As a bedding specialist, you know that comfort is the core of your business; consumers are buying a mattress or top-of-bed products based on the perceived level of comfort. But now comfort has a new element that goes beyond firmness, plushness, support and luxury: temperature.

Outlast® technology was originally developed for NASA to help mitigate temperature fluctuations in space. The astronauts appreciated the temperature-regulating benefits of the material, which made them more comfortable. The patented microencapsulated phase-change materials, called Thermocules™, could absorb, store and release heat, providing increased comfort. What Outlast did for astronauts, it can also do for your consumers.

Sleep experts agree that the optimum room temperature for sleep is between 65 and 68 degrees Fahrenheit. A cooler sleeping environment is essential in allowing your body to do what it’s naturally trying to do when you sleep—which is cool down. This cooling process begins at sundown, and continues until just before you wake up in the morning. Layering blankets can cause the heat naturally radiating from your body to get trapped under the covers resulting in an increase in microclimate temperature and relative humidity. You end up sticking out a leg or throwing off the covers. When you get too cool, the leg comes back in and the covers come back on. That’s a phenomenon that most consumers can relate to. Some do it for the first 15 minutes they’re in bed and others do it all night long. If you cycle through being too hot or too cold for a total of one hour per night, by the end of the week you’ve lost the equivalent of a full night’s sleep.

Temperature sensitivity is unique to everyone—we sweat or become chilled at different rates. But the temperature corridor in which we all feel comfortable is relatively narrow: if we depart from that comfort corridor, we become feverish or chilled. Here is where Outlast® products help. They reduce temperature swings and efficiently influence the comfort zone. In other words, your personal microclimate is well balanced so there is less sweat and less chill.

This amazing regulation of temperature during sleep is important to everyone. The segment of the population that can most benefit is perimenopausal or menopausal women. Hot flashes can increase a woman’s skin temperature by as much as six degrees and the perspiration produced during a hot flash can double the rate of heat loss, resulting in chills. Outlast® technology absorbs the excess heat and stores it until the body needs it to ward off a chill. Not only will the sleeper be more comfortable and rested, but so will her partner.

What’s unique about Outlast® technology is that it’s proactive. It’s uniquely engineered to wick away excess heat and prevent you from perspiring by keeping you thermoneutral. Other technologies are reactive, so you have to perspire and be in contact with the fabric in order for it to provide any benefit. Additionally, the benefits of this technology can be brought to the bed in layers, improving maximum comfort by using blankets, mattresses, pillows, mattress pads and comforters all featuring Outlast® technology.

Most recently, Outlast performance has been introduced to the market in rating levels. From lowest to highest they are bronze, silver and gold. The higher the rating, the greater the heat storage capacity, and the greater the comfort. Outlast® fabrics are available from Outlast Technologies as well as licensees like Deslee Clama USA, Bekaert Textiles, and Culp Home Fashions. Mattress partners include Select Comfort, Sealy, Serta, Restonic and more.

Bedding products that incorporate Outlast® technology can help everyone get a better night’s sleep. From normal sleepers looking for a bit of temperature control, to thermally incompatible couples, to women suffering from symptoms associated with the change-of-life, Outlast has a product that can help.