Top 4 Best Latex Mattress Topper Reviews for 2017Buying a new mattress is a big investment, and knowing where to go to find the best options for your health and for the planet—not to mention for a sound night's sleep— is key. We get the process started with our list of the 10 best sources for organic and all-natural mattresses: Most conventional mattresses are made of petroleum-based polyester, nylon and polyurethane (PU) foam (all of which emit VOCs, especially when new) and treated with flame-retardant (FR) chemicals, such as boric acid, silicone and phosphates. They can also be wrapped in barrier cloths made from flame-resistant fibers, such as melamine and polyvinylidene chloride. Look for mattresses that are made with: • All-natural, untreated wool, which is naturally fire-and-dust-mite-resistent, and preferably labeled "Pure Grow Wool," which ensures that the wool has come from humanely treated and organically raised sheep.• Organic cotton: used as both a wrapping material and as batting.
Organic cotton is not fire-resistant, so in order to company with the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the cotton is usually wrapped in wool layers.• Natural latex, derived from rubber trees, which is a better choice than petroleum-based polyurethane. The Top Eco Mattress Sources: 1 Keetsa: If you're looking for an eco-friendly, all-natural and/or recyclable latex mattress, then Keetsa is your answer. Keetsa's latex mattresses are made with non-toxic materials like wool, latex foam, unbleached cotton, bamboo blend and organic cotton fabrics. Their mattresses are compressed, covered in biodegradable plastic, and packed into 100% recyclable boxes printed with water soluble ink. 2 Hastens: Renowned Swedish mattress masters Hästens make each one of their mattresses by hand using only hard-wearing natural materials like horsehair, flax, wool, steel and pine, and each mattress comes with a 25-year warranty. And all the mattresses come in juicy colors and checkered patterns.
3 Woodstock Organic Mattress: Based in Manhattan and Kingston, NY and featuring mattresses made by WJ Southard, another family-run and family-owned business located in Syracuse, all of Woodstock's mattresses are handmade of 100% natural materials like organic cotton, wool, horsehair, and 98% pure latex. No polyester, polyurethane foam, or other harmful chemicals are used in the making or production of the mattresses. As they say, if they can't pronounce it, they won't put it in your mattress. 4 Pure Rest: Pure Rest is a family company that only sells online, and their mattresses are about as healthy as they come: organic and additive-free wool and cotton, and all natural latex. No plastic outers, no finishes, no additives. They even have a 3rd party test every year for contamination in their mattresses and disclose the results on their website. Price: $699 and up 5 Savvy Rest: organic mattresses made in central Virginia and available through a national network of independently owned stores.
All mattresses are made of natural latex rubber, certified organic wool or certified organic cotton, and are natural, nontoxic, certified and independently tested. 6 Organic Mattress Store: an online retailer carrying a variety of all-natural mattress vendors, including Nature's Finest, WJ Southard, GreenSleep, Royal Pedic, and Sheperd's Dream, all of which carry certified organic cotton, wool and latex mattresses that have met the strict standards of the USDA National Organic Program. Price: Variable depending on brand 7 White Lotus: a great source for healthy bedding, including natural latex mattresses, organic wool and cotton mattresses, all handmade in the US. Click here for a chart on how their handmade mattresses compare with conventional mattresses, and click here for their detailed FAQ section. Price: Start around $500 8 The Wool Bed Company: all of the wool bedding products products include only materials raised or grown on farmland in the USA. The natural wool mattresses are hand-made, free-form, without any wood, metal, foam or latex.
9 Cozy Pure: claims they are the only bedding company in the world to utilize a trio-system of Wind, Solar and Geothermal on-site in their factory in Norfolk, VA. Feature 7 collections, all made with natural latex, wool and GOTS-Certified organic cotton, no foams, dacrons, formaldehydes or PBDEs, or other toxic chemicals, as certified by third-party safety tests. 10 Heart of Vermont: all mattress components, including coverings, paddings, binding tapes, and insulator pads, are made with 100% organic cotton, grown without pesticides or chemical fertilization. Featuring natural top mattresses, organic innerspring mattresses, and organic mattress sets. Find out more about the specifics of their mattresses here. Related Post: Tips for Buying a Green Mattress? (Image: A Hastens mattress, as reviewed by Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan. Talalay latex vs Memory FoamBoth Talalay latex and memory foam are commonly used as bedding materials. While memory foam is a mass produced material that often has an imbalance between value and price, Talalay latex is a hidden gem;
it is a performance material. Many people who work for bedding manufacturers and retailers sleep on a Talalay latex mattress because of its superb qualities. Here we compare memory foam vs latex, or more specifically Talalay latex; they could not be more diverse.Find a Retailer With Vita TalalayDifference Between Vita Talalay and Memory FoamNatural vs Synthetic/ChemicalEnvironmental Friendly vs Impacting Natural ResourcesBreathable vs DenseSupportive & Relieving vs CrateringEnergy Retaining vs Energy Dispersing Natural, pure, derived from the Hevea Brasiliensis tree.Supportive, it’s like sleeping on air.Cushioning: excellent point pressure relief.Easy to turn without partner disturbance.Is responsive and bounces back so that you need little energy to move.Consistent feel with different temperatures.Hypoallergenic and naturally anti-microbial/anti-bacterial/anti-fungal.Zero potential harmful materials for humans and environment, no toxins.Highly durable, round cell always bounces back into its round shapeSynthetic: derived from oil.
