Bed safety barrier

Abstract

A casing-free, elongated half bolster, cut from low density polyurethane foam, that, in combination with a conventional fitted sheet and mattress pad or like bedclothes, is sandwiched between them while they are secured to a mattress and enclose its sleeping surface and sides. Juxtaposed between the two bedclothes, the half bolster is positioned atop the sleeping surface and held there in whatever place and for however long the user deems fit. Supplanting mechanical fasteners are surprisingly strong frictional binding/electrostatic clinging forces which act at the interface between the half bolster's convex upper surface and the fitted sheet, as well as at the interface between its flat-faced base and the mattress pad. Even when subjected to substantial lateral force(s), the largely unfettered half bolster, arrayed sandwich-style between bedclothes, holds its ground, making it a much needed time saver for caregivers and a therapeutic boon for care recipients.

1 . In combination with upper and lower bedclothes which belong to a set of conventional sheets, mattress pads, and covers adapted for use on a bed mattress that are variously fabricated of cotton, breathable polyester, or a blend thereof, a casing-free elevated structure which, in assembled relation with said upper and lower bedclothes, is both positioned atop the bed mattress and sandwiched between them when they are secured to the mattress in such a way that they enclose its sleeping surface and sides, the elevated structure consisting of an elongated, solid core body made of an open cell polyurethane foam having a density of only approximately 1.1 pounds per cubic foot and a high degree of softness, the elongated solid core body having two longitudinally extending exterior surfaces, formed by cutting a cellular solid of said polyurethane foam, which define a wide, flat-faced base and a convex upper surface, which, along its lower edges, intersects the base's outer periphery and arches upwardly therefrom, with the convex upper surface spanning each of the elongated solid core body's transverse cross-sections along an arc which has a radius of curvature that is approximately one-half as long as the base is wide.