Correct support is an essential ingredient for a healthy body. It is mainly delivered through the “core” of the mattress, which can be innerspring, foam, air or water. It is also delivered through the box spring or foundation under the mattress. A good mattress and box spring will gently support your body at all points and keep your spine in the same shape as a person with good standing posture. When trying a mattress, pay special attention to the heaviest parts of your body; your hips, shoulders and lower back. If there is inadequate support, you may develop back pain. However, if a mattress is too rigid, you may experience uncomfortable pressure. Innersprings are the most common type of support system used to make mattresses. These units are comprised of metal coils that are either pocketed or open and laced. Innersprings conform to and support your body by allowing your hips and shoulders to penetrate the surface while allowing the back to be supported in its proper position.
When shopping for an innerspring mattress, there are a few things to consider: 1 - Coil Count: The number of coils in the unit. Counts are usually quoted in full or queen sizes. The number of coils alone has little bearing on the quality of the unit. The coil design, wire gauge and number of turns must also be considered! 2 - Wire Gauge: The thickness of a wire. The lower the number, the thicker and more durable the wire. For example, a 12 ¾ gauge wire is thicker than a 15 gauge wire. CLICK HERE TO VIEW GAUGE DETAILS » 4 - Unit Size: An innerspring unit can be standard size or foam encased. In the former, the coils extend from edge to edge, providing uniform support. Some standard size units also have a border rod around the perimeter for additional edge support. In a foam encased unit, which is smaller in size, coils are removed and replaced with a foam edge. All innerspring units used by The Original Mattress Factory are standard size units with a border rod construction.
5 - Design of the Coil: There are five basic types of innerspring coil designs: Marshall, Bonnell, LFK, Offset and Continuous. Marshall Coil– A straight barrel, unknotted coil that is encased in fabric. It is sometimes made with non-tempered steel, which reduces the long term resiliency of the springs. (Also known as a pocketed coil.) Tempering: Tempered innersprings are stronger, more resilient and therefore more durable. The tempering process, which involves heating the wire or innerspring unit to a high temperature, can be done electronically or in a tempering oven. The term “double tempered” or “twice tempered” is often used in the industry, but once a coil has been heated to the optimum temperature to achieve tempering, it cannot be tempered twice. All coils used by The Original Mattress Factory are tempered for maximum durability. Bonnell Coil - An hourglass shaped coil with a round, knotted head. It is made with tempered steel and is commonly used in most national brand entry level products as well as some promotional products.
The Bonnell coil unit is used in The Original Mattress Factory’s Classic mattresses. LFK Coil - A straight barrel coil with an offset, squared and unknotted head. It is made with tempered steel and is a premium innerspring unit utilized in the flagship product lines of several brands. The LFK coil unit is used in The Original Mattress Factory’s Regency Sapphire mattresses. Offset Coil - An hourglass shaped coil with a square head that can be knotted (as shown below) or unknotted. It is made of tempered steel and is used in premium quality innerspring units found in high end luxury brands. Our best Offset knotted coil unit is used in The Original Mattress Factory’s Orthopedic mattresses. Knotted Coils: The end of a coil is either knotted or unknotted. Knotting utilizes more steel and gives the coil more stability. Continuous Coil - A strip of coils that runs either vertically or horizontally with each head representing the end and beginning of consecutive coils.
It is made of one piece of tempered wire and commonly has a high coil count, but uses less steel and a much thinner gauge of wire with a low number of turns.SizeAdjustable beds come in many different sizes. The size of bed that you choose depends largely upon personal preference as well as if you are sleeping in the bed alone or sharing it with another person.TwinQueenKingSurfaceThe surface of the adjustable bed is very important to the quality of sleep you will get. There are many different surfaces available and consumers can choose between them depending on personal preferences and budget restrictions.Memory foamCoilAir bedMotorThe motor of the adjustable bed is an important thing to consider because it affects how well and how easily the bed works. Different beds come with different quality motors.DurabilityAC or DCNoiseHand controlsAdjustable beds are operated by hand controls that are part of the bed itself. These allow you to lift or lower different sections of the bed.Menu optionsWirelessWiredWarrantyWarranties are an important part of an adjustable bed as they help cover repairs and maintenance to the bed.
Some warranties cover more issues than others.CostDamageBroken partsAestheticsAdjustable beds are great for people both young and old. Depending on your personal tastes and preferences, there are many different types of beds to choose from. Spring Break for Grown-ups 5 Key Words Every Spiritual Person Needs to Know The 7 Books Every Spiritual Person Needs to Read How to Survive a Rainy Day with Children: A Summer Guide "I Will Never Know Why" 10 Airport Secrets That Only Insiders Know Count Sheep, Not Harmful Synthetics: How to Find an Eco-Friendly Mattress The Best Travel Advice We've Ever Heard 5 Unforgettable Hostess Gifts The Allure of Traveling Alone Meet 15 Guys Who Are Saving the World 6 Ways to Avoid a Fight While on Vacation Found in Translation: How I Got Rid of My Shyness in 7 Days Hiding in Plain Sight: Inside the Life of an Undocumented Immigrant Whose Armrest Is It Anyway? Meet Your New Therapist.
