Mattress Forum

Now here's where I'd love the opinions from people who have been around a while. It seems at this time (and some of the higher end manufacturers and even some smaller manufacturers seem to still abide by this to some degree) that body impressions were actually a desireable part of the break-in process in that over time it allowed the stuffing to conform to the shape of the body in a more passive and general way and help with pressure and comfort issues. This would be the equivalent to what memory foam does today (in theory anyway) except the impression would come more from a combination of sleeping positions rather than be re-formed every time a person changed position. It seems that a body impression would personalize a mattress and help spread pressure out more passively with a relatively even level of support throughout (because the stuffing wasn't degraded), while the springs were responsible more for the active support when a person changed position or if part of their body sunk in deeper than the body impression. The habit of regularly turning a mattress would also help the body impressions to form in a "more ideal way". The upper layers were more "passive" than today and the springs were more important in the "active" part of the mattress in other words.

This approach still seems valid today and while it may not lead to a "perfect mattress" it does seem that there may be some value to this approach which is why some manufacturers still make them this way. It also seems that some people would do better with this approach than what they may otherwise end up with using a really complex layering scheme that "goes wrong". It may not be perfect but it would probably be 75 or 80% or maybe more. This is probably also where the idea of "firm is better" came from as a firm mattress didn't mean there was no contouring but that with a good and conforming body impression that once a mattress had broken in that an even firmness along the length of the body was desireable (similar to memory foam today where the pressure along the entire body is equalized) and that this even firmness came from a passive body impression working with an active spring (which didn't have to conform quite as much because the body impression had already done some of the equalizing).

I'd love to hear some feedback on this. How desireable was a body impression in these mattresses? Do you think that there is still some validity in this idea today for someone who isn't sure what else to do or is this just a "relic" of old thinking?

Phoenix