At CES 2017, Sleep Number revealed a new bed that made me question everything that I thought I wanted in a mattress. The bed was the Sleep Number 360, and the reason it looked (and felt) so good to me was that it not only was insanely comfortable and customizable, it was insanely smart!
Santa approves!
I’m going to digress and complain about my (dumb) mattress a moment. Kev’s and my latest queen size mattress is less than two years old, and we spent almost $2,000 (before tax) on it thinking that it was going to last for at least 10 years. Even though Kev and I regularly rotate it, you can tell a definite difference between where I’ve been sleeping versus where Kev lies. My side is firm and perfect, and his side is squished in and there is a noticeable gully; you can even roll off the little hill between the spots where we lie if you don’t have anything better to do.
What’s sad is that about 3 years before we bought the latest mattress, we had spent about the same on another queen size mattress that we had also hoped would last around 10 years. The reason Kev and I bought the first of these two mattresses was that the queen size mattress he had when we got together had the same issue: gully on the side of the bed where he regularly slept. Kev had spent about $1500 on that one.
Are you noticing a pattern here?
So maybe you’re wondering why we didn’t just take advantage of the warranties that were also purchased with all three queen size mattresses? Well, believe me, we tried. Here’s the thing. Even though Kev’s original mattress had a measurable gully in it, it had stains on it. That’s what happens when you have two little kids (at the time), and he hadn’t realized that a single stain on the mattress would void that particular warranty, or he would have wrapped that sucker in plastic! Oops.
The next two mattresses we bought had no stain disclaimers on their warranties (we made sure!), but they had really cushioned tops. As a result, when no one was on the bed, the pillow-top fluffed right up. The gully was nearly impossible to measure unless you were actually lying in the bed … then you felt it, and that didn’t cut it with the warranty terms. In other words, no measurable gully, no warranty replacement. GAH.
Live and learn.
So let’s tally up what both Kev and I have spent on queen size mattresses in the last 12 years: over $5500. And what do we have to show for it? Yet another mattress with a freaking gully in the middle. Ugh. Just ugh.
So why my long-winded rant on how three mattresses that cost way too much didn’t hold up? Because almost 17 years ago, I bought a king size Sleep Number mattress. Just a middle of the road model, nothing fancy, but that bed was still holding up just fine — on both sides — and it was just as comfortable to sleep on, years after I had moved in with Kev and had given the bed to my daughter and her husband. If it had been a queen size, I would have kept it, but alas.
So why didn’t we just buy another Sleep Number bed and be done with it? I don’t know; I don’t know! But when I showed up at CES and saw the new Sleep Number 360, I felt a lightbulb go on over my head.
The beauty of a Sleep Number is that you can adjust the firmness to suit each person sleeping on either side of the bed. In other words, a constant air pressure keeps the bed from forming gullies; if the bed seems a little too soft, then you just add a little more air, and if it’s too firm, you just change the number to a lower one. And the Sleep Number 360 doesn’t just maintain the perfect firmness (or softness) for each sleeper, it also has the following features:
- Self-adjusting comfort throughout the night thanks to their ResponsiveAir technology that will adjust the bed as you sleep thanks to two air chambers built into the mattress that can contour to your body regardless if you sleep on your back or your side.
- Snore detection courtesy of Sleep Number’s SleepIQ biometrics, the adjustable base can adjust to an ideal sleep position so you can relieve the common symptoms of snoring temporarily.
- Foot warming for those of you who actually don’t sleep with socks on. Sleep Number did their research and studies show that people fall asleep faster when their feet are warm. The Sleep Number 360 will get to know a sleepers bedtime routine and warm the foot of the bed automatically with Rapid Sleep Onset technology.
- Smart alarm features that awake you up at the right time. As someone who can sleep through an alarm, this is a welcome feature! The newest advancement of SleepIQ technology learns a sleeper’s bedtime routine and will know exactly when to wake you up at your lightest stage of sleep during your desired wake-up time window.
The p6 model has:
- DualAir adjustability
- Automatically and effortlessly adjusts to you
- SleepIQ technology
- 11″ Profile
- 5″ Dual-gel memory foam
- Temperature balancing sleep surface
- Soft, breathable knit fabric
Best of all, you can get your own queen size Sleep Number 360 p6 model in time for Christmas for $2799. I know it’s not inexpensive, but here’s the thing: you can try out the Sleep Number bed for 100 nights — over 3 months — to decide if it is going to work for you. And because you can control the firmness or softness, weird gullies in your mattress should be a thing of the past. Read the customer reviews here — good and bad. Make an informed decision. And if you own one already, tell me what you think about it in the comments. I know what bed I want under my tree; if you’re dealing with the same issues, you’ll probably want one, too.
