Our lifestyles have changed, and so our mattresses must change with it. These days, far too many people spend their entire working lives sitting in an uncomfortable office chair and staring at a computer. Naturally, this has caused an epidemic of posture and back problems.
However, technology also offers us a lot of solutions – particularly in the mattress field. If these back problems are arising from hours and hours of time spent sitting uncomfortably in front of a computer monitor, it makes sense that the most effective way to combat it is by ensuring everyone gets hours and hours of extremely comfortable sleep. As a result, we have seen a lot of advances in the field of mattress technology. The biggest one so far has probably been memory foam, which was developed, oddly enough, by a team of engineers working at NASA. Their original aim was to find a way to reduce the discomfort felt by astronauts during the high gravitational forces of space shuttle take off and landing, but some bright mind realized that the idea could also help the public reduce the prevalence of back problems, and so the product was adapted for use by the public.
According to the mattress pads guide, the way memory foam works is that it adjusts itself to be as comfortable as possible, based on stimuli from the body of the person lying around it. It is a heat sensitive material, and it adjusts its density based on body heat, which allows it to shape itself around the unique contours of every person’s body, thus creating an extremely comfortable sleep environment. In other words, memory foam is a “smart” mattress.
Unfortunately, in spite of the health benefits that it has been proven to offer, consumer uptake has still been pretty slow. In response, mattress companies have started creating smaller versions of the product, such as the memory foam topper (as opposed to the full size mattress), so that more people can afford to purchase these items. Only time will tell if this approach will indeed reduce the back problems that are commonplace in our society today.