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Kingsdown demonstrates benefits of mattress pad

By David Perry -- Furniture Today, April 28, 2002

HIGH POINT — A high-tech thermal imaging camera let Kingsdown show retailers the benefits of a new mattress pad that helps improve sleep.

The infrared camera, which retailers saw in the company's market showroom here, demonstrates how the Sleeping Beauty by Kingsdown Mattress Pad absorbs heat from the body when it's too warm and feeds it back when it get cold, thus equalizing body temperature.

The pad, which retails at $119 in queen, uses a temperature-balancing nonwoven fabric from Frisby Technologies called ComforTemp. This is the first use of the material in mattress pads in the United States.

Retailers at market saw how ComforTemp worked by placing their hand on a sheet of the material. A monitor with the infrared camera showed the outline of the hand and noted its surface temperature. When the hand was removed, its thermal outline remained but faded as the material cooled.

"The beauty of this new product is that it has greatly expanded the temperature limits of the material in order to level out the body temperature throughout the night, which results in less sleep disturbance," said Tom McLean, senior vice president of marketing.

He said the mattress pad also helps to stimulate the onset of sleep by absorbing body heat. That helps to activate the pineal gland, which secretes the sleep hormone melatonin.

ComforTemp, known as a "phase-change thermal management material," uses technology based on micro-capsules embedded in the fabric. The pad can be washed in a regular washing machine.

The pad was one of a number of new sleep-related products from Kingsdown. Others included Isotonic pillows that utilize open-cell, visco-elastic foam and retail at $99. Also new were Foot Loose sheets, with a pocket for the toes, and a number of beds at retail price points of $1,000 and up as the company continues to emphasize higher-end bedding.

Kingsdown's Tom McLean lends a hand (shown in thermal outline on monitor) to demonstrate the temperature-balancing qualities of the company's new mattress pad.

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