Since their introduction, foam mattresses have been acclaimed for their unique support qualities and their application in medical and safety settings. In fact, the reason NASA developed memory foam in 1966 was to improve the effectiveness of airline cushions. Constructed with polyurethane and additional materials, memory foam has the advantage of being temperature sensitive, allowing it to react at the surface to body temperature while remaining firm at your core. The speed at which a foam mattress molds to the body depends on its density, since foam with a higher density reacts to the body more slowly than foam with a lower density. For this reason, memory foam mattresses can offer support that no other type of mattress can match.
Memory foam was not released to the public until the early 1980s and did not gain traction until 1991, when a company by the name of Fagerdala World Foams released the Tempur-Pedic memory foam mattress to the public. Initially, memory foam mattresses were primarily used in clinical settings for patients who were forced to endure long periods of bed rest. The use of this new technology resulted in a dramatic improvement in blood flow compared to traditional spring mattresses, a statistic used by Tempur World to this day. The cost of foam has dropped somewhat since the early 1990s, and it is now available in a variety of products including mattresses, pillows, mattress toppers, and even wheelchair pads.
In addition to the many supposed positive features of foam mattresses, there are also some potential negatives that need to be mentioned. Perhaps the most common complaint regarding foam mattresses and their accessories is their inherent tendency to retain body heat, causing some users to become overheated. While some mattress manufacturers have tried to alleviate this problem by using air channels in their mattresses, the problem persists in some cases and is considered a major disadvantage for many people. Apart from this potential problem, there is the concern that many users have regarding the chemical smell that new mattresses tend to emit. While there hasn’t been any solid evidence pointing to the health consequences of odors, some people are simply too sensitive to tolerate it. It is worth mentioning that these orders tend to disappear completely within a couple of weeks of ownership.