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What To Look For When Shopping For Memory Foam Mattresses
 From the Desk of Eben Goresko
The problem with many conventional mattresses is that they just don't conform or fit well to your body's shape and contour. They are either rigid and resist the curves of your shape or they are overly soft and "give way" beneath you, creating a hammock like effect. The unique body molding qualities of memory foam allow your bed to conform to your body's shape, creating a cradling effect. Memory foam is a material that molds to the body, offering support and pressure relief, where needed. Developed initially for the space industry, the unique feel and comfort of memory foam is unlike any other material used in the bedding industry.
Memory foam has taken off over the last 10 -15 years for a simple reason -- it works. There just isn't any other material that reduces pressure like memory foam. People trying memory foam often report sleeping better, having less pain problems, and less tossing and turning. These types of benefits are why memory foam has become the hottest product in the mattress industry and why Tempur-PedicTM has sprung from nowhere to the 4th largest mattress manufacturer in the U.S.
If you are interested in a memory foam mattress, the first thing you need to know is that they aren't made solely of memory foam. All "memory foam" beds are in reality layered mattresses. By that I mean they have a "core" portion, that is the guts of the mattress so to speak. And on top of this "core" are the different layers of memory foam. The difference between different memory foam mattresses is the type of "core" they use and the quality, feel, and thickness of the different memory foam layers topping the "core".
So what should you look for in these components of a memory foam mattress? Boy that is a tough question to answer, since there is no one right formulation. In general, though, I found that it is important for the "core" of the memory foam bed to be 6" or more of high density foam, and the density of this "core" foam should preferably be 2.0 lb or higher.
In comparing different memory foam mattresses, I found that you really get a nicer feel and support from those that have a firm, supportive "core" -- and you really start getting this sort of support once you get a high density foam of about 2.0 lb/cubic foot (all this density number means, is that a cube of this particular material -- with each side of the cube 1 foot in length -- would weigh 2 lbs). And six inches of this type of "core" foam really gives the bed a good, supportive feel. You may find memory foam mattresses with thinner cores out there, and I found that if the "core" was less than 5" it really felt like you were bottoming out in the mattress.
On top of this "core" is the memory foam, and the amount of memory foam and type of memory foam used varies from mattress to mattress. And again, while a lot of this is very subjective, I found that in testing memory foam mattresses that the Goldilocks principle applied. What do I mean by this? Well, there were a fair amount of memory foam mattresses out there that were too soft or their memory foam was just not dense enough to offer the feel and comfort of memory foam. In general, I learned to stay away from mattresses using memory foam with less than 3 lb density memory foam.
On the other hand, I found another bunch of memory foam mattresses that were too hard. These used super dense memory foams -- 5 lb memory foams and higher -- and I found that these memory foams often felt hard to begin with and were kind of difficult to move around in. I'm no foam expert, but it seems to me that this group of memory foam, the super dense, are more temperature sensitive than somewhat less dense memory foams. That is, they feel harder at room temperature, and only softened after awhile of absorbing my body's heat. One result of this was they formed a cocoon around me after awhile, which made moving around on the bed or turning over kind of difficult. It was an interesting feel, but I can't say it was optimal.
That is when I found the middle category of memory foam beds -- the ones using medium density memory foam -- that I found "just right". Typically, these beds used memory foams with 3 - 4 lb density, and often layered a couple of these densities to get a really nice feel. At these medium densities, these memory foams have a soft initial feel. But they also have sufficient density to cushion your body and also have the nice memory foam "feel" and pressure relief characteristics. I found that I liked those that offered somewhere between 3" - 5" of memory foam -- this depth of memory foam had the nice cradling feel without feeling like you were sinking too far into the mattress.
My Recommendations
While there are a lot of nice memory foam mattresses out there, the ones that tended to meet my criteria and have a nice feel were often very expensive. For example, the lowest priced Tempur-PedicTMmodel that I really like is the DeluxeBed by Tempur-PedicTM. The Tempur-PedicTMmodels at lower prices (the OriginalBed by Tempur-PedicTMand the ClassicBed by Tempur-PedicTM) just feel too firm . The DeluxeBed by Tempur-PedicTMhas an extra layer of memory foam that gives the mattress a softer, much nicer feel. Unfortunately, it sells for $2299 for a Queen mattress (with no foundation).
Do you have to pay this much for a comfortable memory foam mattress? Well, many of the other competitors models I looked at in the stores, that offered a similar level of comfort, really weren't a whole lot less expensive. Most of their queen models topped $1500 and others also went above $2000.
I finally found what I was looking for when I came across the Healthy Foundations Memory Foam Mattress. It offers the comfort and quality of the expensive memory foam beds at about 1/2 the price of the DeluxeBed by Tempur-PedicTM. I sought out Healthy Foundations as a sponsor because they have had such great customer comments to their mattress, and the quality of and feel of their bed is second to none. And importantly they offer a 365 day money back trial on their memory foam mattress -- so you can try it for yourself and not get taken if it doesn't work for you. Also, it was important to me that they are a BBB member with never a complaint, and a 5 star shopping.com trusted store. What is great about their site is that they have a number of videos going into the ins and outs of memory foam, and they also have a lot of customer testimonials gathered from Shopping.com so you can check out what others say about their mattress and customer service. So if you are interested in a memory foam mattress, check out the Healthy Foundations Memory Foam Mattress.
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