Most of us have a pretty fixed conception of what a mattress is. (It’s a big cushy rectangle filled with foam or springs and covered in fabric, right?). While mattress companies can tout their use of high-quality materials or free shipping policies, the basic product is pretty similar from one company to the next. Until now.
Mattress company WinkBeds recently released a coolControl™ base that is already changing people’s thoughts about what to expect from their sleeping surface. The unprecedented coolControl technology allows sleepers to manually change the temperature of their mattress to make it either warmer or colder than room temperature, thereby promoting greater comfort and higher quality sleep. Here’s how this newfangled technology works—and why it matters for the mattress industry as a whole.
How Does the Technology Work?
For years, mattress companies have been trying to identify a way for users to manually control mattress temperature, but they kept coming up short. So how did WinkBeds make it happen?
The answer is actually pretty simple. To begin with, the coolControl base (which functions much like a box spring) is placed under a WinkBeds mattress and connected to the mattress via four air channels. Once the base is plugged in and a temperature setting is selected, a conduction process filters air from the bedroom and adjusts its temperature. Then fans distribute the conditioned air throughout the mattress to achieve the desired warming or cooling effect.
Sleepers choose from five different warm settings or five different cool settings using an iOS app or a remote. (The mattress can be warmed to as many as 30 degrees higher than room temperature or cooled by as many as 10 degrees.) The two sides of the mattress can be controlled separately or together, so partners can customize their side of the bed to their desired temperature. As an added bonus, the air circulation helps wick away sweat so sleepers remain drier during the night. This can also reduce the chances of the mattress growing mold or other buildup.
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Why Does It Matter?
The coolControl technology has implications both for everyday sleepers and for the mattress industry as a whole.
Research finds that one of the most common challenges to getting high-quality sleep is sleeping hot. If a person is a going to fall asleep easily and maintain deep sleep through the night, their body temperature needs to lower by approximately two degrees. Thus, sleeping hot can impede both falling asleep and staying asleep. By ensuring the sleeping surface will remain cool, users can increase their likelihood of achieving high-quality sleep. In fact, WinkBeds reports that during preliminary testing users reported a 44 percent improvement in their ability to fall and stay asleep. Even those users who prefer a warmer mattress can benefit from better sleep, as the most critical factor in determining whether someone falls and stays asleep is personal comfort.
In addition to improving users’ sleep, this new technology is also revolutionizing the mattress industry. Up until this point, no mattress manufacturer had figured out how to cool down the mattress itself. They might have used materials that were less likely to retain heat, but they couldn’t find the right technology to allow for manual control of the mattress’ temperature, nor had any other brand identified how to keep the cooling (or warming) effects consistent all night long.
In identifying a viable solution, WinkBeds has brought new technology to the mattress industry and elevated consumers’ expectations. Suddenly, more is possible—and that means consumers will be looking to mattress brands to differentiate their offerings with additional high-tech solutions that yield better sleep.
