The hardness of the mattress is an important criterion that determines how comfortable your sleep will be and whether there will be problems with the musculoskeletal system. Situations often arise when the sleeping place does not meet the requirements. We have to find a way to solve the problem at minimal cost.
Prerequisites for the procedure
There may be many of your characteristics that give you reasons to think about how to make your mattress firmer. If you:
- You are at least a little overweight.
- Typically sleep on your back or stomach.
- As a teenager, you need to avoid scoliosis and other spinal problems at all costs.
- You have a stoop or problems with the spine.
- You lead a predominantly sedentary lifestyle.
- Do you often play sports?
However, if you belong to one of these categories of people, there is no need to panic. If you need to make your mattress harder, you should ask your doctor. In addition, people over 50 may experience even more pain when resting on a hard mattress. Therefore, you shouldn’t nervously look for the answer to the question of how to make a spring mattress harder with your own hands right now.
Is it necessary to increase the firmness of the mattress?
What should a good bed be like: soft or hard? In the time of our grandmothers, it was customary to sleep on feather beds or cotton mattresses. But if you remember the fairy tale, how the princess slept on many feather beds, under which a pea was placed, then it becomes clear why she did not feel well in the morning.
Indeed, lately we have increasingly heard that sleeping on an overly soft surface is not at all healthy and can even harm your health. Doctors talk about the benefits and even the need for sleeping on a hard mattress for a certain category of people. To choose the optimal mattress firmness and buy the mattress that is right for you, you need to focus on many parameters. Take into account your age, weight, health status and even your sleep habits (habitual positions).
So, who is recommended to sleep on a hard mattress:
- Newborns and children up to 2-3 years old. Then the mattress can be changed to medium-hard.
- For teenagers. During periods of rapid growth, the body is subjected to enormous stress. The spine is forming and needs quality support. Therefore, teenagers and young people up to 25 years old need to sleep on mattresses of increased hardness.
- People weighing over 90 kg. If your weight is 50-90 kg, you can choose medium-hard products. With a body weight of less than 50 kg (for an adult), the sleeping place can be soft.
- For athletes and people engaged in heavy physical labor.
- Suffering from spinal diseases.
- For those who like to sleep on their stomach. If the mattress is soft, it will not provide good support to a stomach sleeper and the spine will take an incorrect position. The result is pain, and then unpleasant diagnoses followed by expensive treatment.
Remember the golden rule if you are going to buy a mattress: the higher the weight of the owner, the harder the sleeping surface should be
Options
How to make a soft mattress firmer? There is a simple answer to this question: the best option is a mattress pad (topper) filled with coconut coir, sometimes impregnated with latex. When using, it is not recommended to bend the topper so as not to damage the fibers contained inside it. A person lying on a bed with this mattress pad relaxes his muscles and his spine comes into the right position. In addition, there are many other advantages:
- The mattress cover cannot absorb moisture and rot, so it will last a long time.
- When handled correctly, the topper will not become deformed.
- The topper does not contain allergens.
- The mattress cover is well ventilated and your back can breathe through it.
- A mattress cover is an unfavorable environment for the proliferation of harmful and not so harmful microorganisms.
Absence of “tossing and turning” in a dream
How to soften a hard mattress? There is a solution - buy a soft mattress cover. It will make the bed soft and cozy. One of the effects of a mattress on sleep is related to the network of thin blood vessels (capillaries) that run under the skin. When a person lies on any part of the body for a long period of time, the flow of blood through the capillaries is naturally reduced. In this position, a certain part of the skin is deprived of oxygen and essential nutrients, after which the nerve cells and other natural sensors of the skin send a message to the brain so that the person turns over. After turning over, blood flow is restored to the affected area of the body, but thus the person’s sleep is interrupted. A good mattress will help you get rid of the above problem - it promotes the free movement of blood and oxygen in the body of a sleeping person.
How to choose the right topper?
If you choose a mattress cover, then special attention should be paid to the color of the coconut fibers. The coir should be dark brown. If you see coir of this color, it means that the coconut fibers are ripe and of high quality.
