Understanding the Firmness Rating of a Foam Mattress Topper

While a memory foam mattress topper will rejuvenate most old innersprings beds to some degree, understanding the firmness rating of a foam mattress topper is essential to choosing the best topper for your body and your bed.

The best mattress toppers are made of visco-elastic memory foam, which provides the industry leading standard benefits of a memory foam mattress without the extreme expense. These benefits include relieving pressure points, joint pain, increasing circulation, dampening motion transfer between sleeping partners and resisting dust mites that aggravate allergies.

Manufacturers describe the firmness of foam by a standard known as Indentation Force Deflection (IFD) or Indentation Load Deflection (ILD).

In layman’s terms, this simply means the number of pounds of pressure required to compress it. The less force required, the lower the Indentation Force Deflection (IFD) or Indentation Load Deflection (ILD) number will be and the more easily the foam mattress topper will compress.

The more force required, the higher the IFD or ILD number will be and the more difficult it will be to compress the foam mattress topper.

For purposes of comparison, a15 IFD or ILD is medium firm and 12 IFD or ILD is medium soft. Do not confuse firmness with support when buying a foam mattress topper

A good topper will be both soft and supportive. A two-inch foam mattress topper will give most of the benefits that a 3" memory foam mattress topper provides, and will work fine for most people. However, women who weigh more than 170 pounds and men who weigh more than 200 pounds will probably be more comfortable using a three-inch thick model.

In addition to the benefits listed above, memory foam is also temperature sensitive, softening as it grows warmer, which explains why lying on a memory foam mattress topper makes you feel as if your body is melting into it. Truly a comforting feeling like no other!

A visco elastic memory foam mattress topper offers industry leading standards that include: · Supports outstanding pressure point relief · Provides relief from back, neck, and joint pain · Relieves pain for arthritis and fibromyalgia sufferers · Prevents tossing and turning · Increases blood circulation · Allows hours of motionless, undisturbed sleep · Dampens motion transfer between partners · Resists dust mites and household allergens