Adjustable beds: If you have one, I have questions

In My Humble Opinion
1

I have back problems, as well as asthma and allergies. All together, they’ve got me thinking about an adjustable bed. I’ve seen a range of them from cheap to outrageously expensive so I want to know your experiences:

1.) Do you find they help you breathe at night, or at least not get a sinus headache?

2.) Do you adjust it for sleeping positions or just for day use (work from bed, watch TV, etc.)

3.) Do you find it difficult to sleep on a regular (hotel) bed because you are so used to your adjustable bed?

4.) What position do you sleep in? Knees elevated? Head elevated?

5.) If you don’t mind sharing, why did you get an adjustable bed and is it helping you get a good night’s sleep?

6.) Cheap, mid range, expensive? Brand? I’m looking for recommendations, not just for or against, but for manufacturer you like.

2

I have an adjustable bed, it got it when I inherited my mother’s furnished house and decided to live there.

I’ve always wanted one, even when I was a young woman. I love it.

I’ll try to answer your questions as best I can.

I don’t typically have sinus issues or headaches, but if I’m congested I feel that sleeping with my head elevated helps a little bit.

I adjust it all the time, for reading, for watching TV, I’m sitting in bed as I write this. It’s really more than a bed, it’s an all purpose piece of furniture, an oversized recliner. If I’m reading or watching TV, I elevate both the head and feet into what manufacturer’s refer to as a zero gravity position.

For sleeping, I fully lower the foot of the bed and lower the head to a very slight incline, just enough to keep my neck from crunching.

I adjust to hotel beds pretty well because I sleep pretty close to flat anyway, and I can get close to the slight head elevation with a couple of pillows. The biggest adjustment is sitting up in a hotel bed to read or watch TV, then I really miss the adjustable feature…….and what I miss the most in those circumstances is the leg elevation. It’s really nice, it’s my favorite thing about the bed.

Whatever you do, don’t get one with head elevation only. They are out there and they are cheap, but it won’t be comfortable unless you can raise the foot of the bed as well.

I didn’t buy mine, I inherited it. The remote says Enso sleep systems, and I think they made the adjustable base. I believe it’s a low to mid-range model, it has the zero gravity position but no massage or presets.

The mattress was sold separately. The mattress you select has to have enough give to fold with the frame, but it doesn’t necessarily need to be made by the same company that makes the bed……I believe, although I may be wrong, that you can use pretty much any memory foam mattress with the frame, for example. My mattress is a Beautyrest, and IIRC, mom picked it out by trying out mattresses in the showroom, just like with a regular bed. She just couldn’t pick one with a rigid frame.

Again, I don’t know what she spent, but, in looking online, I believe an adjustable base similar to mine costs around $850, and whatever mattress you select would be additional.

If I were buying it for myself today, I’d probably consider massage options because I wish my bed had them….but I also have a massage chair, and “I have to walk all the way to the living room whenever I want a massage” is probably the ultimate first world problem.

3

We just got a Tempur-Pedic bed, with 8 USB ports!

Also adjustable and vibrates etc etc.

I raise the head of my bed a bit to reduce reflux. I sleep on my side. When using the bed to relax and read the head’s elevated more. I don’t elevate the foot often, if at all. The Mrs. does, to help her swollen knee.

USB ports are handy for recharging kindles, iPads, etc. But we haven’t enabled the wireless to it, so it doesn’t record/report our sleeping (or other bed) habits. Nor do we employ dildonics. We’re more old school than that. I doubt any of our gear has a USB port.

It was very expensive, over $10K for a king sized with most of the trimmings, frame, etc. But we anticipate using it as a hospital bed after the Mrs. has her knees replaced, and the extra stuff will come in handy then.

We both sleep better on this thing. We went for an extra firm mattress instead of our usual medium one (which we’d used for 22+ years) because we’d been in an AirBnB with a super firm mattress, thought we’d have terrible nights trying to sleep on it, and wound up sleeping and feeling better than ever on it.

Haven’t stayed anyplace away overnight since we got it tho.

4

I have a couple other questions about adjustable beds, if I may:

  1. I’ve heard they wear out faster than regular mattresses, because of the bending. Is that true?

  2. We have cats. Is there any danger they’ll get caught in any moving parts while the bed is adjusting?

5

@Ann_Hedonia and @Qadgop_the_Mercotan, thank you so much for your answers! Financially, I won’t be ready for a good one for a while unless I win the lottery and for that, I’ll have to scrape together money for tickets. But it’s motivation for me in my job hunt.

It’s time to replace my bed -20 years of a firm pillowtop; it’s getting mushy. I’d really like to guarantee that whatever I replace it with will help me sleep. The arthritis, price, and other issues are making me take this very seriously. I hope to get back to travelling again, but the thought of lack of sleep due to bed differences is concerning to me. Thanks again.

@Infovore, you have a good point about the cats. I have two and they love getting under the bed whenever they sneak into my bedroom. Obviously, I can’t answer the question, but yah, big concern if your cats are always where you are.

