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The cost of a good night's sleep
 Clutter or comfort? Some top hotels put as many as six pillows on a bed. QUICKVOTEBUSINESS TRAVELLER
RESOURCES
OTHER NEWSYOUR SAY
YOUR E-MAIL ALERTSHONG KONG, China (CNN) -- We spend a third of our lives asleep, something the world's pillow makers are trying to exploit, by selling products that improve the quality of our slumber. Companies are teaming up with hotels to develop different kinds of bedding to pamper guests, with products costing from $100 for a queen-sized pillow to $1,000 for a cashmere throw -- with these prices you realize that the travel industry is taking sleep seriously. Many top-end hotels even have pillow menus, which include various shaped bedding products, such as the body pillow -- an elongated cushion used to decorate beds. Singapore-based entrepreneurs Richard Loh and Charlotte Abe are designing and marketing luxury bedding products under the brand name Ploh -- a name which is a play on the word "pillow" and the surname of its founder, Loh. Their sales pitch is designed to seduce the managers of top-tier hotels. "We invite them to the bed and then have them feel and experience it themselves," says Abe. At the Grand Hyatt hotel in Hong Kong, potential customers inspect rooms rearranged by Ploh. The firm has been trying to get into bed with hotels since it was founded in 2002 -- already it has signed up hotels in 16 countries. But Ploh's pillow products cost between 20 and 50 percent more than other bedding, but even though this helps position themselves as a premium brand, the firm has to be careful. "With some businesses you build some beautiful, wonderful brands, however they are not profitable," says Loh. Ploh, which is now turning a profit, thinks there is still a gap in the market for high-end bedding, particularly for pillows. Often stressed, people who stay in hotel rooms fly tens of thousands of miles a year and need to get a good night's rest, some hotels even provide the weary business traveler with as many as six pillows on the bed. "You spend the first 30 minutes just throwing all those pillows on the floor," says Nigel Summers from consulting firm, Horwath Asia-Pacific. "What are you going to do with all those pillows on the floor if you wake up in the middle of night and you have got to go to the bathroom?" Summers warns that there is already a lot of clutter in guest rooms, with too many hotel guides, too many controls for lighting and the television. Summers believes that hotels need to minimize these features and keep them simple. Ploh has adopted a similar philosophy: "It is about taking out what is extraneous -- things that may take up valuable closet space in the guest room," says Loh. 
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