What Is A Smart Bed
A smart bed is electronically equipped with adjustable temperature, massage, and pressure sensing features to provide customized comfort and support. It often integrates with smart home devices and can be controlled by a mobile app or voice-activated assistant.
Choosing A Smart Bed Frame
As much as technology has advanced through the years, one thing seems to have remained the same: beds. Despite how often we use them, very few people have made any significant changes to the beds we had decades ago.
You can now buy an electric bed frame, or what we now call a smart bed frame. These beds are multi-adjustable and are designed to give you a stress-free sleep and, in some cases, a massage to help you to relax.
Here are a few of the common features of smart beds:
Adjustable firmness
Ability to change the firmness of the mattress via an app or remote control. Adjustable firmness is a feature found in many smart beds that allows you to change the firmness of the mattress to suit your comfort preferences. This can be done using an app or remote control and often involves adjusting the air pressure in air-filled or air-coil mattresses or using motors to change the position of the coils in a smart bed with a spring system.
Adjusting your mattress’s firmness allows you to customize your sleep surface to support your body better and alleviate pressure points. This can improve sleep quality and reduce discomfort, particularly for people with back pain or other physical issues.
Temperature control
Heating and cooling systems allow you to adjust the bed’s temperature to your desired level. Temperature control in smart beds typically involves heating and cooling systems that allow you to adjust the temperature to your desired level. The temperature control systems in smart beds are designed to regulate the bed’s temperature according to the user’s set preferences, thereby providing a more comfortable and relaxing sleep environment.
For example, some smart beds use a layer of material that can heat up or cool down to regulate the bed’s temperature, while others use heating or cooling elements within the bed frame. A mobile app or voice-activated assistant often controls these systems, and some may have automatic temperature adjustments based on sleep-tracking data.
The benefit of temperature control in smart beds is that it can help you sleep better by providing a comfortable and consistent temperature throughout the night. A cool sleep environment can help regulate body temperature, leading to deeper and more restful sleep.
Massage
Vibrating motors that provide massage to help relieve stress and discomfort. The massage feature in smart beds typically uses vibrating motors or actuators built into the bed, which can be controlled via a mobile app or remote control. Some smart beds offer multiple zones of massage, allowing for targeted relief of specific body areas, such as the neck or lower back.
The intensity and type of massage can be customized, with options such as rolling, tapping, and kneading. Some smart beds also have built-in timers, so you can set the massage to turn off automatically after a certain amount of time.
The massage feature in smart beds is intended to provide relaxation and stress relief, helping to improve sleep quality and reduce muscle pain and discomfort. It can also enhance circulation and boost the production of endorphins, the body’s natural painkillers.
Sleep tracking
Monitoring of sleep patterns, such as duration and quality, through sensors and algorithms. Sleep tracking in smart beds typically uses sensors and algorithms to monitor and analyze various aspects of sleep, including:
Sleep duration
The amount of time you spend asleep, including time spent in light, deep, and REM sleep. Sleep duration refers to the time a person spends asleep each night. It is an important aspect of sleep quality and can be influenced by various factors, such as age, lifestyle, and health.
Smart beds can track sleep duration by using sensors and algorithms to monitor the user’s movements and changes in heart rate and breathing patterns throughout the night. This data is then used to determine when the user has fallen asleep and awakened, allowing the bed to track the sleep duration accurately.
Knowing your sleep duration can help you understand the quality and quantity of sleep you get each night. This information can be valuable in identifying potential sleep problems, such as insomnia or sleep deprivation, and making changes to improve sleep habits and overall health.
Smart beds can often provide sleep duration information through a mobile app or web dashboard, giving users easy access to their sleep data and the ability to track trends over time.
Sleep Quality
An assessment of the overall quality of your sleep based on factors such as heart rate, breathing rate, and movement. Sleep quality refers to sleep’s overall comfort, restfulness, and restorative benefits. It encompasses several factors such as sleep duration, the absence of disruptions or disturbances, and the presence of deep, restful sleep.
