Mechanical Behavior And Suitability Of Latex Influences Sleep Compatibility

If you are experiencing disturbed sleep at night and have a latex mattress on your bed then it may be the one to blame. Ideally, it is the mechanical properties of the latex mattress that helps it to provide a more even or lower distribution of stress regions across your body. It is for this reason you should consider the natural cushioning properties of latex. This must blend perfectly with the seat design requirements for ultimate comfort. 

The latex insoles have the ability to absorb impact energy 35% more in comparison to any other polyurethane insoles. This property of latex is even further enhanced the cushioning properties of latex especially when the impact energy conditions are low. 

In to all these, latex also have a high damping property that limits the transfer of motion to the neighboring areas. This means that the compression to a certain region of your body is localized. However, it is very important to ensure that there is an even distribution of stress concentration throughout your body for dealing with your sleep compatibility problems.

Limitations And Other Factors

There are a few other conditions that makes latex the best mattress product to improve your sleep quality and compatibility.  

• Latex has a very high springback characteristic as compared with polyurethane. This means that latex can maintain the original unstressed shape for a longer time. The polyurethane cushions on the other hand will undergo dynamic indentation.
• Latex material is also highly resilient as is revealed through the hysteresis results. These factors and features of latex make it the best material for repeated use of the mattress and that too in different positions. There will be no residual deformity to cause uneven distribution of stress.
• Another significant attribute of latex is its low temperature sensitivity as compared with the polyurethane foam mattresses. This is a very important factor as studies showed that themodulus changes over a range of temperatures from 30°C to 160°C were consistent for latex and more varied in polyurethane foam. 

This means high temperature sensitivity of polyurethane foam modulus will result in uneven distribution of stress and material stiffness throughout the mattress. 

As far as the limitations are concerned, studies showed that the results may be different for longer periods of sleep. This is because most of the tests and measurements of the profiles of body contact pressure for the two mattress types were taken for short period to find out the test results faster. This left a scope for ambiguity in the final results.

• Ideally, longer periods of sleep will cause viscoelastic behavior combined with the heat transmitted from your body to the mattress. It may affect the mechanical properties of the material and hence affect the stress distribution on the body. 
• A longer exposure time will also vary the pressure profiles that may result in the development of pressure sores. 

Moreover, experts say that additional data such as electroencephalography-based sleep cycles, and qualitative questionnaires, and electromyography, will be required in future to copiously compare the effects of latex and polyurethane mattresses on sleep.