Different mattress designs

In the UK there are plenty of TV advertising campaigns for mattresses, many of which are orthopedic in design. Memory foam variations are one of the most popular promotions and, of late, there has been a rather novel example on the TV.

The mattress in question attempts to combine the visco elastic memory foam material, common in many orthopedic beds and mattresses, with the pocket spring design. It does this, quite uniquely, by having structures that look like pocket springs, but that are actually composed of memory foam as the body of the mattress.

The mattress model in question is called the octaspring and it has received heavy advertising promotion from late 2011 through into this year. How good it is I do not know and I would certainly be concerned about the long term deflection of any memory foam mattress that has large numbers of voids in it (if that is the case) based on my own experience of memory foam.

The concept behind the design is of course to mix the physical design of the spring with the memory foam material by having what appear to be springs made of memory foam. It certainly looks good, but springs are spring (and made of metal) and foam is foam!

There are of course a number of unusual mattress construction designs and the octaspring is far from being the only one. Gel is another comparatively new bed material and one that has a fairly limited acceptance by the buying public – mainly I assume because of its high price.

Whilst the octaspring seeks to mix different mattress structures in a single material, the other option is to mix different materials and structures. The most obvious is to have a high performance, high density foam on top of springs. The assumption is that those who like a sprung bed will like the feel, as will those who like memory or latex foam. Ultimately, the material that you actually lie on, i.e. in this case the foam, will dictate how the bed really feels.

As ever the bed buying choice rotates very much around springs versus foams. Some people like one and others like the other. The marketing people and many in the medical profession would have us believe that foams are superior, but the sleeping experience of a large number of people (me included) would appear to discredit that view.

The best way to decide on the type of mattress most suitable for your needs is to get as much information as possible about the options. The most reliable method is to test some beds by lying down on them and seeing how they feel. However remember that a 5 minute test means nothing. You need to rest on the mattress for a least ½ hour or longer.

Speaking to family and friends about their beds can also result in valuable feedback that may help in a bed purchase.