Mattresses

Mattresses

A mattress is a large pad for supporting the reclining body, used as or on a bed. Mattresses may consist of a quilted or similarly fastened case, usually of heavy cloth, that contains hair, straw, cotton, foam rubber, etc., or a framework of metal springs, or they may be inflatable.

The word mattress derives from the Arabic "matrah", which means "to throw down" or "place where something is thrown" or "mat, cushion." During the Crusades Europeans adopted the Arabic method of sleeping on cushions on the floor, and the word materas eventually descended into Middle English through the Romance languages.

Mattresses are usually placed on top of a bed base which may be solid, as in the case of a platform bed, or elastic, e.g. with an upholstered wood and wire box spring or a slatted foundation. Flexible bed bases can prolong the life of the mattress. Popular in Europe, a divan incorporates both mattress and foundation in a single upholstered, footed unit. Divans have at least one innerspring layer as well as cushioning materials. They may be supplied with a secondary mattress and/or a removable "topper."

Early mattresses contained a variety of natural materials including straw, feathers or horse hair. In the first half of the 20th century, a typical mattress sold in North America had an innerspring core and cotton batting or fiberfill. Modern mattresses usually contain either an inner spring core or materials such as latex, viscoelastic or other flexible polyurethane foams. Other fill components include insulator pads over the coils that prevent the bed's upholstery layers from cupping down into the innerspring, as well as polyester fiberfill in the bed's top upholstery layers. Mattresses may also be filled with air or water, or a variety of natural fibers, such as in futons. In Southeast Asia, bedding is made with kapok. In 1901 the English bed maker VI-Spring introduced the first individually wrapped pocketed spring coil mattress.

Typical mattresses sold in North America today is an innerspring; however interest in all-foam beds and so-called hybrid beds—which include an innerspring plus high-end foams, such as visco-elastic or latex, in the comfort layers—is increasing. In Europe, polyurethane foam cores and latex cores have long been popular and make up a much larger proportion of the mattresses sold.