The History of Memory Foam

  The History of Memory Foam

  The history of memory foam goes back about forty years, when NASA developed it for the first time in 1970 to cushion and support the astronauts in the space shuttle.  This could successfully take off the impact of the gravitational force on the body of the astronauts during take-off and re-entry into the earth’s atmosphere.

  But at that time memory foam could not become very popular as it was too brittle and lasted only a year or two.  But a Swedish company working closely with the NASA memory foam project continued to research on it and it took them ten years to come out with the memory foam used in today’s memory foam mattresses.

Memory foam has a very unique quality. If you press your hand into the surface of the material and then move it away, a handprint is left behind on the material.  By and by the material smoothens out and comes back to its original state.  This is the origin of the word ‘memory’ being used for such foam, because the memory of your handprint which appears at first is strong, and when the hand is removed it fades with time. The new memory foam is a spongy plastic, which looks and feels like gel, and is a cross between a solid and a liquid.  It deforms under pressure because its air pockets get redistributed to the neighboring cells and then returns when the pressure is removed.

  At first the foam was successfully used for memory foam mattresses in hospital intensive care units for patients who were critically ill.  It seemed to have outstanding healing benefits for patients who were bed ridden in hospital burn centers because the memory foam mattress took the shape of the person lying on it.

  A company called Tempur-Pedic then marketed the product since the early 1990s.  The memory foam mattress also proved useful to patients who were prone to bedsores. Since memory foam has the unique quality of melting away from anywhere that pressure is applied, bed sores can definitely be reduced and sometimes even eliminated.  For patients who are lying down, the memory foam mattress provides ample back support to the patient and the pressure on the joints is greatly reduced. 

  The foam that is used in a memory foam mattress is called visco-elastic foam and as people came to know about its benefits, the demand for it grew and people wanted to use them in car seats, cushions and even to have memory foam mattresses to sleep on at home.  At first it was very expensive, but in course of time many companies have started producing memory foam products and hence they are now moderately priced.

Memory foam mattresses are the most popular products of memory foam, as well as mattress toppers and pillows.  But today  memory foam is used in many other products like footwear, office furniture, automobile seat padding, movie theater seating, ear plugs, tennis racquet handles, just to name a few.

So the memory foam mattress has now evolved into a household product for many because of its comforting properties and its power to give an improved quality of sleep.