Choosing A Visco Elastic Foam Mattress
The visco elastic foam mattress or popularly called visco-elastic polyurethane foam, is becoming a popular mattress. This mattress is a form of memory foam with added chemicals to increase the density and viscosity of the mattress.
In many selections, you can find this mattress to be firmer when it is cooler. Basically, the high density foam reacts to the heat of the body, permitting it to mould or contour to your body within a few minutes of contact.
If you find a type of visco elastic foam mattress that has a slightly lower density foam structure, then you’ll find it to be more pressure-sensitive and will contour to your body quickly, taking on the shape of your body.
Visco elastic foam mattress has quite a short history, being first released by NASA in the 80’s. It was apparently quite a difficult foam to reproduce. Eventually, this mattress was successfully released by the Fagerdala World Foams company, under the brandname, Tempur-Pedic Swedish Mattress.
What makes the visco elastic foam mattress so unique, is its body molding characteristics. Initally, this type of mattress was used medically for patients who were bed ridden and were unable to move around, for unhealthy periods of time.
This would cause the pressure exerted against a standard mattress to create pressure sores or gangrene because of a lack of blood flow. The memory foam mattress showed a great improvement from this problem.
But for the general public, the visco elastic foam mattress was just too expensive. Fortunately for us, in recent years, this type of mattress has become much cheaper. It truly is a great mattress when seeking a mattress that will comfortably conform to the body, without feeling too soft.
It is a warmer mattress then a conventional box spring mattress, but for some individuals, they find that it can help reduce pain because of the added warmth.
Some of the other characteristics of a memory foam mattress are that they are more durable then their innerspring cousins, but do have the disadvantage of being a heavier mattress and can have a slightly unpleasant odor when new.
How To Choose the Right Visco Elastic Foam Mattress
You will find several models and feels between different foam mattresses, so it’s important to know what you are looking for before searching out the right fit for you. Here are some points to consider when finding the right memory foam mattress.
Foam density will be a consideration when looking at mattress durability. This has little to do with feel and all to do with how long your mattress could last. For example, a five pound per cubic foot mattress would last longer than a comparable three pound mattress by as much as ten years.
You’ll normally find that higher end memory foam mattresses will have a foam density of around five to seven pounds.
mmHg is the measurement of how much a mattress will react against pressure. Basically, the lower this number is, the softer the mattress is considered to be. You’ll probably be looking for a mattress that has a reading of 32mmHg or lower for maximum comfort.
Finally, the foam indentation load deflection, or ILD, which dictates a mattress’s comfort level. You’ll find that many high quality visco elastic foam mattress makers will sandwich several layers of different foam ILd, as these layers can work together to increase comfort further.
So, there is some food for thought for you when shopping for the right visco elastic foam mattress for you. They can be an extremely comfortable mattress for many, but you really do have to ‘lie on them’, to see if it fits you and your body.