The key to a good night's sleep often lies in the type of mattress you are sleeping on. Having a good and comfortable mattress will ensure a good night's sleep and gives you the energy you need for the rest of the day.

Visco-elastic foam mattresses have made an impact on the quality of sleep for most people. They are also known as memory foam mattresses. The material was originally designed for NASA for use in the US space program before being used for consumers.

Memory foam mattresses have medical healing properties particularly useful for people suffering from backaches and pains and other such aliments.

The first company to produce memory foam mattresses is Tempur-pedic. Because of its durability and pressure reliving properties, prices were pretty high for tempurpedic mattresses. Lately, other companies have decided to produce their own versions of memory foam mattresses, touting it to be comparable to tempurpedic mattresses. Examples are Serta, Sealy and Simmons. These have brought prices of memory foam mattress down, making them more affordable.

My own preference is I prefer tempurpedic mattresses. Though the price is higher than other mattresses, you can't go wrong with their quality and their guarantee satisfaction. My advice is not to scrimp on the mattress since you spent nearly one-third of your lives on it.

There are several different kinds of memory foam mattresses. Usually the more dense the memory foam, the more you have to pay. The density can vary between 2.5lb to 5lb. The density simply means how much a cubic foot of the memory foam weighs. Generally, the higher density, the firmer is the memory foam.

If you have backaches or pains affecting your lower back, choose a higher density memory foam to support your back when you are sleeping. Also be aware of some dealers who may offer you low prices for tempurpedic mattress but in reality, it is not manufactured by tempur-pedic. To be on the safe side, you can go online to the tempur-pedic website to get the list of authorized dealers.

So what level of density is suitable for you? There really is no guideline. The best way is to try it out yourself before you buy a memory foam mattress. Also checks the warranty period since memory foam mattresses do wear out after a while.

Whatever the case, be careful and do your research before buying a memory foam mattress that is good and affordable.