Air Mattress

This invention relates to inflatable air mattresses particularly adapted to provide as close as practical the ideal posture without undue stress on the body when lying in either the prone or supine positions.

Inflatable air mattresses are most commonly used for purposes of floating in water normally for recreational purposes, although it is appreciated that they are useful in lifesaving situations, some types of recreational sports and in providing a comfortable mattress on which one may rest or sleep on dry land. If one is sunbathing on an air mattress, the person rotates from the prone to the supine position at regular intervals to provide an overall tan. Although the supine position is fairly comfortable on either land or water, the prone position can become very uncomfortable due to improper positioning of the head which is normally turned at 90.degree. to the plane of the body and hyper-extension in the lumbo-sacral region of the person's spine. There has been no attempt to alleviate this improper posture of the person particularly when lying in the prone position while in water or on land.

It has been previously thought that air mattresses are useful only as recreational devices so that the standard type of air mattress should suffice, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,068,134, 2,939,158 and 3,068,494. It is appreciated that sections of the air mattress may be hingedly connected together to convert the mattress into either a chair or lounge, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,623,574. U.S. Pat. No. 2,717,399 discloses an adaptation to an air mattress which facilitates under water viewing while the user is lying in the prone position on the mattress. This is achieved by the provision of a circular hole through the mattress which has a transparent bottom. This permits positioning of the user's head over the hole so that they may inspect what is on the lake or sea bottom. The hole in the mattress is normally of eight to ten inches in diameter to permit full viewing of the sea bottom. In one embodiment, the head support is provided above the viewing aperture. The head support is a cushion which contacts the forehead which can cause further elevation of the superior aspect of the head. This in turn results in hyper-extension in the cervical spine. Such posture is not nearly as comfortable as the neutral anatomical position for the head in the sagittal plane.

More recently a therapeutic air mattress has been developed by Horn as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,428,087. The mattress is particularly useful in treating patients having articular rheumatism. The mattress includes two inflatable chambers with a centrally located intermediate chamber having a block of foam rubber inserted therein. Above the block of foam rubber is an opening to provide for patient breathing when the patient is lying in the prone position. However, the sections of the inflated mattress alongside the opening are not in a position to properly support the user's cheeks to ensure that the user is not suffocated, particularly if the mattress were to be used in water.

According to an aspect of the invention, a posture supporting device has an inflatable air mattress with head and foot regions. The head region comprises an elongate recess extending in a length direction for the mattress. The recess has a depth approximating that of the mattress to receive and support a person's head when lying on the mattress in a prone position. The recess has an upper end and lower end and is defined by opposing spaced-apart inflated mattress sections extending generally parallel to one another in the length direction of the mattress. Lower means is provided for closing off the recess lower end and upper means is provided for closing off the recess upper end. The mattress sections are spaced apart a distance which supports a person's head when a person is lying in a prone position by contacting a person's cheekbones and accommodating a person's mouth and nose to permit free breathing while lying in a prone position.

According to another aspect of the invention, the mattress may include additional means for supporting a user's cheekbones. The support means extends along each of the mattress sections and is positioned adjacent a top surface of the mattress. The support means is inflatable to present spaced-apart resilient portions for supporting the user's cheekbones.

Preferred embodiments of the invention are shown in the drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the posture supporting device according to this invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the posture supporting device of FIG. 1 only turned upside down;

FIG. 3 is a side elevation of the posture supporting device of FIG. 2 with an individual lying on the device in the supine position;

FIG. 4 is a side elevation of the posture supporting device of FIG. 1 showing a person lying the prone position;

FIG. 5 is an end view of the posture supporting device of FIG. 4 showing the support of a person's head by mattress sections along each side of the recess;

FIG. 6 is a section of the mattress showing the releasable attachment of the lumbar elevation cushion;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the underside of the lumbar elevation cushion;

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a section of the head portion of the mattress showing an alternative embodiment for the recessed area; and

FIGS. 9 and 10 are partial sections along the lines A--A of FIG. 8.

The posture supporting device 10, as shown in FIG. 1, has an inflatable air mattress generally designated as 12 with a head region 14 and a foot region 16. According to this embodiment, the mattress 12 is made up of interconnected plurality of tubes 18a, 18b, 18c, 18d and 18e. Each inflated tube 18 extends in the length direction. The tubes 18a through 18e are co-terminus at the foot region 16. The central tube 18c is shorter than the adjacent tubes 18b and 18d, hence at the head region 14, a recess 20 is provided. The recess is defined by the end 22 of tube 18c, the inflated mattress sections 24 and 26 of mattress tubes 18b and 18d and a web 28 spanning the outer ends 30 and 32 of tubes 18b and 18d. The tubes 18a, b, d and e are all co-terminus at the head region 14 of the mattress.

