Is a smart bed the future of sleeping, and should you get one? Let's find out.
A smart bed is the latest piece of innovation in the sleeping industry. It's a modern bed that utilises the power of technology through various sensors to gather valuable data about how you sleep. Using said data, a smart bed makes adjustments tailored to your needs in order to improve your sleep.
However, not all smart beds focus on sleep quality. Some of them, such as the Ultimate Smart Bed, focus on creating a topmost enjoyable sleeping experience, adding all kinds of high-tech goodies to your sleeping environment.
But are smart beds worth it? Should you have one? Well, the only way for us to know that is to take a good look at what they offer, how they work, and figure out for ourselves whether we should get one or not.
What does a smart bed do?
How do smart beds create the ultimate sleep experience? What is it that they do? Essentially, smart bed manufacturers use the highest quality materials, combined with the latest tech and excellent workmanship, to create beds that will have you sleeping like a baby. They implement various components such as a built-in massage chair, integrated music system, sleep tracking sensors, mini-fridge, hidden safe, and loads of other fantastic features. Now, let's learn more about those features to grasp how smart beds work and what they do.
Tracking & adapting to your sleep preferences
Tracking your sleep habits during the night is how smart beds gather information so they can adapt to your sleep preferences. This is done through sensors and smart mattresses that track your movements, changes in body temperature, snoring, and other nighttime manners.
This data is then fed to your smartphone, so you can make suggested adjustments in order to sleep better.
Temperature control
Smart beds promise to end the everlasting struggle of hot and cold beds. By implementing heat sensors in their beds, smart bed manufacturers have found a sophisticated way to track your body's temperature during the night and adjust the bed's temperature so you can sleep in optimal conditions all night long.
Body adjustment
Smart beds wish to eliminate the struggle of finding the “perfect mattress” by making the mattress adjust to you. By analysing your movement, sleeping position, and other sleeping habits, the bed could perfectly adjust to every move you make, ensuring top-notch sleep quality, support, comfort, pressure relief, and more.
Remote control of position
Adjustable beds are nice, but they're a hassle. With a smart bed, you could literally just lie down in your bed and use the app on your phone to remotely adjust the position of the mattress. Remote position control would allow you to lift up the upper part of the mattress when you're reading a book or watching your TV bed, or lift the foot end of the mattress, allowing your feet to rest after a long day at work.
Audio sounds
Instead of buying a white noise machine, you could rely on your multifunctional bed to put you to sleep with various soothing sounds. By implementing a sound system into the bed, you could eliminate the need to sleep with earphones. Additionally, the sensors could pick up on when you fall asleep and automatically shut the music off so not to disturb your slumber.
Auto arrange
All our beds have one thing in common – we have to make them in the morning. Well, smart bed manufacturers know how annoying that is for most people, so they've come up with a way for the bed to make itself. Pretty convenient, isn't it?
Converting to standard furniture
Some of these smart beds actually “convert” to regular, standard furniture for convenience and space-saving purposes. If you live in a tiny apartment, having a smart bed that can “turn into” a daybed, massager, desk, or even a makeup station is pretty awesome if you ask us.
Massages
Nothing can get you in a better mood for sleeping than a nice, relaxing massage. Like the Ultimate Smart Bed, some of these come with superior-quality massage chairs that will help you relax and unwind after a long day of running errands and doing work.
Built-in USB ports & plug-in socket
We're all tech-dependant these days, so it's only natural for a smart bed to come with USB ports and plug-in sockets so you can charge your phone, tablet, or laptop while you sleep. While we suggest you keep the phone away while you sleep, we understand the convenience of just grabbing the phone in the morning without leaving the comfort of your bed.
Built-in lights
If you like to read before bedtime, you'll be pleased to know that some of these beds can come with an integrated bookshelf and built-in lights like reading lamps. Also, they might come with dim accent lights that can help you find your slippers and not stub your toe while you get up during the night for a trip to the bathroom.
Storage space & safe
We all know how valuable storage beds are, but none of them seems to come with integrated safes. Well, smart beds do. Not only will you get a drawer or two to store your duvets, comforters, and pillows, but you might also get a mini vault to keep your valuables in.
