Skip to main content

Tired of nudging your snoring spouse? The new Sleep Number does it for you

Back in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s day, to keep your toes toasty, you stuck a hot water bottle between the sheets before hopping into bed. In 2017, your smart bed can start heating the lower quadrant shortly before you’re due to head to sleep. At least, that’s what Sleep Number promises with its 360 smart bed, which it introduced at CES 2017.

The Sleep Number 360 smart bed has much of the same technology as its It Bed, but it also has a few more tricks inside the foam. Like the It, the 360 has an app that lets you adjust the firmness and track how well you slept. But the sensors also respond to what’s going on, with the air chambers filling or deflating to give your pressure points more or less support based on your sleep position. It also uses your biometric data to tell if you’re snoring, then raises your head slightly to keep you from disturbing your bed buddy.

Sleep Number 360™ Smart Bed | Overview of the 360™ Bed's Features

As the bed tracks your every movement, it will make a lot of adjustments. If it knows you usually turn in at 11 p.m., it will start heating up the foot area 15 minutes before. When you get out of bed for a 1:30 a.m. glass of water, it will illuminate soft LEDs to light your path. If your alarm is set for 7:30, it will sound an alarm when it senses you’re in a light sleep cycle. As with the It Bed, you can integrate your Fitbit or Withings activity tracker to see if exercise impacts your sleep cycle. It’s a bed that knows lots about you and uses that info to help lull you to sleep — so, just call it Big Mother?

Sleep Number hasn’t released pricing yet, but when the bed goes on sale later this year, you can expect it to be on par with its other offerings.

Jenny McGrath
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Jenny McGrath is a senior writer at Digital Trends covering the intersection of tech and the arts and the environment. Before…
Does listening to languages in your sleep help you learn them faster?
illustration of an ear bud in a persons ear

From in-person classes at school to remote learning, and from apps to tandem partners, there seems to be no end to tools and approaches that help you learn a new language. One seemingly wild idea is that you can even learn a language by listening to it at night while you're asleep. Isn't that appealing: The idea that you could make use of your time in bed to help you master your language skills?

But can you really learn while you sleep? To find out what the science has to say, we spoke to Rebecca Crowley, a research associate at Royal Holloway, University of London, who performs experiments on sleep and language learning.
How to learn a language
As much as it would be handy, you won't become a fluent French speaker simply by putting on some French audiobooks while you snooze. That's because you need to understand the structure, grammar, and vocabulary of a language to speak it properly.

Read more
Sleep Number’s beds have more value than the phone in your pocket. Here’s why.
Sleep Number smart bed in a bedroom.

Right after college, I ended up moving in with a roommate and had to look for a bed for the new apartment I called home. After shopping around and doing my research, I ultimately ended up buying a futon of all things -- mainly for the convenience of converting it from a couch to a bed and back again. Fast-forward a couple more years, and I was paying $500 for a queen mattress. That whole experience convinced me that it would be a waste of money to pay more than $500. I was wrong.

It’s funny how things go because I believed that $1,000 beds didn’t hold the same value as, say, a top-of-the-line smartphone. I’m referring to the Apple iPhone 12 Pros of the world -- in addition to everything else out there that starts at $1,000. That’s a little less than what you’d pay for a queen-size Sleep Number smart bed. But after trying one out for the last couple of months, I’ve become a firm believer that this bed holds more value than a smartphone. Allow me to explain.
The power of a good night’s sleep
Smartphones are incredibly powerful, but we spend a lot of time in our beds -- and it’s not just sleeping I’m talking about. Factor in activities such as watching TV, the unwinding time getting acquainted in bed before sleeping, and yes, all those naps, and the time adds up, which is how I’m able to fully understand the value of a bed. A queen-size Sleep Number 360 i8 Smart Bed comes in at more than $3,000. It’s part of Sleep Number’s Innovation Series, which features pressure-relieving comfort layers as well as a breathable fabric that better absorbs excess heat, so you can sleep cooler. The queen-size version of the Sleep Number 360 C2 Smart Bed is priced lower at $1,200 but still has the most notable feature that makes Sleep Number beds fantastic -- the ability to customize the firmness.

Read more
Don’t sweat rising electric bills: Smart bed covers keep you cool and save money
smart bed covers keep you cool reduce your energy bill eight sleep pro cover feature lifestyle

Do you sleep well at night? According to a lot of studies, roughly half of all Americans feel sleepy during the day -- a firm indicator that their nightly sleep isn't quite as restorative as it should be. Whether it be stress (due to high electric bills, maybe?) or just a lack of comfort, poor sleep quality is nearing alarming levels.

Temperature plays a large role in that. In fact, reaching a proper room temperature is one of the most important factors for achieving high-quality, restful sleep. According to SleepFoundation.org, the ideal temperature for the bedroom is around 65 degrees.

Read more