6

I would think you could just hit the “adjust” button momentarily and any cat would be gone.

7

We’ve had one for about a year now and I’d honestly have a hard time going back.
I can’t speak to the sinus issues since thankfully neither of us has that problem. However, it’s been a godsend for my back and knees.
We typically adjust it to bring the head up higher for watching television, reading, using the laptop, etc. Ours has a “zero gravity” preset we use for sleeping that elevates both the head and the feet, taking pressure off the lower back. That combined with the memory foam mattress we bought at the same time has given me some of the best sleep of my life.
Also, as we are a middle aged couple who both have a few joint issues, I’ll just say it’s nice to have the adjustability for other bedroom activities.
The hotel issue is a legitimate question. I do have a hard time sleeping in a standard bed now that I’m used to the adjustable, but it hasn’t been a huge deal for just a few nights away here or there.
Ours is a Sealy Cocoon we bought as a package with both the base and mattress. We couldn’t be happier.

8

I’m not in the market for such a bed now, but I do have a question:

Are any of these made in different versions for short people? (Or, for that matter, for tall people.)

I ask because I’ve had the same problem with modern dentists’ chairs and recently with a hospital bed and chair: they bend in two places. I can slide up or down in the bed, and to some extent in the chair, so that one of the places where they bend is a place where I also bend. But that means that the other place that they bend will be in a place where I don’t bend; because the designers are expecting a different distance between knees and hips than I’ve actually got. So while they’re OK if I can put either the knees or the hips flat in order to bend the other one, after a little while they become significantly uncomfortable if they’re bending in both places at once.

9

Since it’s downthread a bit, I elected to repost your questions for clarity.

  1. I have fairly serious reflux and apnea, and require an elevated “head” area. Our previous bed was raised with some redneck engineering and wood blocks. The new adjustable version allows me (us) to fine-tune the angle and level. Yes, raising it definitely helps me breathe, but the old one was angled and helped too.
  2. The bedroom is for sleeping/etc. only. We don’t watch TV or read there. So far, it’s stayed in the same position after some experimenting. It can be changed in cases of illness (stuffy head etc.) or raised a bit after any unusually large meals like the holidays.
  3. Yes, I find it nearly impossible to sleep in hotels or relative’s houses. I must carry additional “gear” such as wedge pillows along with CPAP stuff. Thus my strong preference for traveling in my RV. This was true before buying the adjustable bed though.
  4. Just head elevated. We experimented with the knee elevation and decided it’s probably useful for injuries or post-op, but we’ve never used it since the first day. I want to point out an additional advantage – raising the upper portion instead of re-angling the entire bed reduces the “sliding down” effect. In the old, angled bed I usually find I’ve migrated toward the bottom during the night.
  5. Same as answer (1). It allows fine-tuning the elevation angle, plus we needed a replacement mattress. Yes, it’s noticeably more comfortable and I’m sleeping a little better, but take into account the old mattress was losing its shape (uncomfortable dips were worn in places).
  6. Midrange, I think it’s called Revive and is probably the Ford to Tempurpedic’s Cadillac.
10

For what it’s worth, we don’t currently have any health issues requiring solutions, so that is not a factor in our choice to buy or use an adjustable. So, in the spirit of answering the survey:

  1. N/A
  2. We do not watch TV in bed, but do “read” (scroll online devices). We found that, after the first few months, we don’t use the adjustment feature at all and instead just prop up a few pillows (yeah, I know).
  3. No, hotel beds are not an issue.
  4. Flat.
  5. I would say we probably got it because my spouse is attracted to expensive things and this fit the bill.
  6. Sleep Number, but low/mid-range, not the one with lighting, heat/cool, massage, etc.

Overall, when we get another bed, unless our health needs change, it will not be an adjustable Sleep Number. Although it allows for adjusting the firmness, as well as the mechanical platform, we set it once when we got it and have not changed the numbers. The firmness is just an air bladder with a padding structure. When we moved we had to dismantle the whole mattress to it’s component parts, pack the various foam pieces (no easy task) and re-assemble. Kind of a pain.

11

Even more good information from you folks. I really, really appreciate it.

My arthritis is worst in my lower back and left knee so zero gravity position is worth checking out. Seely has their bed on sale (ends Monday) and is reasonably priced with the sale. I wasn’t actually ready to commit to a purchase right now but that price is a good one. I love the answers you folks are giving me and you are ticking all the boxes with the answers, which I appreciate. I’ve got some thinking to do.

12

I have problems with my legs and my wife has fibromyalgia. We bought our beds over 20 years ago and have never regretted it.

We opted for the more expensive high-quality foam mattresses. Well worth the extra. The two beds are tied together and we share a duvet.

You will need fitted sheets.

My wife sleeps on her back with her head and feet raised. Sometimes she rests in bed in the afternoon and usually raises her head to a sitting angle.

I also have asthma and find a slightly raised head and feet position the most comfortable.

If you raise the foot, you need to be wary of sitting on it as that can damage the mechanism