Introduction to the Memory Foam Cooling Mattress

Memory Foam is a soft and heat sensitive material made from polyurethane with some additives to increase its density. Memory foam mattresses can be rated as the most comfortable and soft mattresses in the market. It’s a very high density mattress that hugs you while you sleep and keeps you warm. Well, in this case we don’t want anything to do with warm for we want to look at memory foam cooling mattress. What are the cooling mattresses that one can find under memory foam? Let’s find out.

There are three types of memory foam mattresses. Traditional memory foam mattress, gel infused memory foam mattress and plant based memory foam mattress. All these three were created for a purpose.

The traditional memory foam mattress was the first of its kind. It was developed in the 1960s by NASA to improve safety in their aircrafts. The foam is made up of a cell structure that has temperature sensitive and heat retaining properties. It is the kind of mattress that lets you sink into it and it molds around a warm body in a few minutes. It softens in reaction to body heat. A memory foam mattress is denser than any other mattress. There are added ingredients such as aloe Vera, green tea extract and activated charcoal which are a source of aromatherapy and reduce odors.

There are many advantages of using a traditional memory foam mattress if your purpose is more of comfort than cooling. For one it supports spine alignment. This is because it supports each part of the body evenly and individually by spreading your weight across the bed’s surface. This allows your spine to stay in a neutral position and reduces any aches in pressure points. Due to its heat retaining properties the traditional memory foam mattress cannot be used for cooling.

The second generation of the memory foam mattress is the gel infused foam. Gel infused memory foam is made up of gel particles fused with a special type of foam called Visco foam to reduce trapped body heat, speed up spring back time and help the mattress feel softer. This development helped achieve the desired temperature regulation or cooling effect by changing from a solid to a liquid "state" within the foam.

Gel infused memory foam mattress feels cooler initially, and these mattresses tend to have heat complaint rates of about 6-8% (with models that have gel close to surface feeling coolest), and these mattresses tend to have heat complaint rates of about 6-8% (with models that have gel close to surface feeling coolest).

What really happens is that the gel will initially take on the room temperature and feel cool. However, with a few minutes it warms to the sleeper’s body temperature and therefore doesn’t solve the initial problem.

After this proved to be the case in the gel infused foam, the third and most efficient memory foam cooling mattress was created. Plant-based foams replace a portion of the petroleum with botanically-sourced oils and may have a reduced chemical profile compared to other foams. Some type of plant based memory foam have been shown to improve breathability and eliminate other concerns, all this without heat retention issues. Some plant based foams, are also free of chemicals like CFCs which have been cause for concern in traditional memory foams. A good example of a plant based memory foam cooling mattress is the Ameri sleep. This type of mattress is usually temperature neutral, and has proven more effective in dissipating heat than other memory foams.

There is only one very effective memory foam cooling mattress and that is the plant based memory foam. It has been developed purposely for the cooling effect. The other brands of memory foam mattresses do not achieve this. Now you can buy a memory foam mattress either for comfort or for cool nights.