Rest easy with memory foam,
It’s found in mattresses, pillows and even sexy bras, but what exactly is the popular spongy material that moulds to your body? PATRICK LANGSTON investigates.
It sounds vaguely ominous: memory foam. As though the stuff is crammed with brain cells.
In fact, it does contain cells, which is why the material, usually made of polyurethane with added chemicals to increase its density, is touted as being ideal for mattresses, mattress toppers, pillows and now even bras and dog beds.
Those cells respond to heat and weight by compressing and moulding themselves to your body. That means that when sleeping on a memory foam mattress, for example, hips and other protruding or heavier body parts sink in more deeply, relieving pressure on them and distributing your weight evenly over the mattress.
Memory foam mattresses are consequently marketed as bestowing a good night’s sleep, especially for those with joint and other problems.
Because they cradle you and absorb movement, they apparently also reduce the bouncing mattress syndrome that, if you’re a restless sleeper, can drive your bedmate mad.
When you’re not using the mattress, pillow, whatever, the cells decompress and return to their original shape.
Memory foam mattresses — Tempur-Pedic was one of the first out of the gate with them and is still a major player in the marketplace — as well as pillows are becoming ubiquitous, with everyone from IKEA to specialty stores carrying the spongy products.
“We do sell quite a few,” says Mark Bryan, a sales associate with Sleep Country in Ottawa. “They are good for lower-back pain relief.”
Noting the price — anywhere from $862 to just under $5,000 for a queensize mattress and box spring — he says, “They’re more popular in Europe, where people are used to paying more for their beds.”
The store also carries memory foam pillows, which range in cost from $19.99 to around $60. Price can dictate quality, Bryan says.
Essentia, which has a store on Richmond Road, specializes in memory foam mattresses and other bedding products, as well as mattresses made from hevea milk (rubber tree sap). According to its website myessentia.com, this natural product solves problems such as chemical off-gassing and odour and heat buildup reported by some users of polyurethane memory foam products.
Essentia’s queen-size mattresses (no box spring required) range from $1,790 to $5,546.
The store also sells memory foam dog beds at $189 for the medium size. Your pooch is promised a bed that’s “dust mite deterrent & hypoallergenic” according to the website.
And while manufacturers making claims about their own and competitors’ products sometimes sound more like politicians engaged in partisan trench fighting, not everyone is convinced memory foam is the panacea it seems.
“It’s not like a magic bullet,” says Sandeep Kulkarni, a physiotherapist and director of Kanata Orthopaedic. “What I tell my patient is, ‘Experiment with different types of products’ because some find that a firm mattress works best for them.”
He says that while memory foam mattresses work for some patients, he’s seen no “good-quality” research to prove manufacturers’ claims about benefits.
There is information, although it appears not to be based on the kind of scientifically rigorous research that Kulkarni would like to see on the pros and cons of memory foam mattresses at consumersearch. memory-foam-mattress.
That information includes a link to sleeplikethedead.com. That site claims to base its data about everything from overall user satisfaction — 81 per cent for memory foam compared to just over 60 per cent for inner spring mattresses — to how good they are for sex — “OK for romance” — on information gleaned from more than 5,600 owners.
In 2008, the journal Spine published a study that found waterbeds and “body-conforming” foam mattresses had a more positive effect on back symptoms, function and sleep than hard mattresses, but the differences were “small.”
If you are shopping for a memory foam mattress, ask about warranties (the products tend to last 10 years or more, although warranties may exceed that) and density (high-density is more durable, but not everyone likes its firmness).
Whether it’s a mattress or some other product, check out buyer reviews on websites. Reviews of pillows on the Sears site ( sears.ca), for example, vary widely as far as satisfaction goes.
Sarah Wright agrees that not all memory foam products are created equal.
Wright, a manager at Ontario Medical Supply in Ottawa, says some products are injected with rubber and may not be the best quality.
However, Wright says the store does recommend memory foam products depending on the clients’ needs. “People get them for sciatic pain, pressure-sore relief.”
Cervical pillows, which run $50 and up at her store, are shaped to support the neck and keep it in alignment with the spine. Wright says they can provide relief for complaints like generic neck pain and headaches.
Also available at Ontario Medical Supply and elsewhere are pillows for airplane travel and wheelchair cushions.
At department stores, you’ll find slippers, bath mats and chair pads made of the stuff, as well as leg spacers used to align hips and spine when sleeping to reduce lower back pain. There are even memory foam kitchen mats, designed to relieve pressure on knees and other joints as you cook or wash dishes.