Ventilation in Your Mattress and its Base

Have you ever seen the wooden base of a bed without a mattress on it? If you have, you would have notices that it has holes in it. While you probably did not pay any attention to them, these holes actually serve a very important purpose: ventilation.

Ventilation refers to the ability for air to move through your mattress and your base, in order to achieve a number of things, including regulating temperature and hygiene.

A mattress with bad ventilation tends to be denser and does not allow any movement of air. This leads to a number of problems that will be discussed in this blog.

Why is Ventilation in a Mattress Important?

A poorly ventilated mattress has many disadvantages. These disadvantages all combine to create poor sleep and sleep quality.

• Sweat
• Hygiene
• Longevity
• Temperature regulation
•  

1. Sweat:

Let’s break it down: your body is made up of 60% water. This water carries out numerous functions in your body, but the one we’ll be looking at today is regulating body temperature. When you’re hot, you sweat and the water evaporates off your skin, leaving you feeling cool.

This same process also takes place at night while you’re sleeping: statistics show that the average human sweats approximately half a litre every night. While some of this moisture evaporates as it does during the day, a large amount seeps into your mattress. Mattresses without good ventilation store up all of this moisture, which doesn’t bode well for hygiene, or a good night’s sleep.

2. Hygiene:

The sweat problem brings about other concerns; hygiene being the most prominent. If you take into consideration how much sweat, along with moisture from the air, is being absorbed into your mattress, it is easy to imagine how damp and disgusting the inside of your mattress can become.

This dampness inside your mattress is a perfect breeding ground for mould, mildew, fungi and bacteria. These hygiene problems are more than just a disgusting thought; they could also cause some serious health issues. Breathing in mould spores can cause respiratory issues (such as wheezing), which would affect your sleep, and in turn, affect your everyday life. Furthermore, I don’t imagine your bedroom would smell too pleasant!

Bad hygiene brought on by bad mattress ventilation opens the door to other problems. Dust mites and similar critters are attracted to bad hygiene and can cause further health problems, such as allergies.

Finally, getting rid of this hygiene problem is near impossible, and it will likely respond in you needing to purchase a new bed. Good ventilation could avoid this problem before it even develops.

For some tips and tricks to keep your mattress clean, click here.

3. Longevity:

A mattress tends to have a better chance of lasting longer when it isn’t damp inside with bacteria eating away at it from the inside out.

Investing in a mattress with proper ventilation not only guarantees a cleaner mattress, but it also bodes well for its longevity.

3. Temperature Regulation:

A mattress without proper ventilation has no way of regulating temperature. It builds up heat from the sun during the day and absorbs some of your body heat when you’re asleep.

The latent heat poses a problem: your body temperature needs to drop a little in order for you to achieve quality sleep, and if your mattress is keeping your temperature up, it will inevitably disrupt your shut-eye. Adequate ventilation allows air to move through your mattress and enables it to have a more regulated temperature that is better and healthier for you to sleep on.

To read more about sleep and temperature, click here.

Ventilation in Your Mattress Base

A lot of mattress manufacturers make their mattresses to be used with a specific base. This is for a number of reasons, some of which include:

• Feel of the mattress
• The durability of your bed

Feel of the Mattress:

While the specific type of mattress obviously has the biggest impact on how your bed feels, the base under your mattress makes a significant difference too.

For example, a flat base with ventilation holes would feel a lot firmer than a slatted base. Furthermore, a mattress on a ventilated base would be softer than a mattress that is flat on the floor.

The durability of Your Bed:

Mattress manufacturers design specific mattresses for specific bases. They take a lot of factors into consideration, including ventilation. The manufacturers figure out which mattress-base combinations are the best, and the combinations with good ventilation tend to bring the biggest success and last the longest.

Many mattress manufacturers even go as far as to void the warranty of the mattress if it has not been used on the base it was sold with since they know their base will guarantee the best use of the mattress.

For something as big as good quality sleep, a topic as small as proper ventilation can make a big difference.

Shop wisely, shop mattresses with good ventilation, and shop online at the Mattress Warehouse now!