Memory Foam Pillow

A memory foam pillow. I always wondered what it was called when fifteen years ago, my mother came home with this really cool pillow. She had always suffered terribly with neck aches and insomnia and was forever looking for a solution to her problem. Whether it was the neck aches that were causing the insomnia or whether they were totally unrelated, she didn’t know. What she did know was that she needed to find some relief that didn’t come out of a bottle. That’s what led to the fateful day when she came home with this amazing new pillow that turned out to be a memory foam pillow, although many people also call it a memory foam contour pillow. What was so intriguing about it was the way it felt. You could press your hand down into it and unlike other pillows, the impression would remain in the memory foam pillow. It also felt like it was filled with cold honey by the way it would slowly sink down. At that point mum had to fight us off in order to keep the memory foam pillow to herself. She’s now 84 years old and that pillow has definitely had a helping hand in allowing her to have a comfortable sleep each night during that time. In fact it was so good that after a while she bought a memory foam mattress topper to go on top of her mattress to give her more comfort all over and when her original memory foam pillow started to get old, she replaced it with a new memory foam neck pillow created especially for the job that was even better than the original.

That story started back in the early 90’s, but memory foam pillows have been around for a long time before then. Memory foam was actually developed by NASA in the mid sixty’s to help make airline seating cushions more safe. They then released the patent to the public in the early eighties. Initially, companies were loath to work with memory foam because of its difficult manufacturing process. But as the technology improved, many companies have come to create a whole range of memory foam pillows including the memory foam travel pillow and memory foam body pillow so that nowadays, there really isn’t a memory foam standard pillow.

Memory foam is made from a polyurethane compound that has both dense viscous properties like honey, whilst at the same time having rebounding properties like elastic. Depending on the make up of the polyurethane, a memory foam pillow is firmer in cool temperatures and softer when warmed up. As a result, when a warm head and neck lie on a memory foam bed pillow, the pillow will contour itself to the shape of the person’s head and neck within a minute or two. The higher the density of a pillow, the longer it takes to return to its normal position and the firmer it will be.

This makes for a very comfortable experience and as result, therapeutic memory foam pillows have become widely used in hospitals and for the care of both sick and elderly. These people may be in bed for days and weeks at a time, which causes bedsores and other medical conditions. Memory foam pillows help to alleviate this problem by taking the pressure off those spots where the sores would normally form.

Another great features of these pillows is the fact that they are resistant to dust mites. Dust mites simply do not like living in the chemical makeup of the pillow. This can often reduce the incidents of asthma in those asthmatics that use a memory foam pillow.

Even with the great advantages that come with memory foam pillows, there are still a couple of negatives that may cause problems for some people. For instance, a new memory foam pillow will have a decidedly chemical smell. This can be reduced with airing and will eventually fade with use, but initially this can cause problems for people who have a sensitive respiratory system. Similarly, because memory foam pillows are made from polyurethane that is highly flammable, memory foam pillows contain high levels of fire retardant. This can also cause problems for asthmatics and people with a sensitive respiratory system. So while asthmatics may benefit by the lack of dust mites, that advantage may be removed if they are irritated by the initial chemical smell.

A quick look on the internet shows us that a memory foam pillow for sleep can be bought for as little as $50. One for travel can be purchased for $30. A king size memory foam pillow costs around $70 while the price of a memory foam body pillow is around $30.