Need Help To Sleep? - Try a Memory Foam Mattress - By: Steve Gee,

What do you feel like first thing in the morning when you get out of bed? Do you feel as though you have spent the night wrestling with a gorilla or hacking your way through the jungle? If this is a familiar feeling to you it just might be that you didn't get a good nights sleep. The reason for this could be that you can't find a comfortable position in bed and aren't able to relax in the way you should when you sleep. Many people have found that a memory foam mattress can help them to relax at night by providing better support for the body in all the important places like the hip, neck and waist so you might want to consider changing your mattress for a memory foam type. Before you take this important step though you should know that memory foam mattresses are expensive products and you might want to experiment with cheaper options like memory foam pillows and mattress toppers first.

Memory foam was developed in the 1970's for NASA to provide comfortable support in the seating for astronauts at take off and landing, it wasn't available in the shops until the 1990's. Since that time the market has grown considerably and is still growing very quickly, especially as the medical profession recommend its use to relieve back pain and pressure sores.

The first manufacturer of memory foam was Tempur-Pedic (R) and it was used mainly in hospitals. The company soon realised that patients who used the foam seemed to sleep better, and they expanded production to sell it to everyone. Since then many other manufacturers have developed their own memory foam product lines and the largest producers now appear to be in China and the Far East.

Memory foam mattresses and other memory foam products can help you to sleep by providing comfortable surfaces for your body to rest on. Memory foam material is visco-elastic meaning that it changes its characteristics with temperature. When you lie on memory foam your body heat causes it to soften at the points where your body is in contact with the foam. As it softens your body slowly sinks into a perfectly fitting mould, which provides all over support and minimises pressure points.

Word of warning - with the cheaper, lower density foams, when the real cold weather sets in, the foam can become as hard as a board or it might turn into soft goo on hot summer nights! The more expensive brands guarantee that they will perform in the way they should through a wide temperature range.

If you're still not convinced that changing to a memory foam mattress will give you more help to sleep then you might consider trying one of the less expensive solutions first. Memory foam pillows are popular and appear to receive good reviews from users. A memory foam topper that you lay on top of your existing mattress is another lower cost option. Some of the better manufacturers offer trial periods allowing you to take the product home to try it out then return it if you don't like it.

What should you look for? There are differences in the way mattresses are made so it is important to find out from a retailer how they are put together and which would suit you best. Rule of thumb - mattresses can either have three or four inches of memory foam over a denser supportive core. For help to sleep, more depth isn't necessarily right either as you might sink in too far before reaching the core! Tummy sleepers should purchase 2 inch (5cm approx.) foam, side sleepers and medium sized people should buy a foam memory mattress with three inch (7.5cm approx) foam and large/heavy people or back sleepers should buy the four inch (10cm approx).

Memory foam does unfortunately have some disadvantages. For one thing, It's expensive. When it's new it gives off a toxic gas that has an odour that some people don't like. The gas is released from the foam when it's new and the effect does wear off quickly when it's used in a room with good ventilation. This could be one of the reasons why it was never actually used in spacecraft because the gas would not have been able to dissipate. If you are sensitive to this gas then perhaps you should be considering alternatives such as a foam latex mattress, which is a natural product.

Make sure that you try out memory foam mattresses in your local stores until you find the one that you like the best. Don't be afraid to lie on them for a reasonable time because it takes a while to mould to your body shape properly. Try not to fall asleep while you are doing it though. When you've found the one you like the best, shop around and use the Internet to find you the best prices and guarantees.

Steve is a software engineer and invites you to visit his website The Memory Foam Mattress www.thememoryfoammattress.com

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