Press the play button above to listen about how Pressure's Off was founded.
In this short episode, we sit down for a casual conversation about how Pressure’s Off came to be. Hear the story of its founding, what inspired the founder to rethink mattress technology, and how the unique pressure-distribution approach is changing the way people sleep. Whether you're curious about our origins or the science behind our design, this quick listen gives you a behind-the-scenes look at what sets us apart.
Transcript:
0:00: OK, let's unpack this.
0:01: Have you ever found yourself just, I don't know, tossing and turning all night, even when your mattress feels, you know, comfortable, and you wake up feeling stiff, like you hardly slept?
0:10: Oh yeah, it's a super frustrating, something lots of people experience, and we tend to think, OK, maybe it's how soft or firm the bed.
0:18: or the room temperature.
0:20: But what if the real problem, the thing that's messing with your sleep is something else entirely?
0:24: That's exactly what we're getting into in this deep dive.
0:27: Yeah, we're looking at sources like the science of sleep pressure and also some materials from a company called Pressures Off, and they make this really interesting claim.
0:37: It's not just about firmness, it's about specific Like uneven pressure points.
0:43: Exactly, uneven pressure between your body and the mattress surface, and you know the story behind this, according to these sources is pretty fascinating.
0:51: It goes back to Phillip, oh yeah, the researcher, industrial designer, that's the one.
0:56: He spent like over 20 years really studying the biomechanics of sleep, not just comfort, but how the body actually interacts with the mattress on a really fundamental level.
1:07: Yeah, and what he found, what these materials described was this consistent pattern.
1:12: Traditional mattresses didn't matter how firm or soft, they always created these distinct high pressure spots, spots like, hips and shoulders, heels too.
1:21: Precisely where your body curves meet that flat surface, and the science he looked into showed these pressure points caused something called capillary collapse.
1:30: Capillary collapse, yeah.
1:32: OK, what is that exactly?
1:33: Think about the tiniest blood vessels, the capillaries right near your skin surface, and you have that uneven pressure pushing down for a while, it actually squeezes them shut, restricts blood flow right there.
1:44: , OK, so it cuts off circulation in those little spots, and that's not just static, like it does something.
1:51: It's not just uncomfortable.
1:53: Your body senses that lack of blood flow, that tissue deprivation, and it's natural response.
1:58: It sends a signal, Hey, need to move.
2:00: OK.
2:02: So that's what triggers the shifting, the tossing and turning.
2:05: That seems to be the mechanism.
2:06: Those unconscious movements, the little adjustments you make all night, they're often your body trying to restore circulation.
2:13: And those movements, even small ones, fragment your sleep.
2:17: They pull you out of deeper stages even if you don't fully wake up.
2:20: So you might not even realize it's happening, but it ruins the quality, right?
2:24: So Phil's big takeaway after all that research was that the main sleep disruptor isn't the mattress feel necessarily, it's the interface pressure, that specific pressure between you and the surface, that localized pressure or how it's distributed.
2:38: That dictates how much you move exactly and how broken up your sleep gets.
2:43: So according to the sources, this whole idea led to a totally different way of thinking about mattress design, completely.
2:49: It wasn't just let's pour some new foam onto a flat shape.
2:52: The goal became, how do we engineer a surface that actually minimizes those specific Pressure points to stop the capillary collapse trigger in the first place.
3:01: Yes, exactly.
3:02: To create something that conforms better, spreads your weight out more evenly, you know, preventing those circulation pinch points that make you move, address the root cause.
3:13: OK, so that raises a key question the research probably tackled.
3:17: If fragmented sleep comes from needing to relieve pressure, then a service designed to reduce that specific pressure should mean less movement, right?
3:26: Deeper sleep.
3:27: That was the hypothesis, and they talk about using things like pressure mapping technology.
3:31: Oh, like those maps that show colors for pressure.
3:33: Yeah, precisely, to actually visualize and measure the pressure points on different surfaces, different body types.
3:38: They wanted hard data to show, look, peak pressure is lower here compared to a standard mattress.
3:44: So moving beyond just, does it feel comfy to actual biomechanics, linking the design directly to that disruption mechanism, the capillary collapse and movement trigger.
3:53: OK, so pulling this all together from the sources, this deep dive suggests the science really points to those uneven pressure points.
4:01: causing the capillary collapse, making us move, and that being a huge factor in why we sleep poorly sometimes.
4:07: It kind of challenges that whole focus most of us have just on firmness, doesn't it?
4:11: It really does.
4:12: The key takeaway from this research seems clear.
4:14: Minimizing that interface pressure specifically is crucial.
4:18: That's what helps cut down on those nighttime disruptions and lets you get truly restorative sleep.