All You Need to Know About Air Mattresses
Air bed mattresses are pretty nifty things. They do a great job of mimicking a regular mattress, but instead of being filled with foam, spring-coils, water, and fabrics, they don’t have anything in them but air! It is from the air they are filled with that the air mattresses in question draw the mechanical support which they in turn provide users with.
For many years, these air mattresses were only used in hospitals. This ways mainly thanks to the way they absorb and distribute pressure (as we’ll see shortly). In recent years, however, air mattresses have found their way into the general consumer market: where they have found what can only be termed as enthusiastic reception.
The workings of air mattresses
Air mattresses come with chambers. It is these chambers which are filled with air, which in turn offers comfort and support to the people who have to sleep on the mattresses.
Some air mattresses’ chambers have to be manually inflated (with pumps), but there are some which are self inflating. In the latter, some foam is incorporated into the structure, so that, strictly speaking, they can’t be viewed as being ‘purely’ air mattresses. Being part foam mattresses, they provide some amount of support and comfort, without any air in the chamber. But should the air valve be opened up, they expand, as the chambers draw in air – leading to what comes across as self-inflation. Filled with air that way, they provide even more support and comfort to the people laying on top of them.
Applications of air mattresses
As mentioned earlier, since their earliest days, air mattresses have found widespread usage in the medical industry. The need for these arose out of the fact that there are people who become so sick that they can’t turn in bed. Such people, when laid on a bed, tend to remain the same position, and this can lead to formation of skin sores. What the air mattresses used in hospital wards do, then, is to automatically inflate and deflate themselves every once in a while, with each deflation/inflation causing a part of the patient’s body that was previously directly on top of the mattress to get freed up – just as would be the case if the patient could turn himself. This prevents the formation of skin sores.
Air mattresses, especially the self-inflating variety are also popular with campers, who find them highly convenient.
Thanks to the greater level of comfort they offer (as they don’t just absorb weight, but also distribute the pressure resulting from such weight evenly), the air mattresses have become popular with domestic users keen on getting maximum sleeping comfort.
Advantages of air mattresses
The main advantage associated with air mattresses is something to do with the fact that they are so much more comfortable than other types of mattress. This is thanks to the fact that they don’t just (statically) absorb weight, but they redistribute it, leaving the person sleeping of them ‘feeling as if he is floating in air.’
Disadvantages of air mattresses
On average, air mattresses are costlier than other types of mattresses, though their prices have been falling as more and more companies venture into their production.
Anyone who opts for the air mattresses which have to be manually inflated also has to deal with the physical rigors of inflating them.
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