The air mattress 12 may be constructed in accordance with standard manufacturing techniques. The material of the mattress may be any of a variety of acceptable materials, such as vinyl, vinyl and nylon, vinyl and rayon, rubberized cotton, and vinyl canvas. The tubes are interconnected along their adjacent edge portions to other tubes where air flow channels are provided between these connections so that all tubes may be inflated through a single valve or plug device 34.

Intermediate the head and foot regions of the air mattress 12 is a lumbar elevating cushion 36 which is connected to the top surface of the mattress 12. The lumbar elevating cushion 36 is inflatable by valve 38. The cushion may be inflated independently of the tubes of the mattress 12, although it is appreciated that when desired, communication may be provided between one or more of the tubes of the mattress and the cushion 36 to inflate the cushion at the same time as the tubes are being inflated. The lumbar cushion 36 extends transversely of the length direction of the mattress and is preferably of a length approximately equal to the width of the mattress.

As shown more clearly in FIG. 2, the underside 12b of the mattress has at its head portion 14 a head support cushion 40. The head support cushion 40 is connected to the bottom 12b of the mattress and extends transversely of the length direction and is of a length approximately equal to the overall width of the mattress. The head cushion 40 has a recessed area generally designated 42 which extends the width of the cushion and which can support the head from a buoyancy standpoint if needed when the buoyancy device is in the position of FIG. 1. When in the position of FIG. 2, a person lying in a supine position may rest their occiput portion of their head on the recessed area 42 of the cushion 40 in the manner to be discussed with respect to FIG. 3.

For purposes of demonstrating the posture supporting aspects of the buoyancy device, the mattress 10 has been shown in FIG. 3 as floating on water 44 with a person 46 lying in the supine position. The person's head 48 is resting on the cushion 40 in the recessed area 42, such that the lower portion 50 supports the natural cervical lordosis of the cervical spine to provide the proper curvature in the spine 52. With the air mattress in the position as shown in FIG. 3, the cushion 36 adds extra buoyancy for the heavier pelvic region 54 of the person so that the person is not bent unduly at the waist while lying in the supine position on the buoyancy device, thereby avoiding any strain on the posterior holding tissues of the lumbar spine.

With the mattress in the water in the position shown in FIG. 1, the person 46 may lie in the prone position in a manner which minimizes stresses on the spinal column to attain as close as possible an ideal postural form. The person's face 58 is positioned in the recess 20 to be supported in a manner which will be discussed with respect to FIG. 5. The lumbar region 56 of the person's body is elevated by the cushion 36. Such elevation of the lumbar region avoids any hyper-extension of the spinal column which may cause lumbar facet irritation, thus trying to achieve as close as possible a proper postural position. When the individual is lying in the prone position, lower back pain may be reduced or avoided by this elevation of the lumbar region.

As shown in FIG. 5, the spacing between the mattress tubes 18b and 18d is such that the mattress edge portions 24 and 26 contact the person's cheekbones indicated at 60 and 62 and may also contact the person's frontal bone above the orbit of each eye. The spacing between the edges 64 and 66 of tubes 18b and 18d is such to provide a recess area which accommodates the facial area 68 of the nose and mouth to ensure free breathing while the user is lying in the prone position. With this particular arrangement, the adjacent tubes 18b and 18d are slightly wider than narrower tube 18c so as to define the proper spacing between the support regions 24 and 26 to contact the person's cheekbones. Normally this is a spacing of about two to three inches. By shaping the supporting portions 24 and 26 to be slightly rounded, some variation is accommodated in a particular person's facial features, such as ranging from youth to adults. To enhance the support of the person's cheekbones, the portions 24 and 26 of the mattress tubes 18b and 18d may be reinforced by additional fabric or vinyl to ensure that the region is not depressed to an extent which would interfere with free breathing of the person. Where costs permit the reinforcing material or additional fabric placed along tubes 18b and 18d may be more compatible with the face such as a comfortable fabric material or a synthetic material which has the ability to breath, such as "Gore-tex" (trade mark). The supporting portions 24 and 26 provide a posture in the cervical spine region which is very comfortable, because the head is in the neutral anatomical position in the sagittal plane.

It is appreciated that an important feature of the buoyancy device is the ability to support a person in the prone position for extended periods of time without causing hyper-extension in the lumbar spine and rotational stress of the cervical spine. By way of the recessed area, the person may look downwardly into the buoyancy device without twisting the cervical column as is required with former types of air mattresses. To enhance the use of the air mattress and to minimize fear of suffocation or claustrophobia, the material at the bottom of the recess and the cushion 40 may be of clear vinyl to permit viewing through the air mattress into the water. It is appreciated that the web material 70 at the base of the recess 20 may be integral with and a continuation of the web material 28 across the end of the recess 20. The cushion 36 in elevating or at least applying an upward buoyancy force on the lumbar region of the body attempts to achieve as close as possible an ideal posture positioning. When the mattress is flipped over and used in the position of FIG. 3, the cushion 36 provides additional buoyancy to maintain the body generally out of the water.

