Memory Foam Mattress Reviews

For a good night's sleep, one needs a soft support for the back and joints. A variety of mattresses such as cotton, spring, coir and foam are available in the market at a very wide range of prices. The latest among them is memory foam mattress. One should read memory foam mattress reviews by companies such as Tempur-pedic and SelectaBed.

The Origin of Memory Foam Mattresses

Memory foam was invented by NASA. It helped astronauts to relieve extreme forces they had to experience during the rocket take-offs. So NASA developed memory foam to reduce the G-forces. NASA could have created a foam mold but this would not have been flexible and would cause inconvenience when the sleeper moved.

Fagerdala Word Foams, a Swedish company, started conducting experiments to improve memory foam. A foam gets memory by adding non-toxic chemicals to it. Thus, the foam gets higher weight or density. Memory foam compresses when it senses temperature. It springs back to the former condition when pressure is removed. Foam is graded by its durability.

Choosing the Best Memory Foam Mattress

Memory foam adapts to the sleeper's shape so that the material changes form when the sleeper moves. Memory foam is elastic in nature, and thus, it resumes original shape when the weight is removed. There are 10 to 15 companies offering such mattresses in various models. The price ranges from a little under $1000 up to $5000. A 6 month trial period and warranty from 10 to 30 years is offered with the product.

The minimum configuration includes memory foam of approximately 3", base support sheet of approximately 5", and covering quilted sheet for comfortable feel. High-priced products may have more layers of different material to improve specifications.

How is Foam Graded?

The more chemicals you add to foam, the greater the weight of the foam. Therefore, the memory foam mattress with a density of 5 lb (pounds) is more visco-elastic than one with a density of 2 lb. The Indentation Load Deflection (ILD) rating of foam determines the hardness of the material. The higher the ILD, the firmer the foam.

The resilience of a foam is measured by dropping a steel ball from a height of 36" (inches). If the ball rebounds to a greater height, then the foam is more resilient, which makes it more durable. HR foam means highly resilient foam.

The more tensile a foam is, the more it can be stretched. It is measured in pounds per square inch. This measure of a foam's elongation is not important because memory foam mattresses are rarely expanded but are usually compressed. These valuations on the memory foam mattresses are not accurate. So, a memory foam mattress with a rating of 10 ILD could be anywhere between 8 and 12 ILD.

A memory foam mattress may smell for few days. While this will not cause problems even if you're allergic, it will still stink for some time. Here are some ways one can reduce the smell. Opening the windows of the room, and washing bed sheets before use helps in reducing the smell. One can place a dish of vinegar on the bedside table in order to get rid of the smell. An air purifier or an ozone generator could be used to remove the odors. 'Biogreen' manufactures memory foam which does not have the smell during the initial phase.

Memory foam was also used in Tempur-Pedic mattresses, which were very successful. Tempur-Pedic even introduced these products in America with the same results. Other companies in North America started using foam in packaging, cushions and pillows. There is also an ecological memory foam mattresses available in the market. These mattresses are environment friendly. 'ConsumerSearch' is a website which you can go to for memory foam mattress reviews..