To protect your mattress and add comfort to your sleep, quilted mattress pads should be added to your bedding collection. Have at least two so one can be on the bed while the other is being laundered. You need to be sure to wash them almost as frequently as you wash your sheets to get rid of dander, dust and allergens that lodge in the bed pad.
Quilted mattress pads are a good investment. They protect your expensive mattress against damage due to friction, spills, and stains, prolonging its life. Better yet, quilted mattress pads help you get a good night’s sleep and fine-tune a mattress to your personal preferences.
Quilted mattress pads consist of two layers of durable, soft fabric enclosing a fluffy layer of padding material. The padding material layer can be thicker or thinner depending on how much support you want from the underlying mattress. The covering layers of fabric are quilted together to help keep the padding material from shifting around.
Since quilted mattress pads are covered by bottom sheets, the texture of the quilted fabric is not all that noticeable. But many people have distinct preferences in the surface materials of their quilted mattress pads. Flannel is popular for its soft, fuzzy texture. Synthetic materials are sometimes deemed “hard”, while all-natural cotton fabric is soft and luxurious. Quilted mattress pads for infant and toddlers’ beds are often made with a top layer backed by polyurethane, providing some protection against bed-wetting.
Quilted mattress pads come with some form of fastener to hold them on the mattress. Less expensive quilted mattress pads have corner straps of elastic material that stretch over the corners of the mattress. Higher-priced quilted mattress pads have all-around skirts of aprons of material with an elastic-loaded hem. Some apron-equipped quilted mattress pads claim to be able to fit any size bed from twin to king.
Quilted mattress pads even come with embedded heating elements to warm the sleeping surface and provide the ideal temperature. Heated quilted mattress pads come with electronic controls that provide up to ten heat settings, and some include a pre-heat function that turns the heat on at a preset time. You need never climb into a cold bed again!
Organic cotton quilted mattress pads are often found in baby cribs. These pads are made from certified 100 per cent organic cotton, and are guaranteed to be free of formaldehyde and other toxic chemicals rumored to cause Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. The cotton is even certified to have been grown free of fertilizers and pesticides. This type of quilted mattress pad tends to be expensive, but it also comes with a three year warranty if washed according to directions (warm or cold water, cool dry, no bleach).
What kind of quilted mattress pad should you buy? Obviously, a plush pillow top mattress doesn’t need additional padding for comfort, but you still need a quilted mattress pad to protect against wear and soil. Buy a thinner, less expensive quilted mattress pad. On a firm mattress, you may want a thicker quilted mattress pad to provide softness as well as protection, or you may want to stick with a thinner pad to preserve the firm support for which you paid. The surface fabric does not really matter, although a fabric that breathes easily will be cooler to sleep upon. Heated quilted mattress pads are highly recommended in cold winter climates.
Quilted mattress pads are as essential as bed sheets. Fortunately, they are not very expensive and last a long time.