The thickness of the mattress cover also plays a big role. If the topper contains 100% coconut fiber, then the thickness of the mattress cover should be from three to eight centimeters. If less, it means there are other fillers in the composition. Weight also needs to be taken into account. If your body weight is less than 90 kilograms, a three-centimeter mattress pad will be sufficient. If the weight exceeds 90 kg, the topper should be six to eight centimeters thick.
What will buying a topper give you?
In addition to having a positive effect on your sleep, and therefore your health, it keeps the main mattress alive by preventing dust or moisture from ruining it. Thanks to excellent ventilation, you will sleep pleasantly, comfortably and coolly even on the hottest nights.
Plus, if your mattress has any defects, you don’t have to buy a new one. After all, a mattress cover can hide all traces of the fact that the main mattress is already worn out. Also, if you have a small child, the water-repellent properties of the mattress cover will work to your advantage. That's why it became so popular.
Soft fillers for toppers
Before purchasing, be sure to ask what is inside the topper: its orthopedic qualities depend on the filler. What are they?
Be careful with coir!
Coconut fiber is a 100% natural, hypoallergenic and hygienic material, but the filler is made from lignified fibers! Let the word “coir” on the packaging alert you: it’s a hard thing, but your goal is the opposite: to make the mattress softer. Coir is made more elastic by mixing with other fillers:
- latex,
- synthetic non-woven fibers: struttofiber or holofiber - this filler has a funny name: bicoconut.
The ideal ratio of coir and latex is 50 to 50, but domestic manufacturers add only 30% latex.
Latexed coir smells like rubber. And about coconut, even if the price of a mattress with it is temptingly low, forget completely: it is stiffer than latex coir, but it will not last long: it is fragile and short-lived. In dry rooms it generally lasts 2-3 years, then it cracks and crumbles. You are not Pinocchio and you are not sleeping in a swamp.
Two-faced latex
Natural rubber is much softer than artificial rubber and is more expensive. The firmness of both can be described as “medium” - that is, compared to your base mattress, latex may be more comfortable. A common disadvantage of both species is that they cannot tolerate high and low temperatures. When heated they “shrink” and in the cold they break like plastic.
Artificial latex lasts less and has an unpleasant chemical smell.
Review from a user of the Roll Up Air model topper from Dormeo. The woman claims that after purchasing this thin mattress, her back problems disappeared.
Polyurethane foam
PPU is popular due to its low price. Very soft, but that is why its orthopedic qualities leave much to be desired. It doesn't hold its shape for long - it cakes. It evaporates moisture worse than other fillers. You can buy it if you often have guests who have nowhere to sleep, or if your baby likes to play on the floor and the floor is cold. “Guest” use will not soon “kill” a thin mattress, and the child will grow out of toddler games before it becomes unusable.
Foam will remember you
Memoryform or Memory foam is a polyurethane with special components, its name because of its ability to “remember” the shape and weight of your body. The filler is soft and comfortable, but does not conduct air well and is heated by human heat (many people even like it).
Review of the topper model Avelanto Memory Bio Aloe. The expert talks about the advantages of the product and its care. The topper is filled with “memory foam” and has a very aesthetic appearance.
Combined options
Look carefully at what is combined with what - but, in any case, it’s a lottery.
Interesting article about choosing mattress fillers
How to make a mattress firmer at home?
Sometimes you don’t have the money to buy a topper, but you don’t want to ruin your posture. Someone, perhaps, reading this article, was wondering how to make a mattress harder with their own hands if there is no money to buy a mattress cover. This issue is also completely resolved.
Of course, a homemade mattress topper will never compare in quality and usefulness to a purchased orthopedic topper. Another homemade element will very quickly lose its rigidity, in contrast to the topper recommended by doctors, which, with proper care, can last for decades.
So, let's look at the materials and techniques for making a homemade mattress cover, which will help you solve the problem of insufficient rigidity of the sleeping place.
A coconut coir mattress cover – will it help?
