Mid-year is a strange time of year for me. In June, Lifson Linen celebrates its birthday. This year we’ve hit 32 years, which is a remarkable achievement for a small business in South Africa. But then, at the end of July, we’ll mark 11 years since Eric Lifson, the founder of the company, passed away.

Eric Lifson was my dad, and I still miss him terribly.

My father’s lifelong dream was to bring European standards of quality bedding to South Africa. He was apprenticed in Germany and France, and he brought what he learned there back home. He started Lifson Linen in the garage of our family home, and today, in our factory in Woodstock, Cape Town, we still use those same practices and techniques, learned from companies that have been around in Europe for generations.

I’m proud to continue that legacy by running Lifson Linen and manufacturing our high-quality products here in South Africa. And local manufacturing is a claim few of our local competitors can make: most simply import their products – and many of them do so from countries where industry standards don’t exist. We import our raw materials, but our duvets, pillows, scatter inners and mattress toppers are all made here in Cape Town, and our filling is washed, sterilised, sorted, and graded to European Down and Feather Association (EDFA) standards.

That’s what it means to run a heritage brand. We never take shortcuts or compromise on quality.

It’s hugely rewarding… but I’m not gonna lie. It’s flippin’ hard work.

Most small business owners are in a similar position. The hours are long, the workload is insane, and the compromises you do make tend to be around your own health and well-being.

I had to chuckle the other day when I read about the 8-8-8 rule. The idea is that you divide your 24-hour day into three eight-hour blocks. That’s eight hours of work, eight hours of leisure, and eight hours of sleep.

Science definitely supports the idea of eight hours of sleep. Studies by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society recommend that adults sleep at least seven hours per night regularly to support optimal health (there are hundreds more that say the same thing). They warn that sleeping fewer than seven hours can lead to all sorts of adverse outcomes, from hypertension to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, depression, and increased risk of death.

But here’s what I know – and what anybody else who’s run a business or worked for themself will tell you the same thing: the eight hours of work regularly spill over into the other two blocks, and when “leisure” time includes essential tasks like cooking, cleaning and commuting, the block that suffers most is the eight hours of sleep.

You know the story. It’s 2am, and you’re still generating invoices, checking stock, following up on orders, catching up on emails… And all the while you’re telling yourself that work starts again at 7am.

When sleep quantity suffers, sleep quality has to compensate. That’s why, in this Sleep Journal and in Lifson Linen’s social media content, the emphasis is always on high-quality bedding. It’s not a luxury. It’s a necessity.

You need a duvet that regulates your body temperature so you don’t wake up sweating. You need the correct pillow so that you don’t hurt your neck while you’re sleeping. And when you’re working on less than seven hours of sleep, things like breathable fabric, duvet filling that doesn’t cluster, filling that’s treated correctly, warmth without weight… All those good things become non-negotiables.

Luxury bedding is not an indulgence. It’s the best recruitment decision you’ll ever make as your own personal CEO.