The Best Smart Mattresses
We live in an era where people spend thousands of dollars on a new bed and we can’t say we really blame them. Investing in proper beds and bedding items values more than you think and it can really make a difference in your sleep quality. It never ceases to amaze us just how much the mattress market has evolved and has integrated technology and innovation to bring you what is commonly known as a smart bed. But what exactly can this type of bed do and what are some of the best models that money can buy? Stay tuned to find out!
| Rank | Product |
| #1 |  Eight Sleep’s Pod Pro Mattress
|
| #2 |  Sleep Number i8 Bed
|
| #3 |  ReST Original Smart Bed
|
Smart Mattress Functions & Features
Beds have come a long way from when they were first invented, so you might be wondering what it is that you can do with a smart mattress. Well, depending on the model chosen, a smart bed can do some or all of the following:
- It can track your sleeping habits. Not all smart mattresses can do that but those that can offer very detailed information about your sleeping patterns, so that you can tell if there are any changes to be done to improve the quality of your sleep. Some of the metrics that a smart mattress can measure include: time of going to bed, when you fall asleep, how long it takes for you to fall asleep, when you wake up and when you actually get out of bed, how much time you spend in deep sleep, how often you wake up during the night, what your most common sleeping positions are, and even how many times to you switch between them whilst being asleep. What’s even more interesting is the fact that you don’t need to attach anything to your body, as the bed will record the features using wireless technology.
- It can also monitor your body and the surrounding environment. That includes your breathing cycle and heart rate, your body temperature, the surface temperature of your bed, how much light is in the bedroom, and even the temperature inside the room.
- Based on all this information, most mattresses are able to calculate your sleep score. This is a combination between your sleep duration and quality.
- Most smart mattresses also allow you to control the firmness of the bed, but only those with integrated air chambers that can inflate and deflate that specific layer using the remote control or the designated smartphone app.
- They allow you to adjust the position of the bed if the smart mattress is connected to an adjustable bed base. With it, you can control the angle of the head and foot area.
- Some smart beds offer customizable cooling and warming features, which means that sides of the bed can be set to different temperatures. This can be extremely beneficial for couples who share a bed and find comfort in different temperature levels.
- Other smart features of these beds include: setting an alarm to wake you up in the morning, guided meditation programs, massage features, under-the-bed lighting, and even playable music.
Note: In terms of materials and construction, smart mattresses are usually one of two types: foam or air beds. The former uses foam in all of its layers and usually has a support core made from durable polyfoam. Some memory foam mattresses use latex in the comfort layers, but it’s mostly just memory foam or polyfoam. Smart mattresses made from foam offer exceptional pressure relief by nature, because foam contours to the body very well. Air beds feature one or multiple air chambers that can be inflated or deflated to adjust the firmness of the bed. Through the help of a remote control or a smartphone app, you get to decide how much air goes into these chambers, deflating them when you want a softer bed and inflating them when you want to sleep on a firmer surface.
The Best Smart Mattress Reviews
1. Eight Sleep’s Pod Pro Mattress
Eight Sleep has developed a smart mattress that the company improved using a variety of technological features that one could enjoy. The Pod is available in its regular version, The Pod Pro (which is the one we’ll be talking about today) and The Pod Pro Max (an upgraded version of The Pod Pro which includes the MaxChill feature).
Ok, you’re probably wondering what The Pod Pro can do for you. It is a mattress that comes with all kinds of techy features. It has an active grid cover that has built-in sensors meant to track various sleeping patterns, such as position changes, when you sleep, when you wake up, and it even generates a sleeping score for a clearer overview of how you sleep. It has temperature controls that allow you to set a different temperature for each side of the bed (temperature range is 55 to 110 degrees Fahrenheit).
The Pod Pro is basically an upgrade of the original Pod mattress, which means that it comes with some features built on top of that model. It comes with an additional foam comfort layer that measures one inch in thickness. This translates into a plushier mattress that provides more comfort for certain categories of sleeper. Another added feature is the GentleRise vibrating alarm that uses the power of vibration to wake you up at the time of your choice.
In terms of actual construction, we’re dealing with an all-foam bed with a 12-inch profile and layers divided into one inch of polyfoam padding integrated in the cover, two inches of AirFlow polyfoam and one inch of memory foam that make up the comfort layer, four inches of FlexSpring transitional polyfoam, and a base made from four inches of polyfoam. On a scale from one to 10, The Pod Pro has a firmness of five.
