Product Focus

The Science Of The Smart Bed

By Elaina Hundley

As consumers continue to understand more and more about how sleep is a major contributor to overall health, smart beds—beds that use sensors and other technologies to gather data about how the user is sleeping—are growing in popularity and complexity. For this Product Focus, we are exploring the smart bed category: the variety of technologies, features and benefits offered within it, as well as the supports each smart bed manufacturer offers its retail partners.

1 Ghostbed

Designed with 2,000 zone detection points on each side of the mattress just below the surface, The Ghost SmartBed utilizes sensors to monitor respiration, position and movement through GhostBed’s Ghost Vision technology. The smart support system is powered by Ghost Relay technology, which consists of five medical-grade air chambers that independently react to make automatic, real-time adjustments to the comfort levels for the head, shoulders, torso, hips and legs. These two technologies work together to provide users with a complete Bio-Metrix picture of how well they sleep throughout the night and continually adjust the mattress to help improve sleep. Users can access their individualized data through a phone app. Constructed in a honeycomb pattern infused with gel polymer that stretches in every direction, the Ghost SmartBed mattress surface distributes weight evenly and absorbs excess heat through the night. Above the air chamber support system are three layers of gel memory foam, which enhance the bed’s cooling properties and add a further dimension to its comfort feels.

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2 Sleep Number

Sleep Number is on a mission to proactively care for sleepers with accurate, scientific sleep data. Its award-winning 360 smart bed and proprietary SleepIQ technology automatically sense and effortlessly respond to the needs of sleepers. AI and data science enable automatic adjustments in the mattress to improve sleep and provide actionable insights for consumers, connecting quality sleep to sleep health through comprehensive, longitudinal biometric data collected during each sleep session. In addition to delivering a quality product that provides its users with tangible benefits, Sleep Number’s technology also contributes to essential sleep research around sleep time, restful and restless sleep, heart rate, breathing rate and more. To date, the company has leveraged and learned from over 11 billion hours of sleep data gathered from over 1.4 billion real-world sleep sessions, generating comprehensive longitudinal data. This data is used to advance its product design, improve and enhance the smart bed platform and address consumer needs. All Sleep Number 360 smart beds are regularly upgraded with new SleepIQ features and benefits via over-the-air updates, including My Sleep Health and My Daytime Alertness.

3 King Koil

Differentiating itself within the Smart Bed category, King Koil recently expanded its Smartlife Mattress collection with a splithead model as well as a premium adjustable base offering designed to be merchandized with the smart bed. Accommodating separate sleep preferences for couples, the new split head model uses patented body-sensing technology to power smart cells that adjust the beds automatically to fit the consumer’s unique body shape, weight and preferences— it also reports data to the user to help them update their sleep habits based on the smart bed’s analysis. The mattress is supported with an app used for programming and monitoring. With retailers top of mind, the brand offers both comprehensive RSA training as well as an in-store POP system to support the Smartlife mattress rollout, including a high-definition screen mounted above the bed to help consumers understand the technology built into the mattress. The combination of the Smartlife mattress with the new iMotion by King Koil adjustable base offers retailers an integrated—and more premium— merchandising strategy.

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4 ReST

A longtime leader in the smart bed space, ReST has over 20 patents on the sensor technology used in its beds. Employing innovations originating in the hospital space that have been used in medical, sports and rehabilitation products for the past 20 years, ReST delivers a time-tested sleep technology. The brand’s proprietary fabric sensors track 2,000 pressure points per side of the mattress in real-time. Within the ReST Bed App, which serves as a remote, a user can see their pressure map. Combining the sensor data with its AI Inside algorithms, the ReST Bed instantly adapts to changes in a user’s pressure throughout the night. Users particularly appreciate that the ReST bed offers three to five individual and ergonomically-designed body zones per side. ReST provides its retail partners with thorough training and ongoing support. The company has also begun taking a new approach to smart bed sales by offering “smart bed kits”— the technical components found in a ReST Bed: pump, sensor, air chamber, app—to individual manufacturers and retailers.

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5 Corsicana

Corsicana Mattress Co. partnered with Retail Service Systems (RSS) to create its first technology-infused mattress that allows consumers to customize their sleep experience. The Sleep2Win Smart Bed senses movement throughout the night and automatically responds to provide real-time support. Paired with a mobile app, the intuitive mattress allows consumers to personalize their sleep experience and offers adjustability throughout the night. This product uses patented fabric sensors combined with a durable, undetectable knit blend fabric to monitor thousands of body data points. Three adjustable air chamber zones target the shoulders, lumbar and hips. Both models feature the company’s CopperTek Cover and Copper Comfort Foam— materials that help regulate body temperature and naturally ward off germs. Adaptable to the user’s needs over time, the Sleep2Win Smart Bed’s software system, which is available through an iOS + Android app, features three operating modes that allow customers to switch positions as their sleep needs change. The company supports retailers selling this collection by offering dedicated marketing and POP materials for the Sleep2Win Smart Bed.