Futons provide one of the best sleeping surfaces. Sleeping on a futon mattress, as opposed to a synthetic mattress, allows your body to maintain an even and natural temperature during the night. The cotton inside a futon "breathes", keeping you cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Futons also provide firm and comfortable back support. The resiliency of a futon comes from the natural curl of the cotton fibers which act like tiny springs. By adding a center layer of foam, latex, or coco-fiber, different levels of support, from soft to firm, can be offered. And if you have allergies to synthetic fabrics, the 100% cotton gives you allergy-free comfort. We make our futons by hand, not by machine. One of the attributes of making them by hand is the personal attention and time that is given to each mattress by very skilled people; mass production is not our forte and never will be. Our futons are constructed like a box - with a top, bottom, and side panels - not like a pillow as other futons. We use a zipper which allows you to unzip the mattress casing and actually see the quality of the batting. Finally, each futon is tufted at regular intervals with professional grade cording so the batting won't break or get lumpy.