BodyMould.

Memory Foam

Please click on an option below to find out more about Memory Foam and how it could help you.

• Your simple guide
• Benefits of memory foam
• How it began
• Manufacture and performance
• Densities
• Price variation

Your simple guide

1. 1. You pay for what you get, however you will pay a premium price from a large branded company when smaller companies will offer the same quality of mattress for much cheaper.
2. 2. Density is important, this determines how long your mattress will last and affects it’s performance, so do your research.
3. 3. Trying before you buy is a great way of seeing if memory foam is right for you. Confident sellers will offer a trial because they are confident with thier product.
4. 4. The thickness of the Memory Foam has a huge affect on the performance. We feel that 3” is perfect, offering maximum comfort. Some people offer cheaper mattresses with much thinners layers of Memory Foam.
5. 5. Avoiding imports will give you a much better quality mattress; the UK manufacturers produce the best Memory Foam in the world.
6. 6. Don’t be fooled into thinking that more expensive mattresses or more reputable brands make their mattresses using only memory foam. Every memory foam mattress should have a normal polyurethane base to offer support. BodyMould use 3” Memory foam combined with 5” Reflex foam. There are only 4 companies that manufacture these grades in the UK so the foam used in their mattresses is likely to be the same as ours.

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Benefits of memory foam

• Support – Memory Foam offers great support to your body by spreading your body weight evenly therefore reducing the pressure on your joints.

• Improved posture – Because the Memory Foam absorbs pressure it encourages a straighter spinal position which in turn helps to improve your posture.

• Non Turn – Because the Memory Foam is on one side only there is no need to turn the mattress making it more convenient.

• More Sleep – Memory Foam can reduce the amount of tossing and turning by 80% therefore allowing you to sleep for longer.

• Long lasting – Because we use high density materials all of our products come with a minimum of 5 years warranty.

• Great Prices – High quality Memory Foam mattresses are available nowadays at very competitive prices unlike when it was first introduced to the market.

• Recommended by professionals – Memory Foam mattresses are recommended world wide by chiropractors and various other professionals.

• Pain relief – Because of the pressure relieving properties of Memory Foam it can reduce back problems significantly as well as various other joint issues.

• Individual support – Memory Foam only responds to pressure applied therefore you and your partner can sleep without interrupting each other. If your partner changes position you won’t be affected.

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How it began

As you are probably aware Memory Foam is a relatively new product in the foam and mattress industry. NASA Originally developed the material to reduce the effect of G Forces on astronauts by supporting and reducing the pressure on their bodies during take off and re-entering the earth’s atmosphere. After Memory Foam was developed as part of a NASA project, some saw the promise 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 bed topper or wheel chair cushion material, it did have issues with wear over time. This first generation of material wasn't very durable, and would often compress or crack over time.

The first company to realize the potential of Memory Foam for the consumer market was Tempur-Pedic^®. They had worked on creating their own version of Memory Foam, and developed foam they called Tempur^®, that was much more durable and still had the pressure reducing benefits of Memory Foam. Initially, this Tempur^® foam was used in medical settings, but soon they began to hear that patients who used the foam slept better, had less back pain, and felt more refreshed in the morning. A light bulb switched on over someone's head in Sweden, and Tempur-Pedic^® began to sell the products to consumers.

Due to its origin as a medical device, Tempur^® foam was very expensive, and has stayed that way to this day. After a few years on the consumer market, other foam manufacturers saw the potential of Memory Foam and began to produce their own Memory Foam product lines. Because these manufacturers came from the consumer foam industry, rather than the medical industry, their cost structure for Memory Foam was much lower and they priced their products at a fraction of the Tempur^® foam. As the years went by, Memory Foam became more and more popular, and now manufacturers all over the world are making their own versions of Memory Foam.