Little support, You sink in till hitting bottom.Cratering, you will feel the layer below, which builds up pressure because you stay in the same position longer.Minimal to no ventilation, creating a hot sleep.Turning requires energy expended.Disperses your energy, remembers where lay, not where you want to lie.Hard when cold, too soft when warm.Moist gets trapped, body gets too warm.Too dense for anti-allergy properties or requires added materials to create these properties.Partly off-gassing doubtful materials.Traps warmth and moisture which can decrease durability.Natural vs Synthetic/ChemicalTalalay latex is made with either 30% Natural latex or pure Natural latex. The latex is derived from the Hevea Brasiliensis tree, also called the rubber tree. The milky white tree sap is captured from the tree and then processed to become a Talalay latex mattress. Vita Talalay is moving towards making everything with pure Natural latex and in North-America and Europe already more than half of the business is made solely with Natural latex sap.
Memory foam does not have that option as it always is a combination of a polyol with TDI (Toluene DiIsocyante) or MDI (Diphenylmethane Diisocyante), and therefore a chemical product. There is increased debate on the health of diisocyantes. Also in general VOC levels of polyurethanes (like memory foam) are high and potentially harmful. Some brands claim that they have a natural memory foam. However, memory foam is always at least 95% chemical (some polyols may have a natural component like soya). It does not make the material more healthy. With Vita Talalay Embrace (a Talalay with a memory foam feel) we can get up to 30% Natural making it the most natural “memory foam” option in the market. Find a Retailer With Vita TalalayEnvironmental Friendly vs Impacting Natural ResourcesNext to the health discussion it is sure that memory foam impacts on the natural resources of our planet as it is petroleum-based. There is a lot of energy involved with it and has a huge carbon footprint.
Talalay latex has a reduced carbon footprint because it sources a fast-growing part of its latex from the rubber tree. Vita Talalay even has a pure natural latex option. This rubber tree takes CO2 from the air and replaces it with valuable oxygen. It does this for more than 20 years with little impact on the soil it grows in. Once felled, the wood is used for furniture and is often responsible FSC certified. Now having covered the difference in the material, we can consider the functional differences of Talalay latex vs memory foam. Breathable vs DenseMemory foam is a very dense material which reduces its ability to breathe. The lack of openness of the material creates a buildup of warmth and moisture close to your body. The difference in breathability is up to 25x more for Talalay latex! That lack of breathability of memory foam has many effects. Most importantly it affects the micro-climate in which you sleep. Memory foam sleeps up to 4ᵒC/7ᵒF warmer and because it is dense, moist stays close to your body, making your sleep clammy and less deep, making you wake up less well rested.
The effect of gel in memory foam does not change this. Gel is a conductive material, meaning that it is cool to the touch, but that does not mean it provides a cool sleep. Compare it with a ceramic coffee cup. It may feel cool to the touch, but when you add coffee, its function is the coffee warm, not to make the coffee cold. Another consideration is dust mites. Memory foam, because of its temperature/moisture, is a good place for dust mite to multiply. That is why people with dust mite allergy choose latex, and results show it is best to choose Talalay latex. Find a Retailer With Vita TalalaySupportive & Relieving vs CrateringTalalay latex is the only bedding material that closes the paradox between being supportive and soft at the same time. Many things can be supportive, a table, a chair, a coil or salt, but those are not gentle, they build pressure points. Or things can be soft, like wool or down, but those do not handle weight well, they are not supportive. With the round cell structure of Talalay latex relieves where needed and carries where needed at the same time.
This means you sleep ón a talalay latex mattress or topper, and do not sink into it like with a memory foam mattress which often feels like you are in a hole in your bed from which which it is not easy to escape. Therefore increasingly the thickness of the layer of polyurethane memory foam is reduced and a layer of non-memory polyurethane foam is used to give support to the mattress.Energy Retaining vs Energy DispersingThe story about memory foam is about NASA foam. But NASA never used memory foam to sleep on. It was made for astronauts seating to cope with G-forces. It was never used for sleeping in a rocket, and if it was, why would you use it here on earth under entirely different circumstances? Also, anybody who has been in a hospital knows that memory foam does not give the best sleep. It is important for sleep that the material has bounce, because bounce helps you move on your bed. During the night, you change position about 30 times to remove pressure from your skin and improve blood circulation.