Why Memory Foam?

NASA's Ames Research Centre funded a project that helped to develop and design a substance that could help astronauts in relieving the huge g-forces that are experienced during lift off. This project was kicked off in the early 1970's. The Research Centre believed that the substance that was one of the key secrets to reducing the g-forces on the body was a foam material that would conform to the shape of the body of each astronaut. The new foam material was made of visco-elastic which conformed to the body, but would come back to normal shape once the pressure was removed from the foam, this allowed even distribution of pressure or body weight over the entire surface of the foam. The foam then quickly adapts to any movement of the body. The term memory foam relates to the fact that the foam always returns to its own shape.

This amazing discovery by Fagerdala World Foams of Sweden created major experiment to perfect this foam for consumer use. Fagerdala is one of Europe's largest foam producing companies.

The Tempur-Pedic ®, a Swedish Mattress company introduced this material in a mattress form in 1991. The people of Sweden received the results well. In 1992, Tempur-Pedic ® launched the same products in North America and experienced a similar response.

The success of Tempur-Pedic ® made other foam manufacturers in Canada, the United States, the UK and other countries began to develop their own visco-elastic memory foam material.

How to choose which one?

There are now many different varieties of memory foam products available which can be confusing to the consumer. The choice of mattresses with memory foam is staggering, but the first thing the consumer should try to determine is how much memory foam is being used in the product. Most all foam mattresses (no springs) have a layer of high density or support foam as a base, then a layer of memory foam on top, for that reason they are non turn. The depth of the memory foam layer can vary from 20mm to 100mm which has a huge bearing on comfort/support, and also on price. Once you have your head around that, you should also consider that there are different densities of memory foam as well, the norm is between 40 (soft) and 70 (firm). With spring interior mattresses that have a memory foam content the criteria is the same – what depth of memory foam does it have, and what density. You then have to consider whether you would prefer a continuous coil spring unit (where all the springs are inter connected) or a pocket spring model (hundreds of hand nested individual springs) continuous coil is the most popular due mainly to price, but people who buy a pocket spring model tend to stick to that type. Last but not least is the type of cover that is used; this can also have a bearing on your overall comfort. Coolmax and Silversafe materials are highly recommended, as they are both tried and tested fabrics that are proven to provide a cooler, more hygienic sleeping environment.

What is the initial smell that comes from memory foam?

While the memory foam does not contain toxic ingredients such as formaldehyde or PBDE (polybrominateddiphenylether), there can be a new foam type of smell. This is noticeable mainly because many of these products are vacuum packed. The ideal way to combat this is to open the packaging and leave the mattress in a well aired room for a couple of days before use. This is common to all memory foam products but does fade very quickly so it is not something you should be concerned about.