Snoring prevention
We know you've heard about anti-snore pillows, but what about anti-snore beds? By adjusting the position of the mattress, a smart bed would put your body in the optimal sleeping position, clearing up your airways, thus preventing you from snoring.
Alarm
A smart bed with a built-in alarm could offer you a much smoother and gentler waking up experience. Instead of just playing obnoxious sounds, it could gradually turn up the built-in lights simulating sunrise while gently vibrating the mattress to rock you awake as pleasantly as possible.
Smart home integration
Smart homes have been a thing for quite some time now, so it's only appropriate we integrate the bed with a smart home system like Alexa or Google Home. You could automate everything with smart home integration. You could pre-heat your bed during the winter, have it tell you the weather and breaking news in the morning, or even connect it to your smart coffee maker, so it starts brewing you a cup as soon as you wake up.
Choosing the smart bed
Now that we know just how versatile and capable these beds are – let us take a look at how you can choose the best one.
Keep in mind, these things are still in their infancy stage, and there's a long way to go before we experience all of the abovementioned features and advantages. So, instead of trying to look for one that has all of those features, you should probably focus on these features instead.
Dual heat/cool control
Temperature control is probably the thing you'll want to pay most attention to – especially dual heat/cool control. Not only will you be able to warm up or cool off your bed to your liking, but you'll also be able to warm up and cool off each side of the bed separately. We don't want to oversell this feature, but to us, that sounds like the key to a long-lasting marriage.
Check the compatibility of your mattress topper with smart bed
More often than not, you won't want a mattress topper with your smart bed as it will most likely interfere with some of the features like temperature and position control. However, we do know that some of you just can't sleep without your trusted topper, and if that's the case, you'll want to check if the smart bed you're interested in is compatible with a topper.
Different positioning
If you're paying for position control and adjustment, you'll want to make sure you make the most of it. Ideally, you'll want a bed with zoned positioning for both sides of the bed.
Also, it's not just about separate positioning – it's about how much control you have over it. Ideally, you'd want at least three zones that can be individually positioned and adjusted, so you can really tailor the bed to your wants and needs.
Materials
These things will cost quite a bit of money, and since you're paying a premium price – you want to make sure you get to enjoy the best materials. Cheap fabrics and wood don't really belong in this conversation.
However, a touch of walnut or oak is not something we would mind.
Also, quality foams and springs are not just welcome – they're expected. As for the tech, we don't really expect the latest and greatest from it – but it must be reliable, long-lasting, and serving its purpose.
Consider mattress protector
While a topper might not be welcome – a protector certainly is.
You can't really wash a smart bed. You can vacuum it or spot clean it, but that's about it. Therefore, you must prevent stains from ever occurring.
With all these gadgets and trinkets available, you'll probably snack, drink, or even outright eat in bed, so we would definitely suggest using a waterproof mattress protector to keep your smart bed spotless.
Warranties
Smart bed warranties aren't as long as the ones you get for regular beds or mattresses. They're often two-year-long, and that's mostly because there's too much involved in here, and as far as we know – tech is rarely insured for more than two years.
However, that shouldn't worry you. We can't really see how would a smart bed break in just two years if you use it properly, but still, if you aren't getting any coverage on a four-figure bed – we suggest you keep looking.
Do smart beds collect and analyse data on your sleep preferences?
Some smart beds collect and analyse the data on your sleeping habits and preferences. In fact, some of them ask you to pre-fill some of the information into an app so they can set up a starting point for your smart sleeping experience and work their way from there.
Some will even keep score of your sleep quality, letting you know how much you've tossed and turned, did you talk in your sleep, were you snoring, did you overheat or get cold, and so on. However, not all of them do. Some smart beds are simply flamboyant entertainment and relaxation havens designed to tend to your every whim and desire.
At the end of the day, choosing a smart bed boils down to just one thing – do you want to improve your sleep, or do you want a bed that you don't ever have to leave? We'd go for a balance between the two, but how about you?
A CPD certified Sleep Consultant with more than 2000 hours of research into all the different ways we can get a great night's sleep. As a former insomniac, I know how difficult life can be without a nightly recovery and I love that I get to share everything I've learned with you all.
So hopefully we can all sleep soundly!
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