| With all the advertising about memory foam | | | | |
| these days, it's hard to imagine that this | | | | Whatever the reason, this material was too |
| material has only been in existence for a | | | | expensive to be used in the form of a memory |
| little over 30 years. | | | | foam mattress or memory foam pillow for the |
| | | | average consumer. |
| It's difficult to find an exact date when | | | | |
| memory foam first came into being, but it was | | | | It was not, however, too expensive for use as |
| originally formulated during the early days | | | | an aid to recovery for multi-million dollar |
| of manned space flight. Most likely, it was | | | | racehorses who had been injured or were |
| in the mid to late 1960's. | | | | recovering from surgery. |
| | | | |
| The National Aeronautics & Space | | | | Horses cut off their circulation when they |
| Administration, aka. NASA, needed a material | | | | lay down so when horses are recovering, they |
| that would cushion the astronauts from the | | | | need to be in the upright position, so that |
| unparalleled g-forces of launch and re-entry | | | | their blood circulation isn't restricted. |
| during space missions. | | | | |
| | | | This can be very difficult or impossible, |
| In response the their request, a material was | | | | because if the injury is to a limb, the |
| produced, called visco-elastic memory foam. | | | | horses massive weight is too much for the |
| | | | limb to support. |
| I've seen dozens of articles explaining what | | | | |
| visco-elastic memory foam means and none of | | | | Laying the horse on a large, thick, slab of |
| them has the same explanation. | | | | memory foam solved this problem. |
| | | | |
| The online dictionary gives no definition for | | | | Because memory foam melts away from where |
| the word visco, but the word is derived from | | | | pressure is placed on it, the body of a horse |
| viscous, which means "gummy or pasty." It is | | | | or human can lay on it without restricting |
| a cross between a solid and a liquid. | | | | the blood flow. |
| | | | |
| I think we all know what elastic means, but, | | | | Blood flow is critical, to healing and |
| again, the definition is, "being able to | | | | recovery from surgery, so it makes sense that |
| return to it's original shape after being | | | | recovery is greatly enhanced by sleeping on a |
| deformed." | | | | memory foam mattress. |
| | | | |
| Well...that's enough of the grammar lesson. | | | | Of course, it was only a matter of time until |
| The point is that this material hadn't | | | | someone thought to apply this factor to the |
| existed before...it's unique. | | | | human body. |
| | | | |
| The whole idea, of showing a picture with a | | | | Medical researchers have more money to |
| hand print, over the top of a memory foam | | | | experiment than consumer businesses, so it |
| mattress, is to illustrate that this material | | | | was in medical research that memory foam was |
| isn't forcefully pushing against you. | | | | found to be a great inhibitor to bedsores. |
| | | | |
| That's why it takes a while for the memory | | | | Bedsores occur when the blood supply to the |
| foam to react and slowly return, to it's | | | | capillaries is restricted over a period of |
| original shape, once the hand is removed. | | | | time. Bedsores are also called pressure |
| | | | ulcers. |
| The other quality, of visco elastic memory | | | | |
| foam, is that it's temperature reactive. When | | | | Since the unique character of memory foam is |
| it's heated, it becomes softer and when it's | | | | it's ability to melt away from anywhere that |
| cooled, it becomes firmer. | | | | pressure is applied, bed sores are reduced or |
| | | | eliminated. |
| A body, laying on the memory foam material, | | | | |
| will heat it, making it softer under that | | | | It's broad use, in the medical field, finally |
| heated area. | | | | led to the cost effective use of memory foam |
| | | | for consumer mattresses. Now, memory foam |
| Again, it's not clear whether or not this | | | | mattresses have come into the mainstream in |
| earlier version of the memory foam material | | | | the mattress industry. |
| was ever actually used in any space missions. | | | | |
| | | | Memory foam mattress pricing, for a quality |
| Some claim that the material off-gassed, | | | | product, in queen size, is usually about |
| producing an odor that couldn't be tolerated | | | | $2,000 to $2,500 which is in line with most |
| in the small quarters of a spacecraft. | | | | of the high quality innerspring products. |