Choosing the right mattress type Mattresses are designed to provide the support and comfort you need to relax and rest. If you have had your mattress for a while, you may be wondering if it is time to buy a new one. Research shows that people sleep better, suffer less back pain and experience fewer symptoms of stress when sleeping on newer beds. In general, your sleep quality improves if your sleep surface relieves pressure on joints and other areas of the body. Matching your specific comfort needs with the right product is a very subjective process. Mattresses are made with a variety of materials and technologies to deliver support systems that meet the broad array of consumers’ needs, tastes, and budgets. Mattresses should be evaluated every seven years for quality and support. If you haven’t shopped for a new mattress recently, there are many options to choose from. The following provides basic information on the different types of mattresses available today so that you are better equipped to choose a mattress that meets your needs.
Buying 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.
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Whose Armrest Is It Anyway? Martha Beck's 5-Day Journey to a More Meaningful Life 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 How David de Rothschild Lives His Best Life An Amateur Rancher Brings the Wastelands of the Southwest Back to Life 3 Ways to Do Good (and Feel Good) on Your Next Vacation On Board the Plastiki The Woman Who's Inspiring a New Generation of Black Farmers A Young Entrepreneur Brings Solar Power to the Masses One Woman Takes a Brave Stand Against Factory Farming