Memory foam mattress commercials have made the term "visco-elastic" has become a fairly common term that's identified with mattresses.
NASA foam has also taken on meaning as a result of this marketing effort. The foam was originally developed for manned spaceflight so that's why it's also referred to in that manner.
But just what does it mean?
One good thing is that you don't have to know or even care what it means to enjoy the benefits of it.
In fact, you can determine the best visco foam mattress pretty readily.
I'm going to try to keep this from becoming a boring lesson in rocket science. (Yes, pun intended)
Visco has to do with viscosity. I think an illustration might help you see the way viscosity affects visco foam.
Keep in mind that when you're talking about fluids there are high viscosity fluids and low viscosity fluids.
Picture this in your mind, pouring a glass of water from one jar to another... got it? Now picture that same scenario but this time your pouring molasses on a cold day. I'm sure you saw quite a difference, right?
Water is a low viscosity fluid and honey is a high viscosity fluid.
In the same way that temperature affects molasses, it also affects memory foam. In a colder environment, the material will be much more difficult to "stretch" and will take longer to return to it's original size and shape.
When it's introduced to a warmer environment it becomes much more pliable and soft.
In the same way molasses gets "softer" when warmed, visco foam softens in areas where your body heat is absorbed into the temperature sensitive memory foam material.
Elastic means that the material will return to it's original shape after being stretched or deformed. That's why it's called visco elastic memory foam.
Memory foam materials fall about half way through the two definitions.
The only thing you really need to know about this foam is that millions of people have said they sleep better because of it.
Another thing that makes memory foam so unique is it's ability to spread body weight out evenly over it's entire surface.
Because of it's association with NASA, someone along the way coined the term weightless sleep, you know, like the astronauts floating in space.
It seems like weightless sleep because it relieves pressure points on your body that are normally brought about by sleeping on a non visco foam mattress.