This is a bed that offers excellent motion isolation because of its all-foam design, but this is a feature characteristic to almost every bed out there that’s made entirely out of foam. In terms of pressure relief, the mattress is pretty decent for people who weigh less than 230 pounds, as the bed can offer generous cushioning. Because of the Active Grid feature, this mattress is great in terms of temperature control, unlike other foam mattresses.
2. Sleep Number i8 Bed
Sleep Number is a brand that has gained a lot of reputation in the mattress industry, being one of the innovators that created smart mattresses as we know them today. Part of the Innovation series, the i8 smart bed is designed with plenty of technological features that deliver not just a comfortable sleeping experience, but also important information on what it means to sleep well.
With a 12-inch profile, this bed is designed to offer an interesting sleeping experience and plenty of insight on your sleeping habits. Made from a combination of polyester fabrics, the mattress uses the power of inflatable and deflatable air chambers to adjust the firmness of the bed. Known as the Sleep Number, this bed firmness ranges from 1 to 100, and it’s basically a numerical system that replaced the average industry rating for mattress firmness, which is from 1 to 10.
In the upper part of the mattress, you have a six-inch comfort layer that uses two distinct types of foam in order to provide a decent level of contouring and support for the sleeper. The air chambers inside the bed (which are either one or two, depending on what mattress size you order) can be inflated and deflated to match your sleep number, which is actually the firmness that you’re most comfortable sleeping on. These chambers are made from vulcanized rubber and a cotton exterior. There is a four-inch hose and a pump that controls how much air goes in and out of the bed.
It’s very important to note that the base for this mattress is only available as a separate purchase. Sleep Number has created its own line of adjustable bed bases, called FlexFit. They come with a multitude of features, offering you the possibility to adjust the head and foot of the bed, providing the famous zero gravity feature, and even heating and under-the-bed lights for those who are willing to buy the most expensive bed base provided by the company.
We can’t talk about the i8 without specifying the SleepIQ® technology. This technology is designed to help you track your sleep and understand more about how you act during the night. It offers detailed information about your breathing, heart rate, sleeping movements, and other important information that paints a clear picture of your sleeping habits.
3. ReST Original Smart Bed
The third bed that we wanted to show you today is the ReST Original smart bed. Short for “Responsive Surface Technology”, this bed has a lot to offer in terms of comfort and performance that arises from the innovations that were part of the development of this product.
Made entirely out of foam, it’s important to analyze the construction of the mattress so that you can understand how the layers work together to meet the sleeping needs of certain types of people. The first layer is made from convoluted foam and consists of three inches of gel-infused material designed to keep heat away from your body. The second layer provides a transition buffer to the air chambers located underneath through its one-inch thickness.
The third layer consists of a 5.5-inch dynamic air support system, which is basically a construction of air chambers that are connected to a sensor with the primary role of pumping air inside the chambers. This will help adjust the five firmness zones of the mattress and are properly constructed so that no air can escape. The base of the mattress is there to protect the air chambers above it. The mattress is also designed with perimeter support foam to offer extra edge support, minimizing mattress compression when pressure is applied on the edges of the bed.
Now that we got the construction out of the way, it’s time to pay attention to what the ReST Original bed has to offer in terms of smart features. The sensor inside the bed works together with the smartphone app to allow you to adjust the firmness of the bed. Every side of the mattress uses different sensors, meaning that each of the two sleepers can customize the firmness preference to match their own needs.
The three modes that you can choose from are manual (allowing to control the firmness for each of the five zones of the bed), auto position (you can pre-set the mattress feel depending on your sleeping position and the bed will automatically make adjustments according to your preferences as you switch positions during the night), and automatic mode (allowing the bed to make changes throughout the night without you having to operate the “auto position” mode yourself.
Talking about the firmness rating of a bed with adjustable firmness is kind of impossible, but we do have a few things to say about the other features that one would be commonly interested in when it comes to a smart bed. Due to its four-inch comfort layer made entirely out of foam, this bed does a pretty good job in isolating motion. The interlocking edge foams also make it better in terms of edge support compared to most mattresses that are made from foam and compress under pressure.
Conclusion
A smart bed is quite the investment and, while useful, it might not be the right product for everyone. Aside from the relatively high cost, a smart bed comes with a bunch of features that some people might not be willing to pay for. For example, if you’re not interested in monitoring your sleeping habits in hopes of improving them, a smart mattress might not be the right product for you. It is, however, suitable for people who want to learn more about what their bodies do at night, for those who want to enjoy things like heating and cooling features integrated in the bed, or a bed that’s capable of waking them up or providing a massage.