The amount of sleep we get plays a part in our overall health. Those who get a good night’s sleep are more likely to be active during the day and healthier overall. If you’re struggling to get through the day, tracking your sleep might provide you answers as to why. While companies have built sleep trackers into a variety of things, including fitness trackers and devices that you place under your bed, mattress makers are now building this technology directly into the bed itself.
There’s a distinct advantage in purchasing a mattress with the technology built-in versus one of those third-party devices. First off, they’re more accurate. Third-party devices can’t take into account all the differences in construction, and since they’re placed under your mattress, they’re a fair distance away from your body. Second, the cheapest smart mattresses aren’t that much more expensive than a “dumb” one and come with more functionality than those sleep trackers provide. Let's take a look!
Eight Sleep Pod Pro Mattress
- Heating and cooling zones
- Monitoring for breathing, heart rate, and more
- GentleRise alarm system
- Monitors sleep stages, time slept, and other factors
- No individual body zones to control
If the prices of today’s new mattresses are making you wince, you aren’t alone. Add in smart tech, and the numbers can go even higher -- which is one reason this Eight Sleep Pod Pro mattress is so impressive. It’s very affordable compared to many alternatives, but still provides plenty of sleeping tracking features.
The mattress itself has a five-layer foam design 12 inches deep. Each side of the bed has its own cooling and heating zone that you can control via an app to get it exactly where you like. Each side also has its own individual sleep tracking to calculate sleep stages, time slept, how restless you were, and other data.
But that’s just the start: This mattress can also monitor your respiratory rate, heart rate changes as you sleep, and other wellness factors that can be used to spot any problems. Meanwhile, the GentleRise smart alarm can automatically wake you up with chest-level vibrations and slow temperature changes that may prove much more comfortable than a traditional alarm. It’s one of the most complete smart mattresses we’ve seen, and very affordable for all the features packed inside.
Sleep Number 360 c2 Smart Bed
- Easy to use SleepIQ system
- Automatic air chamber adjustment
- Refund window if you don't like it
- Lacks temperature controls
- Air mattresses aren't for everyone
If you don’t need a ton of sleep features, but do want basic tracking that’s easy to follow, this Sleep Number mattress may be for you. It’s very affordable but includes comfort-oriented features that users don’t have to struggle to understand. One of those is your “SleepIQ” number, a score assigned based on what the mattress detects about your quality of sleep over time. If your score improves, you know you’re sleeping better at night -- it’s that simple.
The mattress uses an 8-inch layer with air chambers (you’ll need to connect a pump to operate it), plus a two-inch foam layer for comfort. You can adjust the air chambers to whatever firmness you like best, as well as let the mattress automatically adjust to your movements and choose a firmness for you based on what you seem to find most comfortable.
If you aren’t sure that an air mattress is right for you, there’s a 100-night trial during which you can send the model back for a refund if you decide you didn’t like it (just keep your old mattress around during the trial in case you need it). Most of our picks include similar trials.
ReST Original Smart Bed
- 5 adjustable zones on each side
- Automatic or manual modes available
- Nightvision sleep monitoring for detailed reporting
- May be too data-intense for some users
While some smart mattresses are designed for simplicity, ReST wants to give you as many options as possible. At a glance, the mattress seems fairly normal, with air chambers, ventilated upholstery, and a 4-inch layer of memory foam infused with cooling gels. But below the surface lies an incredible array of smart tech designed to help you sleep better at night.
ReST uses a body pressure made with five different zones for your head, shoulders, lumbar area, hips, and legs. Each can be independently adjusted via an app until you find the perfect setup (each side of the body has its own independent system). If you don’t want to do anything manually, you can set it to an automatic adjustment mode that changes during the night according to your sleep and position -- or you can choose from a variety of general goals for your sleep cycle.
Then there’s Nightvision, the sleep monitoring technology built into the bed. With this, you can see your nighttime sleep score, look at reports about your respiration and body movement, or chart your stages of sleep and when they happen during the night. The app is easy to use and very informative about precise moves, stages like REM sleep, positions, and much more. Bottom line: It’s one of the smartest beds we’ve ever seen.
Ghost SmartBed with 3D Matrix
- Many layers with adjustable firmness options
- Five body zones with 40 settings each
- Sleep scores and in-depth monitoring both available
- Very expensive
Ghost’s bed is a 12-inch mattress with air chambers, foam layers, gel memory foam, and a gel polymer layer on top -- and while that polymer layer may look a little weird, it uses the latest sensors and adjustments to help you find the most comfortable settings possible. You can adjust them yourself between options like firm or plush, or let the bed choose for you based on how you sleep.
The mattress, like ReST’s, has five body zones that you can tinker with for in-depth changes. And we really mean in-depth: Each zone has 40 different settings you can choose between. If that sounds like too much, you can also switch to a general position mode or an automatic mode that will make intelligent adjustments here as well.
The companion app also has plenty of tracking options as well, including monitoring your sleep stages, measuring your breaths per minute, looking at how restless you are, and more. There’s not much that this Ghost SmartBed doesn’t do, but the price is pretty high if you want this much smart tech.
