Pillow Top Mattress Pad

Human beings spend an average of 1/3 of their lives asleep in their bed. Certainly, anywhere we'd spend that much time should be as comfortable as possible. Mattresses come in an enormous variety of shapes, sizes and configurations. Pillow top mattresses are a popular type of mattress that has an additional cushion, or pillow, sewn into or placed on the top of the mattress.

Just like the mattresses themselves, pillow top mattress pads are available in different densities, providing different levels of firmness. When you're shopping for a new mattress pad, think about your current mattress and whether it is comfortable enough to sleep on all night without having to adjust your position because it's too soft or hard or lumpy. The good news is that if your current mattress isn't as comfortable as you would like, you can add a mattress pad that better fits your needs and allows you to get a good night's sleep.

Mattress pads can be found filled with a variety of materials including memory foam, down, and fabric batting. Memory foam is one of the newest materials used in pillow top pads and it appears that people who use these pads either love them or don't. Memory foam is a dense material that shapes itself to the contours of your body, maintaining the same firmness everywhere. It does have an initial chemical odor however, this goes away fairly quickly and individuals with back problems swear by the use of a memory foam mattress pad for comfort.

Mattress pads filled with either down or batting are much less firm and provide a soft cushion to sleep on. These are perhaps the most widely used types of mattress pads and they are easy to care for and resilient. If you use this kind of pad, keep in mind that to maintain a consistent thickness in the pad, fluff it out at least once a month.

One very important point to keep in mind when shopping for a new pillow top mattress pad is that you may need to invest in new fitted sheets. Many mattress pads add significant height to a mattress and certain manufacturers don't make their fitted sheets large enough to fit over the combination of a mattress and pad. In many cases however, the new pad is thin enough to work with the sheets you have, so measure before you go out and buy new ones.