Beds 4 You

Why Should I Consider Buying A Memory Foam / Latex Mattress or Divan Bed ?

Memory Foam is one of the most resilient and durable products in today’s bedding industry. It can be used as a top layer mattress filling, or combined into a zoned pad with reflex foam and latex. Its rebound properties are 10 times greater than traditional mattress fillings.

Memory Foam reacts with your body temperature and weight, compressing and moulding to your body contours. It is widely used in the health industry and it has been proven that it assists back pains, relieves body pressure points, painful joints and circulatory problems, it will also give you an improved and restful nights sleep.

Latex is a natural & breathable product that instantly reacts to your body weight, unlike memory foam which reacts to your body heat & weight. It has the same durability & health properties as memory foam & has built in anti-allergy properties. Latex is breathable & offers better air circulation within the mattress, it also restricts the heat build up on the mattress sleeping surface.

About Memory Foam Mattresses & Memory Foam Divan Beds

Memory Foam was originally developed for NASA in the 1970's, it didn't hit the consumer market until the early 1990's.

First launched in the U.S.A. as a memory foam mattress topper, ( which are now labelled as a ‘short term & cheap fix'  to a genuine sleeping problem ) and arriving in the UK one year later, where they flooded the market in assorted qualities depths and prices. Mostly sold by national bed retailers who still persist in selling them, purely for the profit to be made in the product ; they are over rated and over priced. Most of their toppers are imported from the far east, and do not reflect the key properties or benefits of a quality Memory Foam, they do nothing for a long term solution to consumers sleeping problems or healthy sleep and create an uncomfortable build up of heat.

In the mid 1990’s mattresses started to appear in the market place containing memory foam. Since then, memory foam mattresses have become the fastest growth area in the bed industry.

After the development of memory foam by the NASA project, some saw the benefit of memory foam for use in the medical industry to relieve pressure sores. Over the years, memory foam was shown to be unique in the way it responded to temperature and also in its ability to spread pressure over a greater surface area and thereby reducing pressure points significantly. While the initial version of the foam developed for NASA did have a great deal of promise as a mattress filling, it did have issues with wear over time. The 1st generation of memory foam mattresses were not very durable, and would often compress or crack over time. Today the bedding industry have progressed to a 2nd & 3rd generation memory foam mattress, which have outstanding durability and rebound ability, the latter having the benefit of open cell breathable properties.

Beds4udirect have sampled & tested most of the major memory foam mattress supplier products at our main store at Blaydon, Tyne & Wear, searching for the correct density, depth and comfort level, that would allow us to sell a reliable product with confidence. We tested ‘Block mattresses’ which contain no springs & sometimes come in a compressed roll up form. A ‘block mattress’ has a base layer of graded foam / Bulltex or reflex foam ( or a combination ) with a top layer of assorted depths of memory foam from 30mm to 100mm. After numerous rejections due to ‘bottoming out’ ( when you sit on the side of the mattress you feel yourself hit the base below the mattress ) we settled on 3 suppliers for this product. Jaritex, Breasley & Healthbeds, who all offer an excellent quality product, with a price variance to suit our customers needs.

We also sampled spring and memory foam combinations, again assorted depths & densities of memory foam with open coil bonnell springs, pocket spring and multi coil zoned spring units like the Silentnight Miracoil® & Sealy Posturepedic. The whole process took us about 9 months, before we could confidently go to our suppliers and purchase our stock. All our memory foam mattresses have a minimum depth of 40mm of memory foam ; anything less and you will not feel the benefit.

1.  Memory foam mattress cells deform when weight is applied. Unlike standard foams that compress and want to spring back to their original shape immediately, memory foam cells which are an open cell foam, ( which means the individual cells in the foam have holes in them ) compress fully and spread their air pressure to adjoining cells. This spreads the pressure through a greater number of cells within the memory foam mattress - which decreases the pressure you feel in the cells of the memory foam that you are laying on. This accounts for the way that memory foam mattress actually reduces pressure points. And this ability of the memory foam to deform also allows it to really conform to your body's shape and weight bearing areas, thereby reducing these pressure points. No other material has this ability to shape to your body - this is unique to memory foam mattresses.

2. Memory foam is temperature sensitive. Which means that at lower temperatures it is firmer, and at higher temperatures it is softer and more conforming. Hence the reason memory foam is known as visco-elastic memory foam. This temperature sensitive quality accounts for the melting feeling that you get lying down on memory foam, and also accentuates the custom moulding affect of the foam.

3. Over recent years several manufacturers have started to produce memory foam mattresses. This has allowed the retail price of the memory foam mattress to drop and become affordable to a greater number of consumers, and while this has meant that a good number of quality memory foam mattresses have come onto the market, it also means that a greater number of low quality, cut rate foams have also appeared.

4. A Memory foam mattress is not a commodity, and not all memory foam mattresses are created equal. As a general rule of thumb, you should avoid the noticeably inexpensive memory foam mattresses and divan beds. They are generally made of either low-density memory foam or layered with other, cheaper foam products and ingredients. These inexpensive memory foams will not give you the same comfort as a higher priced product. The majority of good Independent bed retailers generally offer quality memory foam mattresses and memory foam beds at a genuinely competitive price. We would question the quality and price structure of one or two national bed retailer’s memory foam products, along with their elaborate selling techniques.

Remember it’s only the profit that makes them expensive !