Memory Foam Mattress Pads An Essential Accessory
Memory foam mattress pads, also known as toppers come in various thickness and densities. Here are some guidelines to help you find the right one.
The first thing you want to do when you get your memory foam mattress pad is to allow 48 hours for the product to return to its original shape because the pad was tightly packed for shipping.
Also, because the pad was sealed in plastic packaging, there may be some trapped odors. A few hours of airing will remove the odor.
A good quality foam will reduce tossing and turning do to moisture and body heat buildup. In fact, the cell structure of quality memory foam pads can improve the air flow and help maintain a neutral body temperature.
Many people who have sleep disorders or problems with joints and muscles, especially the back muscles, have found that quality memory foam air pads on their air beds to have helped them sleep better at night.
Density is one of the most important factor in choosing a memory foam mattress pad.
Density is measured in pounds per cubic foot. Another way to look at this is to visualize a cubic foot of foam on a scale. So if you visualize two different cubic foot of foams, each on their own scale, one weighs 2-pounds and the other weighs 5-pounds, the 5-pound cubic foot of foam will have the higher density.
Most of the high quality memory foam mattress pads will be 2 inches high. For off-n-on use a 4-pound density should be fine. If you are going to sleep on the bed every night then a 5-pound density would be better than 4.
Thickness ranges from 1 to 4 inches. 2 and 3 inch memory foam mattress pads are perfect for air beds. If a person is over 250 pounds then a 4 inch pad can give that extra needed support.
Finally, Firmness of a memory foam mattress pad is measured by ILD (Indentation Load Deflection). ILD measures the firmness of the memory foam, ranging from 10 to 100. The higher the number the firmer the foam.
The ideal is 12 to 14 ILD.
The technical explanation if you are interest:
The ILD is a measure of how much of a load the foam can bear. ILD is measured as the number of pounds required to compress a 50 square inch circular indent-foot into a 4-inch thick foam sample no smaller than 24 inches square, to a given percentage of the foam’s initial height.