We have decided on the question of what mattress firmness is best. The next stage is changing the rigidity. Note that the product itself cannot be made more rigid. But increasing the rigidity of the sleeping place with the help of additional means is real. For this purpose, we recommend buying a thin mattress topper, otherwise it is called an orthopedic mattress cover. Such products contain layers of coconut coir (the fibrous part of the nut). Coconut coir is absolutely harmless, hypoallergenic and an environmentally friendly material.
The cost of solving the problem varies from 2.5 to 7 thousand rubles. In any case, it will be cheaper than buying a new mattress. Such a mattress cover, attached to the main mattress, will give the surface additional elasticity and firmness. With its help you can easily adjust the level of hardness of your bed.
In addition to improving orthopedic properties, the coconut mattress cover has many other advantages, namely:
- It is not subject to rotting, does not absorb moisture;
- Does not deform if used correctly;
- Provides optimal air microcirculation in bed;
- Characterized by high strength and reliability;
- It does not harbor pathogenic microorganisms.
Important! Toppers with coconut coir cannot be bent! Otherwise, the natural fibers may break
Materials
One of the main materials used in the manufacture of a homemade mattress pad is foam rubber. The foam rubber used in the topper must be at the same time the required density, soft and elastic, and also restore its shape well after exposure to load. The required density of the material is 25-40 kilograms per cubic meter. Foam rubber comes in different types. We need types such as:
- Standard (marked as ST) - density 25 kilograms per cubic meter.
- Increased rigidity (EL) – can withstand up to hundreds of kilograms of weight. The most durable of this type is the EL2842.
- Highly elastic (HR and VE) is the ideal foam for solving the problem, or rather, how to make a soft mattress harder. This is a material used in the manufacture of high-quality furniture of the highest class, recommended by many doctors around the world.
The fabric should be as dense and natural as possible, the threads should be strong, and the cover made from this fabric should be difficult to put on the filling. Because if you make the topper incorrectly, then the already small possibilities of a homemade mattress cover will decrease. Also, during production you will need safe, odorless glue, dense polyurethane foam for the edges of the mattress cover.
Special mattress covers
Another option that will help remove excess hardness is a mattress pad. Moreover, it performs two functions at once - it is a good protection of the mattress from dirt and wear, and additionally gives the sleeping area softness and comfort.
For example, a latex mattress cover can take a comfortable position and help your muscles relax - as a result of which after rest you will feel a surge of strength and vigor. In addition, the products have such undoubted advantages as:
- durability;
- environmental friendliness;
- hypoallergenic;
- antibacterial;
- resistance to deformation, shrinkage;
- ensuring an optimal microclimate.
Mattress covers are made from natural or artificial latex. There are no significant differences in properties, but they differ greatly in cost. The height of such mattress covers can vary from 1 to 6 cm. The higher this figure, the higher the anatomical characteristics of the product.
Manufacturing process
How to make a mattress firmer? The desired thickness of the resulting product should be about 15 centimeters. Otherwise, sleeping on it will be uncomfortable, and the quality of sleep will remain low. It is also very important to choose the right dimensions of the topper, otherwise the product will slide on the surface of the bed. Consequently, immersing yourself in the world of dreams will become more problematic. But if you managed to get sheets of foam rubber of the required length, but of small height, then they must be glued together, otherwise they will move out.
As we said earlier, the cover must be tight in order for the product to be of better quality, and at the same time fit tightly over the filling of the mattress cover itself. The seams must be inside the cover. Also, the latter should be removable so that it can be easily washed at any time. The finished product must be ventilated in fresh air. This method is suitable for those who do not have money, but have a lot of time and effort.
So, we figured out how to make a mattress firmer. As you can see, you can do this kind of work yourself.
Tips for choosing
When buying a topper to reduce the hardness of a mattress, pay attention to its height. It should match your weight. The greater the weight, the thicker the filler layer should be.
For a comfortable “soft” sleep for a person weighing up to 80 kg, a filler with a height of 5 cm is usually sufficient. The thickness of the memory foam layer should be selected to the maximum (for a topper it is 8 cm), otherwise you will not feel the orthopedic effect.
To make a thin mattress last longer, remember to turn it over from time to time and sleep on both sides alternately.
Toppers made from soft fillers can be folded along special folds and rolled into a roll.