By providing the elongate recess 20, variations in heights of the body trunk are accommodated since the individual always positions the lumber region on the cushion 36 and the user's face can then fit anywhere along the elongate recess 20. The cushion 40, when the buoyancy device is used in the position of FIG. 4, provides additional buoyancy in the head region to ensure that the web 28 is above the water line by elevating the web further, so that the recess 20 does not fill with water when the person is in the prone position. By proper selection of the length of the recess, normal body heights of five feet to six and one-half feet can readily be accommodated.

When the buoyancy device is used on dry land, it is appreciated that for the position shown in FIG. 3, the cushion 36 may be deflated by way of operation of the independent valve 38. Similarly, when the buoyancy device is in the position of FIG. 4, the cushion 36 may be inflated. However, the cushion 40 deflates to provide the desired degree of comfort and avoid any hyper-extension of the cervical spine. As shown in FIG. 5, the support portions 24 and 26 of the mattress tubes 18b and 18d position the head generally in the plane of the body so as to avoid any extreme flexion, extension or rotation of the head and neck region which occurs with conventional air mattresses.

It is appreciated that the lumbar support cushion 36 and the head support cushion 40 can be detachably connected to the air mattress by an appropriate connecting device. For example, as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the lumbar support cushion 36 may include fasteners 37 which cooperate with mating fasteners 35 on the air mattress to secure the lumbar support cushion to the mattress when desired. Appropriate fasteners include "Velcro" (trademark) type of fastening tape. Similarly, the head cushion 40 may be detachably connected to the air mattress with appropriate fastening device.

The recess area and the lumbar elevating cushion either separately or in combination with the air mattress provides a significantly improved form of buoyancy device in attempting to achieve as closely as possible ideal postural form without involving undue complexity in the shape or manufacture of the article.

An alternative embodiment for the air mattress is shown in FIG. 8. The air mattress 100 has a top surface 102 and side surfaces 104. The head region 106 of the mattress includes a recess 108 to accommodate and support a person's head when the user is lying in the prone position on the mattress in the manner similar to that shown in FIG. 5. The recess is defined by opposing side walls 110 and 112 as shown more clearly in FIG. 9. The opposing side walls 110 and 112 are portions of the inflated mattress 100 having parallel extending tubes 114 and 116 which are similar to corresponding inflated tubes of the mattress of FIG. 5. The opposing spaced-apart wall sections 110 and 112 extend substantially in the vertical direction to provide a very deep recess corresponding essentially to the overall height of the mattress.

For purposes of use of the mattress in water, the bottom of the recess 108 is sealed off along its length with a membrane 118 which is joined to adjacent flaps 120 and 122 of the inflated mattress tubes 114 and 116.

In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention, cheek supporting sections 124 adn 126 are provided on the opposing mattress sections 110 and 112. The supporting sections are provided by an inflatable tube 128 which includes the opposing sections 124 and 126. The continuous tube generally 128 extends around the perimeter of the recess 108. Each inflated section 124, 126 has an edge portion 125, 127 secured to the respective upper edge 115, 117 of tubes 114 and 116. Each inflated tube 124, 126 has its underside 129 and 131 resting on the respective mattress sections 110 and 112 at the contact areas 133 and 135. The tubes 114 and 116 are inflated sufficiently to support the section 124 and 126.

The tube 128 may be independently inflated through valve 130 to provide varying degrees of inflation as desired. For example, as shown in FIG. 10, the tube sections 124 and 126 are inflated to a greater extent as compared to FIG. 9. The user's head 128 has its cheekbones 130 and 132 resting on the supports 124 and 126. The user's head of FIG. 9 is larger than the user's head 134 of FIG. 10. Hence the supports 124 and 126 are inflated to a greater extent to ensure that the smaller head 134 does not sink into the recess 108 by supporting the smaller cheekbone spacing at 136 and 138. In this embodiment of the invention, a single size of recess is adapted to support most sizes of user's heads from child to adult. This ensures that, regardless of the user's size, the user's head does not sink into the recess 108 to any undue extent which could cause a feeling of suffocation.

The inflatable tube sections 124 and 126 provide greater flexibility in the use of the mattress in accommodating various sizes of users, while at the same time providing sufficient support in the area of the recess to give the necessary degree of comfort and security to the user so that they may lie in the prone position on the mattress for extended periods of time while breathing freely in the recess area 108.

Although preferred embodiments of the invention have been described herein in detail, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that variations may be made thereto without departing from the spirit of the invention or the scope of the appended claims.