Blog Post
Mattress Firmness Index
- By NW Bedding
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- 07 Jan, 2017
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How do you describe to someone the "firmness" of an object? Usually you would make a comparison with some other object, i.e., "as hard as a rock", "as soft and light as a feather". How about just the concept of "firm" itself? It's rather subjective. A lot of consumers have said over the years that "my mother told me to buy a firm mattress". What did she mean? Firm as in "hard", or firm as in "supportive"? There's firm/hard like cement, or there's firm/supportive like the cushions on a new sofa. You would have a hard time dozing off while lying on a cement floor, but you probably, quite often, doze off while lying on the sofa.
The following descriptions of firmness are numbered 1 through 5 with 1 being the firmest and 5 being the softest. We'll try and make comparisons with objects you probably have in your house.
1. Very Firm
Envision your living room with wall-to-wall carpeting, a chair or two, a TV, a sofa. Your carpeting has a decent pad underneath it and, sometimes, you like to stretch out on the floor and watch the tube or read a paper. This is what would be considered very firm. Not much padding and the padding is, in itself, firm. This type of mattress construction will not be that comfortable to most people but, over time, it will also show the least amount of "body signature".
2. Luxury Firm
Now envision that the floor has been okay to lay on for awhile but you're feeling a bit of pain on your pressure points. So you take the cushions off the sofa and put them on the floor and lie down on that. Mattresses of this type construction use significantly more, yet firm, cushioning material over a supportive core. It's still described as "firm", but it's a lot more comfortable.
3. Medium Firm
Using the same living room setting, you put the cushions back on the sofa and lie down. Now the support structure beneath cushions is a little more forgiving than the floor. Mattress constructions can accomplish this feel through the use of different support cores and/or using softer cushioning materials. Such constructions will be a bit more prone to developing "body signatures."
4. Plush Soft
Say lying on the couch is still a bit too firm, in your opinion, so you bring out the comforter from the bedroom and put it on top of the sofa cushions. Mattress constructions of this nature often use different techniques like pillow-top styling to allow the cushioning to "float" and conform to the body. "Body signatures" will be more pronounced but, in order to get the plush softness, more and softer cushioning is used.
5. Super Soft
The sofa with the comforter on it is still too firm. So you go back into the bedrooms and put all your pillows on top to the comforter and lie down. Oooooh! Aaaaah! Soft and comfy. Mattresses of this type use quite a lot of soft layers over a supportive core. Although prone to body contours, the layers and layers of cushioning usually remain very comfortable over a long period of time. Some constructions that bring very, very good cushioning materials to the top surface may not show much of a body signature but still be very soft and conforming.
Buying a mattress over the internet may not be as convenient as one thinks.
A number of years ago, the local ABC affiliate sent a crew out to our production facility to do a feature story on a business that manufactures in the Northwest. You may find this interesting. There are a number of clips of the various processes that go into producing a top-quality mattress.
Carpenter, a leading supplier of foams and fiber has invented a new cushioning foam they've dubbed Serene™. The new foam features billions of microscopic air capsules which act to enhance support properties while reducing pressure on critical areas like hips and shoulders. Serene™ is less temperature sensitive than memory foams. In fact, our plant manager took a 6 inch cube of Serene™ and put it in his freezer for 3 days. The foam compressed as if it had been kept at room temperature.
Serene™ has been demonstrated to dissipate heat faster than memory foam. Serene™ is far more durable than a comparably dense piece of memory foam and is as or more durable than a memory foam that is almost twice as dense.
Because of these characteristics and more, we have been experimenting with some prototypes featuring a hybrid design of a stratified core with a thick piece of Serene™ on top. We have also been experimenting with combinations of Serene™ and Talalay Latex. Those combinations have produced some incredible feels and will be available soon both on our retail floors and at our dealers.
- In either one or two sided models, the construction is as the name implies. Support cores, cushioning layers and quilt layers are assembled and then enclosed with two beads of binding tape.
According to the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School, it is more difficult to take in new information after a night of inadequate or poor sleep and, surprisingly, it is just as important to get a good night’s sleep after learning something new in order to process and retain that information. Also, undisturbed sleep is very important when learning new skills that require motor coordination and performance (athletic skills, work skills)
Talalay latex cores and comfort layers have the most incredible feel of any sleep surface available. It is resilient, luxurious, breathable and incredibly comfortable. Unlike any other sleep surface you've experienced before, Talalay latex is pliable, yet supportive. It responds to your body's curves without that feeling like you're sinking in wet sand as is true with certain memory foams. When you need to reposition yourself during sleep, you can. Latex is resilient, responsive and recovers immediately. You won't have a tendency to wake up "holding on" while the sleep surface recovers its original shape.
If you're like most consumers shopping for a mattress, chances are you haven't been in the market for 8 to 12 years. Many people have commented that they'd prefer having a root canal rather than go through the hassle and confusion of shopping for a mattress!
Amazing, isn't it? We spend up to a third of our life on a product and yet we deplore having to buy one. One thing, that will immediately catch your attention, is that the cost of a mattress product has gone up dramatically since the last time you shopped for one. Everything that goes into a mattress has escalated tremendously over the last decade. Steel, foam, rubber, plastics, fibers, etc. and the cost to transport those items to the manufacturers. Plus, mattress designs have changed during the same time period to include better, more costly components.
Once you get over the sticker shock, you still have to decide on a mattress. If you've read our Sleep Facts and Tips, you know that this decision could have a dramatic effect on your overall health and well being. When you shop at different stores, you'll be barraged with terms and jargon that you might find confusing and unhelpful when trying to compare one product against another. If you visit our Mattress Buying Guide Blog, you'll find a litany of terms and their meanings and uses that may arm you with enough knowledge to make an informed choice.
Like all support layers, innersprings control how deeply your body is permitted to sink into the mattress. This is one of the most affordable support cores, so there is no surprise that it is also the most popular. Innerspring mattresses vary in coil count and gauge size, but they basically fall under one of the four categories: bonnell, continuous, offset, and pocket. So, although most mattresses pretty much look the same from the outside, they are all very unique inside. With Innerspring support cores, wire coils comprise the support structure of innerspring mattresses. A heavy duty border wire provides support to the coils to help reduce sagging, so it can better retain its shape.
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