What's in a mattress? A Canadian entrepreneur makes you realize more than you think.

For about six months now, my colleague has been doing some internet marketing work for a mattress company. Up until recently, little did I know that the owner of the company is someone I’ve known for a very long time.

It turns out that the mystery friend invented an eco-friendly mattress. Naturally, this struck me as a good entrepreneurial story.

His company Essentia was located not too far from where I live (and where we grew up) and so following week I paid him a visit.

Here’s what I found out about this interesting mattress concept:

-Conventional mattresses emit toxins in two ways: the chemical glue used to piece together a mattress and the chemical used to increase the foam’s expansion.

It is a water-based natural memory foam that has shown to breathe 80% better than the average mattress. Its chemical model fuses foam and latex together without the use of glue. Rather, it chooses to mold each unit individually in its own casing. The process is completely free of toxins.

-Ordinary mattresses don’t provide the support your back needs.

Essentia attains the perfect foam density that allows the mattress to become an extension of the body through an organic or natural process. The benefit to achieving support and compliance for the back is that it increases blood-flow, thus relieving pressure points in the body.

Furthermore, Essentia mattresses are anti-everything - from anti-odour to anit-static to anti-microbial, thanks to the benefits of Sanicare and purifying properties of Lyocell.

-Last, each mattress is handcrafted and engineered carefully.

My friend is an entrepreneur who spent quite a bit of time and money researching and producing a green mattress that was predicated on providing optimum comfort.

I also came out with a brief history lesson – something I always enjoy. I asked him if the concept of a hard bed being good for one’s back was an urban myth. It is. Apparently it is.

The prevailing belief in the 1960s was to make soft mattresses. When that was found to be impractical, the trend reversed itself in the 1970s and 80s to produce hard mattresses. Neither type of mattress was the best recipe. Is “Essentia” the new mattress-paradigm of the 21^st century?

It may very well be. I did some snooping around – talking to interior decorators, general contractors, etc. In other words, people who have the ear to the ground when it comes to what people are buying – and found out that a few people had purchased the mattress and were ecstatic about the product. One person even wrote to Jack about the mattresses’ apparent role in helping to cure her insomnia!

After our conversation, it was time to check out the mattress. He first showed me the foam itself. It felt like pizza dough. Aside from having the urge to slap some basil on the sucker, I then lay down on the bed. I almost fell asleep as he spoke - which is surprising given my history of insomnia.

Essentia shows just how far eco-entrepreneurship can go. Clearly, Canadian entrepreneurs are alive and well ready to tackle and change the world even with mattresses.

Now if I can just get a discount…

For more information please visit www.essentiadirect.com.