He's Wise, Compassionate...and Likes to Eat Hay An Amateur Rancher Brings the Wastelands of the Southwest Back to Life 15 Photos That Remind Us How Big the Universe Is 7 Green Cleaners That Really Work Of all the things in my home that I've worried are bad for the environment, my mattress is one I'd never lost any sleep over. Until recently—after my linebacker-size boyfriend, Peter, moved in, and created a deep canyon on his side of the bed. I was waking up grumpy, with backaches from the strain of staying level. I'd bought the bed a decade before, shortly after my divorce. Now, with a new man in my life, I decided I was ready for a new mattress. Around that time, I visited my parents and slept on their new pull-out couch. But instead of peaceful slumber, it felt as if I were being gassed by the mattress's smell. I opened a window but tossed all night, worried about the toxic fumes I might be inhaling. Mattresses, I soon learned, are rarely ecologically innocent.
Most are made with synthetic fibers or foam, which don't biodegrade. Cotton or wool stuffing can be processed with pesticides and other chemicals—some of them potentially carcinogenic. Considering I spend one-third of my life lying in bed, realizing this was fairly disquieting. The good news is that choices once limited to size and firmness now include environmental options as well. If you prefer an innerspring mattress—steel coils surrounded by layers of fluffy padding—you can rest easy on beds made from organic cotton and wool, with steel coils that aren't coated in chemicals. If, like me, you prefer a solid-foam mattress, you can opt for latex made from the milky sap of rubber trees. And though I worried that sleeping on something made from coconut husk fibers or natural rubber would feel like napping in Gilligan's hut, when I test-drove the beds, my back couldn't feel the difference. Here are three tips from my eco-mattress hunt. The smell that kept me awake at my parents' house is a cocktail of chemicals, including volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which are associated with skin irritation and respiratory problems.
Walter Bader, author of Sleep Safe in a Toxic World and cofounder of Organic Mattresses Inc., sent a conventional mattress to a lab that measured its emissions and found 61 VOCs. "Mattresses are like cigarettes were in the 1930s," Bader says. "Completely unregulated, and everyone thinks they're safe." Experts, though, remain divided about what exposure levels pose a danger. Berkeley-based toxicologist Janet Weiss, MD, who has studied these chemicals, says, "Like the new-car smell, mattress smells aren't hazardous." Others argue that exposure should be limited as possible. "Although the amount people inhale is incredibly small, the exposure adds up," says epidemiologist Devra Lee Davis, PhD, of the Environmental Health Trust. Choosing organic materials is one of the best ways to cut the toxins you inhale while sleeping. Fumes are strongest in the first few weeks, so it also helps if you can let your new bed air out in a spare room or garage before using it. Ask for the Real Credentials
There is no government certification for eco-friendly mattresses. "Manufacturers use the terms green and natural however they want, and there isn't much standardization," says Sonya Lunder, a senior analyst at the Environmental Working Group. While shopping, I found mattresses made with castor oil, aloe vera, green-tea infusions, and bamboo—and labeled every variation of green, eco-, organic, and natural. It takes some sleuthing to push past the green stickers and figure out what really goes into a mattress. I tried out one "eco-friendly" memory-foam mattress in a store that was plastered with green leaf symbols. A salesperson offered me piping hot green tea, but when I pressed her on what was so green about their mattress, she explained that more than 10 percent of the oils in the petroleum-based memory foam had been replaced with plant-based oils. So the product wasn't exactly green, just 10 percent greener. "We're the hybrid cars of the mattress world," she said. "We're still burning gas, but it's better than a regular car."
Yet to many shoppers, the company's beds appear just as pure as those made by rigorously green Organic Mattresses, Inc., a company Bader started because of his chemical sensitivities (the handcrafted creations are made from cruelty-free wool, certified organic cotton, and 100 percent natural rubber latex in a facility where no one is allowed to smoke, wear fragrances, or wear fabric softeners). When shopping, ignore words like eco- and natural. Instead, seek out companies that explain ingredients clearly and can point to where materials are sourced. Even better, look for third-party certification" Oeko-Tex Standard 100 is the largest voluntary third-party certification for textiles free of harmful substances, and Global Organic Textile Standard certifies that a natural fiber was grown organically and processed sustainably. Find a Comfortable Compromise If I had a $3,000 budget, I'd be on a virtuous mattress made by Organic Mattresses in a heartbeat. But there's only so much I can spend on my back health and eco-consciousness.
I decided I wanted a memory-foam mattress that replaced some of the usual synthetic latex with soy. And after careful research, I bought it from Magniflex, an Italian company, because its bona fides were so impressive: Its memory foam is 30 percent plant oils, one of the highest percentages in the industry; it uses water to expand the memory foam rather than relying only on solvents, like most companies; and it created a flame retardant derived from sea sand, saving me from more chemical additives. The company's textiles are Oeko-Tex certified, and it uses GOTS-certified cotton. When Peter and I lay down on the $1,600 mattress, I knew I'd done what I could to make my bed more eco-friendly, and as a result, I sleep just fine. Next: Check out 3 smart choices for eco-bedding What's the Eco-Impact of Your Everyday Choices? 5 Wallet-Friendly Habits You Can Steal from Eco-Experts Clean Power: Lisa Jackson Fights for Our Right to Healthy Air, Water and Land 11 Ways to Save Your Planet