The Healthy Foundations Blog

We loved this one. It addresses both the quality of our customer service, and the quality and comfort of our mattress.

"We are completely satisfied with the purchase of our mattress. We did a lot of research and we made the right choice. I have always been a poor sleeper and I have to say I am already seeing a big difference after a couple of weeks. I threw out my back right after we got the mattress and the only place I feel good is when I am in bed. I made one call to the company and spoke with Brian. He was fantastic and provided me with guidance on what style of beds to lay on, which are offered by their major competitor, to get a feel for what the Healthy Foundatations mattress would feel like. He even said it didn't do him any good to try and sell us something that wouldn't make us happy. He also explained the return policy and I especially like the fact that if you did return the mattress, they give them away to shelters. We purchased our mattress and it was at our home 2 days later. It took 5 minutes for the mattress to come to size and the smell was gone within 24 hours and wasn't too bad to begin with. I will recommend this mattress to everyone I know. Their service is wonderful and so is their product. I wish there were more companies who did business like this. WAY TO GO HEALTHY FOUNDATIONS!!!

Peaceful, painfree sleeper in Virginia" (5 Star Shopping.Com Review, Healthy Foundations Shopper, 11/23/2007)

For more information on our mattress, see our Memory Foam Mattress Page.

Posted by David Rosenberg at 09:46 AM | Permalink

The lb (pound) density of memory foam is simply a measurement of the weight of a cubic foot (volume of a cube with sides of 1 foot in length) of the material. So, for instance, a 4 lb density memory foam topper pad (like we sell) is 4 lbs per cubic foot of foam. Basically, memory foam is made from polyurethane with added chemicals that add to its viscosity or resistance, which increases its density. The hardness or softness of memory foam plays a key role in determining comfort. Its firmness is determined by its ILD/IFD rating. Indentation Load Deflection (ILD) or Indentation Force Deflection (IFD) measures the amount of force, in pounds, required to indent an 8 inch diameter disc into a measured visco-elastic foam sample and make a 1 inch indentation. This is commonly known as ILD/IFD at 25% compression. ILD/IFD ratings for memory foam typically range from 10 (super soft) and 120 (semi-rigid). Most memory foam mattresses range between a 12 to 16 ILD/IFD. Our memory foam topper pads are a 4 lb density, with an ILD/IFD of 10. Our mattress memory foam layers are a 3.2 lb and 3.4 lb densities, respectively.

For more information on our mattress,see our Memory Foam Mattress Page.

Posted by David Rosenberg at 08:52 AM | Permalink

Thread count is typically what determines just how soft and comfortable sheets will be - the higher the thread count, the more comfortable your sheets will be. Often referred to as TPI (threads per inch), this measures how many threads are used per every square inch of fabric. They range anywhere from 150 to several thousand. In general, you should avoid sheets that have a lower thread count than 200 because they won't feel comfortable on the body. If you buy sheets with a thread count of over 250, you should have a more comfortable night's sleep.

The type of fabric that you select when buying your sheets can have a significant impact on your comfort level. And with so many materials out there, you should really take the time to research the different materials offered. The most popular choices are cotton, flannel, silk and satin. Cotton is by far the most popular because it is comfortable (warms up to the body nicely) in the winter and sleeps cool in the summer. There seem to be more styles and colors (than other sheet types) out there, probably because there is more of a consumer demand on this fabric than others sold today. Cotton is the best material to use in conjunction with memory foam mattresses, due to its breathability and allowing heat transfer to the memory foam. Winter just isn't the same without warm flannel sheets. Most people use flannel sheets in the colder months. In addition, many manufacturers have begun to produce flannel comforters and blankets to match sheet sets.

Finally, a silk or satin sheet set is considered the ultimate in luxury. They are extremely soft and will keep you from sweating in the summer. You can literally slide into bed and if you have a satin or silk pillow case, lay your head into a nice, luxurious feel. The only downside to satin and silk sheets is that they tend to slide off of the bed if not fitted properly.

Posted by David Rosenberg at 04:11 PM | Permalink

We recently found this information on the www.familydoctor.org
website, and thought it would be really good information to share in our
blog.

"What are dust mites?
Dust mites are tiny bugs that live in your home. They measure about 1/100th
of an inch in length, which is smaller than the period at the end of this
sentence. Dust mites feed off of pet and human dander (dust), and their
waste is a major cause of allergies and asthma. In children who have asthma,
dust mites can cause them to wheeze more and need more asthma medicine. So,
cutting down the number of dust mites in the home is an important step if
your child has allergies or asthma.
Dust mites love warm, humid areas filled with dust. Bed pillows, mattresses,
carpets and furniture are great places for them to live. Cleaning each one
of these places can make a real difference in the number of dust mites in
your home.

What do I do first?
Start in the bedroom. Most of the dust mites in your house live in your
mattress. Put an airtight plastic or polyurethane cover over your mattress
(check out our Platinum Mattress Protector pad at this link:
http://healthyfoundations.com/ordering.html#plat). Wash your sheets and
blankets in very hot water every week. Wash your pillow every week or put a
plastic cover on it. (The pillowcase goes over the plastic cover.) The
water used to wash your sheets and blankets should be 130°F. This
temperature is higher than you may want for your water heater, because water
over 120°F can burn children if they turn on the hot water by themselves. If
you don't want to set your water heater at this temperature, you can wash
your sheets and blankets at commercial laundries. Your bedroom should have
a hardwood, tile or linoleum floor instead of carpet. Dust mites can grow
rapidly in carpet. If you must use carpet, try not to place it on concrete
because the warm space between a rug and concrete is a good place for mites
to live.