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Manufacture & performance

Unlike standard foams that compress and want to spring back to their original shape immediately, Memory Foam is much slower to recover (slow recovery foam as it is sometimes known) from it’s compressed position. This is because the cells of the Memory Foam spreads the air pressure to surrounding cells therefore decreasing the pressure you feel when lying on it. This accounts for the way that Memory Foam actually reduces pressure points. This ability of 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.

Although Memory Foam is very special in its performance, you wouldn’t want an entire mattress made strictly of Memory Foam. This is because it is too soft a material and isn't meant to be supportive alone. Memory Foam works best when layered over a firm, supportive material. That is why you will mainly find Memory Foam as a 2" or 3" topper to be used on your existing, firm mattress, or as a 2" or 3" topping layer in a new Memory Foam mattress. This layer is then bonded to a thicker layer of polyurethane foam which offers support and compliments the comfort of the Memory Foam layer.

Secondly, Memory Foam is temperature sensitive. Which means that at lower temperatures it is firmer (more viscous), and at higher temperatures it is softer and more conforming (more elastic). 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. Certain Memory Foams, such as Tempur-Pedic’s^® Tempur foam, are quite temperature sensitive and can get firm even near room temperature. The Memory Foam used in our toppers and mattresses, in contrast, have a broader range of temperatures where they stay nice and soft yet supportive, so they work well in different climates.

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Densities

The density of the foam used in a Memory Foam mattress is crucial to the durability of the mattress. Although some of the cheaper mattresses available on the market may feel comfortable to begin with they simply won’t last very long. This is all down to the density. In simple terms the denser the foam used the better quality it is.

Foam density is measured by the weight of the foam per M³. This means that a block with a 40 density weighs 40kg per M³ or a block with a 55 density weighs 55kg per M³. This 55kg density is the foam that we use in all of our products (except our pillows which is 40kg) and it is considered the best on the UK market bar none. All the biggest and most reputable mattress manufacturers use the 55kg density in their Memory Foam mattresses and it is for this reason that we do so. You may notice that some companies measure their densities in lbs, this is an imported product and may not be up to the quality of the UK manufactured goods.

Like we mentioned earlier, in our mattresses the Memory Foam is combined with a thicker layer of Polyurethane foam. The density of this foam is equally as important as the density of the Memory Foam because it’s takes a large load of the weight. This density is measured in the same way as Memory Foam but because of its construction the density doesn’t need to be as great as the Memory Foam. The foam itself is called Reflex and this is a brand introduced by the UK’s largest foam manufacture British Vitafoam. This reflex foam was constructed for the furniture and bedding industry and is designed to perform under large loads, making it ideal for this use.

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Price variations

If you have been searching the market for Memory Foam mattresses you will have found a huge range of prices, ranging from under £200 to over £1500 for a standard double. This large range has several determining factors:

1. 1. The quality of the foam used. We have already talked about densities and how this affects the price so just to clarify as a general rule you should avoid Memory Foam densities that are less than 50kg and the base layer should be no lower than a 30kg density.
2. 2. The Thickness of the mattress. Standard mattresses are generally 8" (20cm) deep and this is for good reason. Any thicker adds no benefit to the mattress, but will sit too high off the bed base and not fit the sheets properly. Any thinner starts to affect the comfort of the mattress. We take this same view with our mattresses and therefore use the perfect 8" (20cm).
3. 3. The thickness of Memory Foam. Cheaper mattresses will use thinner layers of Memory Foam therefore making them less comfortable. We have found that 3" is the perfect amount. Any more and you sink in too far and any less just won’t offer the comfort that these mattresses should.
4. 4. Branded Mattresses. As with anything you’ll pay a premium for branded products and this is no different in the mattress market. Tempur^® mattresses are the biggest known brand and their mattresses sell for as much as £2000. Lesser known brands and smaller businesses such as BodyMould have much lower overheads and can sell the same mattresses for a fraction of the price.
5. 5. Imported Memory Foam is much cheaper and in this case much lower quality than that manufactured in the UK. A large proportion of the imported goods don’t meet the UK fire regulations. For peace of mind you should always buy UK made Memory Foam.

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