propped up in the hallway awaiting collection by the appropriately named hardship charity Scratch. He’d scramble up the cliff face of the mattress’s sleeping surface and curl up atop its edge, carpeting it with his silky white fur. I like to think a few strands are still there, waving in the breeze of a sleeper’s happy snore.
Tester in chief
When it came to testing sleep aids, Iggy was less a beneficiary and more a test in himself. Would any products knock me out so soundly that I slept through his requests for an early breakfast? Mouldable silicone earplugs did the trick, blocking high-frequency noises without silencing the bass hum of city life, which I actually find quite soporific. Pressing those soft blobs into my ears felt like switching the light off, and unlike many of the products I tested, they helped me stay asleep rather than just nudging me into unconsciousness. Now, of course, I’d give up sleep in a Faustian deal to hear Iggy wail at 5am again.
Towards the end of his unjustly brief 14-ish years, 10 of which he spent with me, he took to curling up beside my head while I slept. In seeking comfort, he gave it in infinite measure. His purr was more soothing than any sounds on the SnoozeBand, and the smell of his fur more ambrosial than any lavender spray.
No more need for earplugs
Big stretch: testing all these mattresses proved hard work. Photograph: Jane Hoskyn/The Guardian
His loss in early August shattered my sleep patterns more than any heatwave could manage. I needed help sleeping, but the context had changed profoundly (I didn’t need earplugs to block pre-dawn miaows); it was my mind, not my body, that kept me awake. A magnesium bath is physiologically calming, but the memory of Iggy playing with my hair while I soaked in the bath powerfully overrode it with a slap of sleep deprivation.
My husband and I had to get away. All we wanted was Iggy, but as we couldn’t have him back, the next best thing was a proper sleep. As trite as it seemed, we did at least have a suitcase full of freshly tested, non-pharmaceutical little helpers. The blackout eye mask proved genuinely essential in a little room in the Lake District, and coupled with the change of scenery, it gave our brains and bodies their first real rest in weeks.
We’re now home, testing all sorts of bedding that Iggy would have loved. And … it’s OK. The first year of the Filter’s life may have turned out to be the last year of Iggy’s, but if the sight of him testing mattresses made you smile even a fraction, that’s some serious solace.
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Can LED face masks really be worth the hype – not to mention the hundreds of pounds they cost? Beauty writer Sarah Matthews quizzed dermatologists and put leading models to the test to find out – and rounded up her eight favourite light therapy devices for us.
Monica Horridge
Deputy editor, the Filter
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Game on: Suzanne and her family tested board games last winter. Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi/The Guardian
As the evenings begin to turn dark, playing board games with friends and family seems a lovely way to spend them. Last winter, Guardian staffer Suzanne Lemon and her games-mad husband and kids trialled five of the best family-friendly board games to see which are worth your time (and which keep the kids entertained the longest).
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