In the context of smart beds, sleep quality is often monitored using sensors and algorithms. The bed may track and analyze the user’s sleep patterns, such as the number of times they move or wake up, to provide an overall sleep quality score.
Monitoring sleep quality aims to help the user understand and improve their sleep habits. By tracking sleep patterns, the bed can provide insights into sleep duration, sleep efficiency, and the presence of deep, restful sleep. This information can then identify areas for improvement and suggest changes to sleep habits, such as adjusting bedtime routines, reducing caffeine intake, or establishing a more consistent sleep schedule.
In addition, some smart beds may also offer features designed to enhance sleep quality, such as temperature control, massage, and automatic adjustments to provide customized comfort and support.
Sleep patterns
A visual representation of your sleep habits, including when you fall asleep, wake up, and move throughout the night.
Sleep patterns refer to the variations in sleep that occur over time, including the timing, duration, and quality of sleep. The study of sleep patterns is known as “sleep architecture.”
In the context of smart beds, sleep patterns are often monitored by sensors and algorithms that track various factors such as heart rate, breathing, and movement. This data is then analyzed to determine the user’s sleep patterns, including:
- Sleep duration: How long the user spends sleeping
- Sleep efficiency: The ratio of actual sleep time to the total time spent in bed
- Sleep stages: The different phases of sleep, including light sleep, deep sleep, and REM sleep
- Wakefulness: Times when the user is awake during the night
- Sleep patterns over time: Changes in sleep patterns over days, weeks, and months
By monitoring and analyzing sleep patterns, smart beds provide insights into the user’s sleep quality and identify potential issues that may impact sleep quality. This information can then be used to make recommendations for improving sleep, such as adjusting the bed’s temperature or firmness or changing sleep habits.
Sleep score
A numerical score that summarizes your sleep quality and provides recommendations for improvement.
Sleep score is a metric some smart beds and sleep-tracking devices use to quantify the quality of an individual’s sleep. It is typically calculated using data collected from sensors and algorithms that track sleep-related metrics, such as heart rate, movement, and REM cycles.
The sleep score provides a single, easy-to-understand value that summarizes an individual’s sleep experience for a given night. It can be used to identify patterns in sleep quality over time and track the effectiveness of any interventions to improve sleep.
Sleep scores may be presented on a scale, with higher scores indicating better sleep quality. The exact calculation of a sleep score can vary between different devices, but it generally considers factors such as sleep duration, sleep efficiency, and the number and duration of awakenings.
By providing a sleep score, smart beds and sleep tracking devices aim to give users a clear, concise understanding of their sleep quality. This can help inform decisions about lifestyle changes, sleep hygiene, and other factors impacting sleep.
Smart beds can use the data collected through sleep tracking to make personalized recommendations for improving sleep, such as adjusting the bed’s temperature or firmness or suggesting changes to your sleep routine. Some smart beds also integrate with sleep-tracking apps, allowing you to view and analyze your sleep data in detail.
Automatic adjustments
An electric bed that automatically adjust uses sensors, algorithms, and motors. The sensors are positioned on the bed and detect changes in the user’s body position, weight distribution, and other relevant data. The algorithms then process this data in real time to determine the ideal firmness and support needed for the user’s current position.
The motors, integrated into the bed’s frame, adjust the bed’s firmness or support. For example, if the sensors detect that the user has rolled over onto their side, the bed may automatically adjust to provide more support to the hips and shoulders. This is typically done in real time and is seamless, so the user does not feel any movement or disturbance.
Smart beds that automatically adjust are designed to provide enhanced comfort and support and help users get a better night’s sleep by reducing pressure points and promoting deeper sleep. The technology behind the automatic adjustments is designed to be smart, responsive, and intuitive, allowing users to lie down and relax without worrying about adjusting their beds.
Remote control
Control of the bed’s functions through a mobile app or voice-activated assistant. Smart beds often aim to provide a personalized sleep experience and can be integrated with other smart home devices for a connected sleep system.