Many people sing the praises of the memory foam mattress, especially those who really need good support while they’re sleeping, yet who have a difficult time with mattresses that are as hard as a board. These beds are made of a substance called visco elastic foam, and it’s the special properties of this foam that makes the mattresses so comfortable, yet which also enables them to provide such excellent support.
Visco elastic memory foam is denser than other types of foam in household use, and is made of millions of tiny spherical cells that are weight and temperature sensitive. These properties make it firmer when the temperature is cool, and softer when it’s warm. What this means for you is that a memory foam mattress will react to your body’s heat and gradually conform itself to your shape. It will be firm when you lie down, but slowly contour around you and support you as you sleep. Yet it “remembers” its own shape and returns to it once you get up, and the foam cools down. This is where memory foam gets its name, of course.
There’s more to the support than that, though. The visco memory foam only heats up and becomes elastic down to a certain depth. So the top layers of cells will soften and adapt to your body shape, yet the foam farther down remains as cool as before, and therefore doesn’t change. So it retains its shape and provides extra underlying firmness, meaning that memory foam mattresses give you both the contoured support above and the firm support below.
Another factor in both the support and the shape of the mattress is its own density. You might find inexpensive memory foam mattresses with a density of 1.5 pounds per cubic foot, and another of 8 pounds. A higher density will provide more support and relief for those with hip or back problems. Additionally, there are single, double, queen or king size memory foam mattress choices available, as well as memory foam contour pillows.
What all of this information means, in the end, is that even the pressure points of the body that push harder into a mattress than other points do (things like hips, for example) are relieved on a memory foam mattress. Since the entire body is supported equally, this can help those with arthritis and even bedsores. A memory foam bed might be just the thing you’re looking for if you want to sleep without getting stiff and sore.
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