Considering buying a memory foam mattress, but new to the visco elastic mattress world? Don't worry, in this article we will go through the more important things to consider when considering which one is right for you. When considering all of the options, it can be rather staggering from all the different choices. "How do they make so many different types of memory foam mattresses?" you may ask. Just like regular innerspring mattresses, memory foam mattresses do vary in firmness as well as other factors as well.
First thing a person would want to consider when looking for a good foam mattress is density. The reason for this is because many consumers have had a few issues after purchasing the mattresses of densities below 4 lbs. Four pound density visco foam mattresses are our recommendation in order to avoid any avoidable sagging in the mattress. However, one exception would be memory foam toppers which can be placed on top of a regular mattress to give it a 'feel' of a real visco elastic mattress, but these are not as thick as regular mattresses and could potentially wear out sooner than a regular mattress. More and more higher density foam mattresses are becoming available nowadays.
Second thing to look for would be a good ILD rating. The ILD rating is the rating of the actual firmness of the mattress determined through a series of tests of the visco elastic material used in the manufacturing of the mattress. If you would like to compare ILD ratings to that of a high quality mattress, then an ILD rating of around 13 to 15 should be about right. Firmness is a very big issue for many individuals who experience back pain, fibromyalgia as well as other chronic pain related conditions and diseases. So make sure you get the right mattress with the firmness and density that best fits your needs. Also, be sure to take advantage of any free trial offers that many manufacturers now offer!
The next things to consider after density and firmness would be resilience and tensility, if you would really like to go into detail. There are indeed more tests that are done on the visco foam materials in mattresses around the world including stretching the material as far as it can go. This test is the tensility test and this really does not apply to normal household usage of memory foam as the pressure of the body on top of it is about as far as the stretching will go in regards to the viscoelastic material.
When considering resilience, you may want to consider whether or not you would like a highly resilient, or HR, visco-elastic mattress which is more like an innerspring mattress as the whole benefit of memory foam is the fact that it is made of temperature sensitive material which conforms to the contours of your body. This 'cradling' relieves pressure in more injured and/or fevered areas of the body. The benefits of memory foam mattresses are enormous when considering how memory foam affects the body by relieving pressure points while providing spinal alignment, a better night's sleep and more. So make sure you select your new mattress carefully as high quality products can last for many years to come.