I don't want to rip out my carpet. Is there anything I can do to treat it?
You can spray the rug with a solution of 3% tannic acid every 2 months to
make the dust mite waste less bothersome. However, tannic acid itself can be
irritating and it can't help as much as removing the carpet. If your doctor
tells you to use this solution, he or she can tell you how to get it and
apply it.

What else can I do?
Vacuuming your carpets and upholstery every week can help. Vacuums with
high-efficiency filters pick up more dust mites, but even standard vacuums
work well enough. Plastic or wood furniture that doesn't have much padding
can also help keep down the number of dust mites in your home. Because dust
mites love warm, humid places, keeping the humidity low by using a
dehumidifier and running your air conditioner makes a difference. Special
air filters can help reduce dust mites in the air."

Posted by David Rosenberg at 08:04 AM | Permalink

We are strictly a web retailer with no brick and mortar stores, and the mattress is provided to us via a supplier who is relatively new to the U.S. market (mattress is manufactured in Spain). So, there really is nowhere to try the product out, which is partly why we offer a full year, no questions asked, money back trial on all of our products (we even pick up the mattress from you through a donation source, if we can locate one). The other BIG reason is that we average between a 6-7 percent return rate on the mattress (far better than the industry average). The only catch with the mattresses is that we charge a $75 fee for recouping some of our shipping costs. Otherwise, you're fully refunded (less the $75).

Posted by David Rosenberg at 11:39 AM | Permalink

We get this question quite a bit. Whether it's a futon frame (used only with our mattress in the pulled down flat position) or a slatted platform bed (wood or metal), potential customers have asked whether these options would work with our mattress. They will, but only if you add a 1/2" to 3/4" thick cut plywood or pressboard, laid over the slats, to create a uniform, solid bottom for our mattress. Because of the polyurethane core foam construction, our mattress requires a solid, uniform bottom (as do most memory foam mattresses on the market today). You'll also want to add some sort of a cloth fabric over the plywood or pressboard, to avoid any fraying or splintering of the mattress fabric caused by the plywood or pressboard. These options will provide a more stable, uniformly supportive bottom for our mattress, which will greatly improve the performance of our memory foam mattress.

To find out more about our mattress, see our Memory Foam Mattress page.

Posted by David Rosenberg at 11:31 AM | Permalink

This information is provided on the website www.sleepassociation.org, and we found it interesting to share with our potential customers:

"The amount of sleep each person needs depends on many factors, including age. Infants generally require about 16 hours a day, while teenagers need about 9 hours on average. For most adults, 7 to 8 hours a night appears to be the best amount of sleep, although some people may need as few as 5 hours or as many as 10 hours of sleep each day. Women in the first 3 months of pregnancy often need several more hours of sleep than usual. The amount of sleep a person needs also increases if he or she has been deprived of sleep in previous days. Getting too little sleep creates a "sleep debt," which is much like being overdrawn at a bank.

Eventually, your body will demand that the debt be repaid. We don't seem to adapt to getting less sleep than we need; while we may get used to a sleep-depriving schedule, our judgment, reaction time, and other functions are still impaired.People tend to sleep more lightly and for shorter time spans as they get older, although they generally need about the same amount of sleep as they needed in early adulthood. About half of all people over 65 have frequent sleeping problems, such as insomnia, and deep sleep stages in many elderly people often become very short or stop completely. This change may be a normal part of aging, or it may result from medical problems that are common in elderly people and from the medications and other treatments for those problems. Experts say that if you feel drowsy during the day, even during boring activities, you haven't had enough sleep. If you routinely fall asleep within 5 minutes of lying down, you probably have severe sleep deprivation, possibly even a sleep disorder.

Microsleeps, or very brief episodes of sleep in an otherwise awake person, are another mark of sleep deprivation. In many cases, people are not aware that they are experiencing microsleeps. The widespread practice of "burning the candle at both ends" in western industrialized societies has created so much sleep deprivation that what is really abnormal sleepiness is now almost the norm. Many studies make it clear that sleep deprivation is dangerous.

Sleep-deprived people who are tested by using a driving simulator or by performing a hand-eye coordination task perform as badly as or worse than those who are intoxicated. Sleep deprivation also magnifies alcohol's effects on the body, so a fatigued person who drinks will become much more impaired than someone who is well-rested.

Driver fatigue is responsible for an estimated 100,000 motor vehicle accidents and 1500 deaths each year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Since drowsiness is the brain's last step before falling asleep, driving while drowsy can - and often does - lead to disaster. Caffeine and other stimulants cannot overcome the effects of severe sleep deprivation. The National Sleep Foundation says that if you have trouble keeping your eyes focused, if you can't stop yawning, or if you can't remember driving the last few miles, you are probably too drowsy to drive safely."

If you are looking at trying to improve your sleep, you might want to check out our Memory Foam Matttress.

Posted by David Rosenberg at 02:32 PM | Permalink

If you're over, say, 25, you'll probably remember when mattresses only came in standard sizes. You probably had a twin, full, queen or king size mattress, that may have been no more than 8" thick. But with today's mattress improvements and trends, you could have a king sized bed, but the standard king sized sheets may not necessarily fit. Why? Because mattress manufacturers have made significant changes to mattresses, including things like pillow tops and general extra thickness. Knowing this, you will have to take care when buying sheets for your mattress, otherwise you might have sheets that won't quite wrap around the edges, or do, but continually slip off. Each package of sheets typically provide the exact measurements of the sheets, so it's important for you to pay attention to them. Measure your mattress before you go shopping so that you will be prepared to make a decision. If you have a mattress over 10 inches thick, you may require what's called deep pocket cut or deep profile bed sheets. Pay extra attention to the depth reach of the fitted sheet measurements on the packaging for best results.

Posted by David Rosenberg at 02:31 PM | Permalink