Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Jan 25:7:e6364.
doi: 10.7717/peerj.6364. eCollection 2019.

Sleeping mattress determinants and evaluation: a biomechanical review and critique

Duo Wai-Chi Wong  1   2 , Yan Wang  1   2 , Jin Lin  3 , Qitao Tan  1   2 , Tony Lin-Wei Chen  1   2 , Ming Zhang  1   2
Affiliations

Sleeping mattress determinants and evaluation: a biomechanical review and critique

Duo Wai-Chi Wong et al. PeerJ. .

Abstract

Background: Sleeping mattress parameters significantly influence sleeping comfort and health, as reflected by the extensive investigations of sleeping support biomechanics to prevent sleep-related musculoskeletal problems.

Methodology: Herein, we review the current trends, research methodologies, and determinants of mattress biomechanics research, summarizing evidence published since 2008. In particular, we scrutinize 18 articles dealing with the development of new designs, recommendation criteria, instruments/methods of spine alignment evaluation, and comparative evaluation of different designs.

Results: The review demonstrated that mattress designs have strived for customization, regional features, and real-time active control to adapt to the biomechanical features of different body builds and postures. However, the suggested threshold or target values for desirable spine alignment and body pressure distribution during sleep cannot yet be justified in view of the lack of sufficient evidence.

Conclusions: It is necessary to formulate standard objectives and protocols for carrying out mattress evaluation.

Keywords: Body pressure; Mattress; Pillow; Sleep support; Spine alignment.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Jin Lin is an employee at Infinitus (China) Company Ltd.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Aebi M. The adult scoliosis. European Spine Journal. 2005;14:925–948. - PubMed
    1. Allsop TD, Bhamber R, Lloyd GD, Miller MR, Dixon A, Webb DJ, Ania-Castañon JD, Bennion I. Respiratory function monitoring using a real-time three-dimensional fiber-optic shaping sensing scheme based upon fiber Bragg gratings. Journal of Biomedical Optics. 2012;17(11):117001. doi: 10.1117/1.jbo.17.11.117001. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Behar J, Roebuck A, Domingos JS, Gederi E, Clifford GD. A review of current sleep screening applications for smartphones. Physiological Measurement. 2013;34(7):R29–R46. doi: 10.1088/0967-3334/34/7/r29. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Berlowitz DR, Brienza DM. Are all pressure ulcers the result of deep tissue injury? A review of the literature. Ostomy Wound Management. 2007;53:34. - PubMed
    1. Buckle P, Fernandes A. Mattress evaluation—assessment of contact pressure, comfort and discomfort. Applied Ergonomics. 1998;29(1):35–39. doi: 10.1016/s0003-6870(97)00023-9. - DOI - PubMed

Grants and funding

The work was supported by the Shenzhen Foundation Research Fund granted by the Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Committee (JCYJ-20160531-1846-21718), and the NSFC granted by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (11732015). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

LinkOut - more resources