Inspiration in lockdown for a good night’s sleep

Necessity is, as they say, the mother of invention. Here, ROBERTA TWEEDY explains how she invented bedtime bliss

YOU know how it is, summer nights, too hot for anything but a loose sheet under which you toss and turn, trying to get cool and comfortable.

As you turn, the sheet becomes wrapped around – and you are swaddled like a baby, dreaming you are trapped and trying to escape your bonds.

Last year, after several nights like this, I thought I’d try to find a way to anchor my sheet flat so I rigged up a very Heath Robinson affair with a strap and some bulldog clips which I put under the mattress and clipped on to the edges of the sheets.

While far from perfect, my sheet stayed mostly in place – and I was no longer a captive in my dreams.

Unbeknown to me, four miles away my grandson was also having problems with a sheet – this time, a fitted bottom one that rode up at the sides.

‘Ah’, says I, ‘I may be able to help’.

I could – and it did – with an identical strap and some bulldog clips put under the mattress and clipped onto the edges of the sheet, it stayed in place.

So, the two of us put our heads together to see if we could come up with a much more permanent solution - and we think we may have done just that. First - a name: Duvties. Second - a Uk: manufacturer. This was a bit more difficult but we have found a lovely company in Yorkshire, small and in the same family for the past 20 years and they are able to do exactly what we wanted, refining our design to make it much more user-friendly. Packaging has been a bit more of a challenge as we wanted to make sure this pa rt was recyclable - we think we have done it. As neither of us have any previous experience in this field, we are learning as we go along. My grandson has put together the website - it needs further development but this is a first attempt and few things are perfect straight off

The two of us are a disparate pairing – a retired CEO of a national charity with absolutely no experience of manufacturing whatsoever and a young university graduate with a degree in Business Management – but, among other things, it is this ‘sheet’ problem that unites us, and we work well together.

Duvties? Now they are made of durable, elasticated webbing.

The clips are firm and strong – and will attach to a sheet, duvet or any other type of bedding. A single Duvtie will adjust to fit a bed from 3ft to 6ft-plus wide and will go under a mattress any way you need it to. From corner to corner of a bottom sheet (of course, you would need two ties for this) – from side to side or top to bottom.

To keep a duvet in place, adjust length of the tie so it is slightly wider than the bed and clip onto one side of the duvet, slip the tie under the mattress and clip onto the other side. For a firmer hold, use two ties spaced slightly apart.

And, with one - or two - in place, even your partner should not be able to hog the duvet during the night so both can stay warm and comfortable throughout.

It’s a Wokingham solution to a perennial problem.