Sleeping surface having two longitudinally connected bladders

Abstract

A sleep surface is formed by joining longitudinal sides of two juxtaposed air bladders, thereby providing a continuous sleep surface having two independently inflatable air chambers. The union of the two bladders ensures that the bladders remain in a desired position despite being repeated inflated, deflated, folded and unfolded.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] Airbeds are rapidly gaining popularity as an alternative to inner spring mattresses. One of the most attractive features of an airbed is the inherent firmness adjustability. As opposed to a non-adjustable inner spring mattress, the firmness of an air bed can be quickly adjusted simply by changing the air pressure in the bladders of the bed. The larger beds include two juxtaposed bladders, thereby providing two independently adjustable sleep surfaces in a single bed. [0002] Originally, beds offering two bladders were constructed simply by providing a cover, inserting foam borders around the inner sidewalls of the cover to provide a desirable shape for the mattress, and inserting two independent juxtaposed bladders inside the foam borders. Some customers expressed concern that when they were on inside edge of their bladder, toward the center of the bed, their body weight forced all of the air in the bladder toward the outer side of the bladder, leavi...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

"The present invention is an airbed mattress that solves the problems of traditional airbeds by providing a solution that includes two independently adjustable sleep surfaces. The two bladders are joined along adjoining longitudinal edges, creating a relatively constant sleep surface across the extents of the mattress. The method of joining the bladders includes heat welding, zipping, connecting with hook and loop fasteners, connecting with snap fasteners, tying the bladders together, or any acceptable fastening means. The technical effect of this invention is an uninterrupted sleep surface that allows two people to comfortably sleep on the same mattress."

Problems solved by technology

The discontinuity between the inside edge of the compressed bladder and the fully inflated adjoining edge of the adjacent bladder, created an uncomfortable sleeping surface.

Conventional sleeper sofa designs are plagued with a struggle between providing a comfortable sleep surface when the bed is deployed, and providing an attractive sofa when the bed is hidden away.

A thick, comfortable mattress is difficult to fold into a couch.

Mattresses that are foldable are too thin to insulate a sleeper from the non-uniform support surface under the mattress.

A sleeper sofa airbed mattress with two bladders brings with it the same potential problem of a gap between the mattresses when inflated.

The deflation of the bladders during storage creates a new potential problem as well.

Namely, the deflated bladders may become overlapped or otherwise wrongly positioned during the folding and unfolding of the sleeper sofa.

Placing a foam border between the bladders is not effective because the foam border itself is likely to become displaced when the bladders are deflated.

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