I Slept On A Sleep Number Smart Bed For A Month — Here's My Verdict

I’ve never been a “my bed” person. You know those people who complain about how much they miss their mattress at home when they travel? Couldn’t relate. For most of my life, I believed in the power of good sleep habits, not necessarily good sleep hardware.

But when I moved into my new apartment, I wanted to do things differently. I wanted a bed I actually chose, not the cheapest thing in stock or a hand-me-down Serta I never questioned. I wanted a bed that felt like mine.

After enough research to possibly earn me a temporary sleep-science Ph.D, I ended up with the Sleep Number i8 Smart Bed, paired with the FlexFit 3 Smart Base. And after a month of sleeping on it, I’ve officially become that person who misses their bed. I’m literally writing this from a hotel room across the country, counting down the hours until I get home. In fact, I’ve already changed my flight to get home sooner just to sleep in it.

The Sleep Number i8 Smart Bed feels like it was made for me

The Sleep Number i8 Smart Bed is the sweet spot of Sleep Number’s lineup. It’s not the most expensive, but it’s also not entry-level. The queen size is listed at $3,999 full price (though it’s currently $500 off and Sleep Number is known to offer aggressive discounts during sales events.)

It’s a 12-inch smart bed with the quintessential Sleep Number features: air chambers that give you adjustable firmness, automatic adjustments throughout the night and built-in sleep tracking.

The first night in my new bed, I followed the “find your number” test where the bed starts out extremely soft and incrementally firms up until you figure out what feels right. I expected to land my Sleep Number setting to be something high, since I’ve always described myself as liking firm mattresses. But I initially stopped at 35, shocked by how comfortable it felt.

The next week, I kept it there until I realized I really should be experimenting more. So I bumped my number up to 50, and suddenly everything in my sleep shifted. My sleep scores jumped into the high 80s and 90s, and I stopped waking up for those miserable two-hour middle-of-the-night stretches where I’m convinced the universe just doesn’t want me to get my beauty sleep.

A genuine photo of me finding sleep bliss in my Sleep Number smart bed (captured by my boyfriend.) (Image credit: Future)

When I do happen to wake up, the bed feels inviting. Like it’s literally welcoming me back into rest instead of making me fight to get comfortable again. I let it take credit for improving my sleep score, and not just based on the Sleep Number app. My Apple Watch and Oura Ring also confirm I’ve been sleeping better, although it is freeing knowing I don’t have to be my typical cyborg self and wear both overnight. My bed can handle it pretty much just as well, no wearables needed.

The FlexFit base is a game-changer

The smart bed itself is great, but the FlexFit 3 adjustable base is what ultimately sold me on the Sleep Number experience.

My boyfriend is the kind of person who refuses to get in bed until he is 100% fully ready to go to sleep. I, meanwhile, have never turned down the opportunity to get horizontal by 9:30 p.m. But with the FlexFit adjustable base, he can get into bed earlier without committing to actually sleeping. He sits up comfortably in the TV-watching preset, we watch “The Clone Wars” for the millionth time, I inevitably pass out, and then when he’s finally ready, he lowers the base’s head and falls asleep.

The head elevation also basically solved his snoring. I’ve noticed raising it even a little helps him. It’s never perfect, but it’s like a good 90% quieter, and that simultaneously helps me with my “getting back to sleep” situation.

There’s also foot elevation, which has become my best friend on nights when my old sports injuries flare up. Raising my legs even a little takes that pressure off my knees.

But the thing that genuinely makes getting into bed feel luxurious is the foot warming, exclusive to the FlexFit 3 base model. I didn’t think I would care about it that much, but now I can’t imagine falling asleep without it. Especially with New York deciding to go full Arctic this winter, slipping into a preheated bed is precisely my kind of bougie.

One month with my Sleep Number smart bed: Verdict

I won’t lie to you, for the first few nights on my Sleep Number smart bed, I actually felt a little uncomfortable. That new-mattress adjustment phase is definitely real. But once my body calibrated and I found my perfect number, my standards for sleep changed for good..

I used to think people who were obsessed with their beds were dramatic, and now I’m one of them.

Not only was I tossing and turning less, but I fell back asleep more easily and woke up feeling more rested. From an unexpected emotional standpoint, this bed anchored my sense of home even though I had just moved to a new place in a new neighborhood.

My little nighttime routine is now my favorite part of my day. I adjust the base, turn on the foot warming, spray some lavender on my Sleep Number Plush Comfort pillows and settle in for some good zzz’s.

The Sleep Number i8 is the first bed in my almost thirty years that feels like it was actually made for me, and I didn’t realize how much I was missing that until I finally had it.

So that’s why I’m sitting in this hotel room writing this, daydreaming about my bed and counting down the hours until I’m reunited with it. I used to think people who were obsessed with their beds were dramatic, and now I’m one of them.

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