Like this year’s best mattresses for all sleep needs and budgets, smart beds come with a range of plush sleep-enhancing features. From AI sleep tracking to snoring detection and temperature regulation, the best smart beds can help you get the quality sleep you need.
Assessing whether a smart bed is worth it for you will depend on your specific sleep needs and goals. If you're after personalized, customizable control at the touch of a button, it's worth considering investing in a smart mattress. You'll be able to adjust features like firmness and temperature to adapt your mattress to your needs.
We especially recommend them if you're tech-savvy and looking to actively improve your sleep health through personalized sleep metrics and analytics. To help you further, we’re taking a closer look at smart beds and who they benefit, as well as their cost, best time to buy, and today's best smart mattress deals.
What is a smart bed?
Smart beds are designed to improve your sleep quality and quantity by offering ultimate comfort and tracking your sleep metrics.
Some smart beds – like the Eight Sleep Pod 4 Ultra – are bases or covers designed to work with your existing mattress. Others are mattresses with integrated smart functionality – like the Saatva Solaire and Sleep Number i8 Smart Bed.
The selling point of smart beds is their ability to adapt to your sleep needs. They offer adjustable firmness options alongside temperature control.
Many smart beds use artificial intelligence to track your heart rate, breathing, body temperature, movement and sleep cycles. This feature allows your bed to analyse your sleep and produce personalized nightly reports. They can also calculate your bedtime, wake-up time and sleeping position.
Smart beds are either fully app-controlled, remote-controlled or use a mix of both, offering manual mattress customization. You can adjust the firmness and feel of your mattress via its control panel or app.
Advanced smart beds with integrated AI can automatically adjust your position throughout the night depending on movement and breathing. For example, they will detect your spine’s curvature and adjust to give you the best lumbar support and alter your head position for easier breathing if snoring is detected.
Some can be programmed to the exact temperature that helps you fall asleep faster and deeper, and Eight Sleep is one of the best brands for this – especially if you want a smart bed with independent heating and cooling.
How much does a smart bed cost and when is the best time to buy?
With prices of a queen size smart bed sitting between $3,000 and $4,000 even when discounted, there’s no denying the fact they are a premium buy. But what else can you expect from a bed that optimizes every aspect of your sleep?
Unsurprisingly, all the usual annual mattress sales including Labor Day and Black Friday are good times to invest in a smart bed. Their high price tag means savings can be huge when Black Friday discounts apply.
Although many smart mattress brands including Sleep Number and Eight Sleep have evergreen deals, savings peak during late November. But if you’re desperate to get your hands on a smart bed with advanced sleep tech, we’ve rounded up today’s best deals for you to shop.
From anti-snoring devices to healthy daytime habits, there are many ways to alleviate noisy sleepers, and a smart bed is one of them. If your partner’s snoring is keeping you awake at night, you’ll be glad to hear smart beds use sensors to detect snoring and can alter one’s sleeping and head position to open airways for easier, quieter breathing.
Finally, if you’re simply interested in learning more about your sleep habits, and have the budget for one, a smart mattress with AI sleep tracking can help you understand what’s happening to your body overnight and perfect your nighttime routine.
Who would benefit from a smart bed?
With such advanced features, anyone would benefit from a smart bed. But those who sleep hot, experience joint or muscle pain, are loud snorers, or have sleep apnea would particularly benefit from a smart bed.
With automatic and manual temperature control, smart beds have sensors to monitor your body temperature changes overnight and Autopilot to heat or cool your sleep surface while you remain in deep and REM sleep – a dream for those who experience hot flashes.
Similarly, the option to change the firmness level of smart beds benefits those with joint aches and pains. Adjusting the feel of your bed to suit your sleep position and body weight will help ease tension in pressure points.
Should you buy a smart bed?
Buy a smart bed if...
✅You want to learn more about your sleep: Tracking everything from sleep position to heart rate, a smart bed can help you understand what is happening to your body while you sleep.
✅You sleep hot or suffer with joint pain: A big pro for hot sleepers and joint pain sufferers, smart beds with adjustable firmness and temperature control can suit your individual sleep needs, be it cooling down your sleep surface or alleviating pressure points.
✅You’re worried about sleep apnea: If you’re worried your snoring is a sign of sleep apnea, where you temporarily stop breathing during the night, a smart bed can help you detect and monitor the disorder through its sleep metrics.
Don't buy a smart bed if...
❌You’re on a tight budget: There’s no getting around the fact that, even when discounted, smart beds are more expensive than most premium mattresses which offer perfect comfort and support without smart tech. App subscriptions might also be required to access certain features.
❌You’re not tech-savvy: Due to the technical nature of smart beds, a lot of them need to be connected to WiFi and are operated via smartphone apps, which can understandably put some people off.
❌You’re looking to replace just your mattress: Smart beds are not always mattresses. For example, the Eight Sleep Pod is a mattress cover and top-rated Tempur-Pedic Tempur-Ergo Power Smart Bed is a bed base. This means compatible mattresses etc will be sold separately, incurring extra cost.
