A furry hot-water bottle? Or a restless snoring pest? Sharing a bed with a dog isn’t ideal for everyone, but it certainly warms the soul, says Bethany Stone

Creating a room where guests want to spend time takes the pressure off busy hosts, says Arabella Youens

One in three adults in the UK struggles to sleep through the night; among them is writer Nick Pope. Could embracing the multibillion-pound sleep economy fix his night-time woes or would obsessively attempting to crack bedtime cause another problem altogether?

LET COUNSELLOR KEREN LIGHTEN YOUR LOAD

One in five older people in the UK admits to feelings of loneliness – and this only intensifies at Christmas. What is causing this crisis and how can we combat the sense of isolation?

If there was a time when the sign of a good night’s sleep was getting your seven to nine hours, science has delivered a new set of metrics. From sleep quality to the regularity of your bedtime, we’ve read the research so you don’t have to