Are you thinking about buying a memory foam mattress?
Are you confused about all the hype and confusing claims made by the different advertisements for memory foam?
I've set out to clear the air, remove the "smoke and mirrors", and put into one article all the true information you'll need to make a selection that will thrill you, give you years of value and make poor sleep a thing of the past.
The term "memory foam" or "visco-elastic memory foam" was coined in the early days of NASA's space program. That's why it's also known as NASA foam.
Sometimes, a memory foam mattress is referred to as a NASA foam mattress.
During lift-off, astronauts were being subjected to tremendous g-forces that the human body just wasn't designed to endure.
The need for a new material, that would make these conditions tolerable for the astronauts, spawned the research that resulted in the invention of this brand new kind of foam.
If water, springs, air or any combination of those things had been an alternative, the expensive research that followed wouldn't have been needed, and the need for a new material wouldn't have existed.
Visco-elastic foam has unique qualities.
It is able to mold itself to the shape of any object that puts pressure on it and, yet, when the object is removed, it will slowly return to it's original shape.
The picture that comes to mind is the hand above the memory foam mattress that still has the hand print showing on it.
Memory foam is an open celled foam, which means that air is free to move from one cell to another, so when pressure is applied, the affected cells collapse and you feel sort of like you're floating down into the material.
This collapsing of the cells allows the material to "melt away" from pressure until the entire surface of your body is evenly supported over the surface of the memory foam.
It virtually eliminates pressure points.
Another unique feature of a memory foam mattress is temperature sensitivity.
Within a short time of your body lying on the mattress, your body temperature will start to cause the memory foam to soften.
Any area of your body that has excess heat, such as a fevered injury, will cause the mattress to soften even further where it is touching, making memory foam the ideal material for a comfortable mattress.
The problem with the NASA foam was that it "off gassed", putting off a smell that was overpowering in the confined quarters of a space vehicle.
It was eventually scrapped by NASA. To my knowledge, it was never actually used on any space mission.
At that point, memory foam was just too expensive to be used for mattresses and the off-gassing wouldn't have been acceptable either.
A few medical research companies started experimenting with the material for use in hospitals. Many patients develop bedsores when confined to bed over long periods of time.
Because it was cost effective for this application, these experiments led to using memory foam in a variety of health industry settings to alleviate pressure points in hospital patients.
Through this medical research, memory foam became more and more adaptable to use as a consumer product in the form of pillows, mattresses, toppers, chairs, etc
Are you confused about all the hype and confusing claims made by the different advertisements for memory foam?
I've set out to clear the air, remove the "smoke and mirrors", and put into one article all the true information you'll need to make a selection that will thrill you, give you years of value and make poor sleep a thing of the past.
The term "memory foam" or "visco-elastic memory foam" was coined in the early days of NASA's space program. That's why it's also known as NASA foam.
Sometimes, a memory foam mattress is referred to as a NASA foam mattress.
During lift-off, astronauts were being subjected to tremendous g-forces that the human body just wasn't designed to endure.
The need for a new material, that would make these conditions tolerable for the astronauts, spawned the research that resulted in the invention of this brand new kind of foam.
If water, springs, air or any combination of those things had been an alternative, the expensive research that followed wouldn't have been needed, and the need for a new material wouldn't have existed.
Visco-elastic foam has unique qualities.
It is able to mold itself to the shape of any object that puts pressure on it and, yet, when the object is removed, it will slowly return to it's original shape.
The picture that comes to mind is the hand above the memory foam mattress that still has the hand print showing on it.
Memory foam is an open celled foam, which means that air is free to move from one cell to another, so when pressure is applied, the affected cells collapse and you feel sort of like you're floating down into the material.
This collapsing of the cells allows the material to "melt away" from pressure until the entire surface of your body is evenly supported over the surface of the memory foam.
It virtually eliminates pressure points.
Another unique feature of a memory foam mattress is temperature sensitivity.
Within a short time of your body lying on the mattress, your body temperature will start to cause the memory foam to soften.
Any area of your body that has excess heat, such as a fevered injury, will cause the mattress to soften even further where it is touching, making memory foam the ideal material for a comfortable mattress.
The problem with the NASA foam was that it "off gassed", putting off a smell that was overpowering in the confined quarters of a space vehicle.
It was eventually scrapped by NASA. To my knowledge, it was never actually used on any space mission.
At that point, memory foam was just too expensive to be used for mattresses and the off-gassing wouldn't have been acceptable either.
A few medical research companies started experimenting with the material for use in hospitals. Many patients develop bedsores when confined to bed over long periods of time.
Because it was cost effective for this application, these experiments led to using memory foam in a variety of health industry settings to alleviate pressure points in hospital patients.
Through this medical research, memory foam became more and more adaptable to use as a consumer product in the form of pillows, mattresses, toppers, chairs, etc
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