Q. Does Memory Foam Sleep Hot?

A. Out of all the questions I’m asked about memory foam, the most frequent memory foam faq is “Does Memory Foam Sleep Hot?”

I would never claim that memory foam doesn’t sleep hot because as sure as I said that, someone would claim that it does. I think that the whole idea of memory foam sleeping hot comes from the older days when people would sleep on a foam mattress in their motorhome or travel trailer.

Those old mattresses were made from a CLOSED CELL foam. To illustrate closed cells, I’ll ask you to imagine thousands of balloons that are in the shape of a mattress. Each cell is full of air, and that air is trapped inside the balloon. The longer you lie on that mattress the hotter the air inside the balloon gets.

Pretty soon, you’re sweating and the longer you lay there, the more you sweat.

Memory Foam is OPEN CELL Foam

Because the cells in memory foam are open, they allow air to escape from one cell to another and, eventually, they are expelled from the mattress. Each time you move, you move old, hot air out of the mattress and draw cool air into it.

I’ve always been a hot sleeper and I didn’t notice any difference when I started sleeping on memory foam. Over the years, I’ve sold mattresses in every area of the U.S. and I’ve never had a mattress returned for sleeping too hot.

Again, I think the rumor about memory foam sleeping hot comes from those old, closed cell mattresses.

Memory Foam FAQ

Q. Does Memory Foam Stink?

A. The notion, that memory foam stinks, stems from people buying cheap mattresses that are made with foreign poured foam.

Foreign foams can contain all kinds of chemicals that are harmful to you and most of them smell like Limburger cheese. Foreign manufacturers use any chemical they can find that is cheap and there are few, if any, regulations to stop them from doing so.

It’s quite common to find formaldehyde, CFC’s, PBDE’s and other known carcinogens in foreign poured foam.

These chemicals are the cause of the smell and they have given good memory foam a bad name.

Memory Foam FAQ

Q. What is Memory Foam Density?

A. Memory foam density is a measurement of the weight of a cubic foot of memory foam. If a cubic foot of memory foam weighs 5 lbs., it is 5 lb density memory foam. If it weighs 4 lbs., it is 4 lb density memory foam.

The density of the foam determines how well it will support the human body, especially the lower back.

Foreign manufacturers know that people are looking at the density to determine the quality of the foam so they add clay additives to increase the weight of the foam. This not only gives the foam a false density reading, it destroys the integrity of the foam and gives it a totally different, harder feel than true memory foam.

Memory Foam FAQ

Q. What is the Best Density for a Memory Foam Mattress?

A. The best density for a memory foam mattress is 5 lb density. 5 lb density will not only support your body much better than lesser densities, it will last a lot longer. 5 lb density memory foam is considered to be 15 to 20 year foam. Even 4 lb foam is only considered to be a 5 to 10 year foam so anything less than 4 lb density is only suitable for pillows, not mattresses or mattress toppers.

Mixing memory foam densities, like TempurPedicTM is now doing, is a recipe for disaster.

If you put 4 lb density memory foam inside a mattress with 5 lb density memory foam, the 4 lb foam will deteriorate much faster than the denser foam. This means that when the 4 lb foam wears out, you will be buying a whole new mattress.

Memory Foam FAQ

I hope that this memory foam faq section has been helpful.