On the eve of the 2018 Super Bowl, the NFL is getting into bed, big time, with Sleep Number. The smart bed manufacturer and the league announced a multi-year partnership that will include a free Sleep Number 360 smart bed for every single NFL player. Sleep Number will also work closely with players, teams, and trainers as they integrate sleep awareness into their overall performance regimens.
“We are constantly assessing world-class technologies and partners and know this unprecedented partnership will provide players the ability to improve their performance through individualized, smarter sleep,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement. “We’re offering Sleep Number’s revolutionary technology to maximize the body’s most basic need for renewal — sleep — to improve the well-being of our players and coaches.”
The Sleep Number 360 smart bed is one of the company’s most advanced models, integrating its proprietary SleepX technology platform which will analyze players’ biometrics to generate an analysis called a Sleep IQ. Sleep Number unveiled the new model at CES. The bed’s many features include automatically adjusting the user’s sleep position to aid comfort, detecting snoring and elevating your head to stop it, and it has foot warmers.
The partnership will also leverage Sleep Number’s expertise in the field of sleep on overall health and performance, while also generating immense amounts of data for the company’s comprehensive sleep data insights.
Sleep can be an undervalued factor in the lives of everyday people, let along professional athletes. While sleeping, the body produces growth hormone to augment muscle growth and recovery. Athletes are also organically wired to overcome the unexpected during a game; quality sleep improves alertness and reaction time to rapid changes in an athlete’s surroundings. A sleep-deprived body also seeks to conserve energy; for athletes, this can lead to overtraining because they may try to overcompensate for that lost energy.
“Good sleep I think really compounds throughout the season,” said Minnesota Vikings safety Harrison Smith. “It is such a long season, a very physical game, so any chance we get to recover, we have to take advantage of it. If you can stack days, stack weeks of getting good rest, it really pays off toward the end of the season as well.”
“We’re excited to make a difference for these world-class athletes as they benefit from our SleepIQ technology and the effortless adjustability of our beds,” Shelly Ibach, Sleep Number president and chief executive officer, said in a statement. “We are thrilled to be entering a long-term partnership with a performance-based organization like the NFL. Our partnership builds on the deep relationship we’ve established with the Minnesota Vikings and the Dallas Cowboys, who understand the connection between sleep, training, and performance.”
