Sleep Number Reviews – Pros, Cons and Ratings of Sleep Number Beds
Our Sleep Number Reviews are unique because we discuss both the positives and negatives of Sleep Number beds. On this page, we initially provide an overview of Sleep Number adjustable beds as a brand, and then move on to provide detailed Sleep Number reviews on all 11 Sleep Number beds. Details on individual Sleep Number bed reviews for the Legacy, Classic, Performance and Innovation series have been provided towards the latter part of this page.
Sleep Number adjustable beds are a must have for some of us; but not for others
Sleep Number Basics
1. Sleep Number beds are Air Beds
Sleep Number beds are NOT:
- Memory Foam Mattresses
- Latex Mattresses
- Innerspring Mattresses
- Water Beds
Instead, they’re simply air beds; not just any air bed, they’re the most advanced type of air beds on planet earth… keep reading to find out what’s so special about them….
2. Adjustable Firmness
Because they’re air beds, the firmness of the mattress can be increased or decreased by pumping air in or out. The technology is known as Sleep Number’s Firmness Control™ System. This is THE MAJOR UNIQUE feature of Sleep Number beds. The softness or firmness is given a number from 1 to 100; you can pick the number that suits you best; that’s your Sleep Number. My Sleep Number is 42. Yours may be 35 or 55!!
3. Four Series, 11 Models
- Value/Legacy Series – S1 and S3
- Classic Series – c2 and c4
- Performance Series – p5, p6, pSE
- Innovation Series – i7, i8, i10, iLE
4. Smarter than your spouse?
There are two aspects to this smartness:
While the Legacy/Value-bed Series is ‘dumb’, Classic, Performance and Innovation Series are ‘smart’ (back in the day, even the classic series was ‘dumb’; but over the years, has evolved to become ‘smart’, like you and I :)).
- Responsive Air™ technology: the firmness will sense your sleeping position and movements and automatically adjust its firmness supporting your body while you’re asleep
- SleepIQ™ Technology: sleep tracking technology tracks your heart rate, your movements and how well (or not) you sleep and gives you a ‘Sleep Score’.
This split-king type bed is also smart, but in a different way to Sleep Number.
5. Made of 3 major ’layers’
Each type of mattress is made of 3 major components
- The bottom air chamber
- The middle comfort layer
- The top mattress cover
6. Choose between 8″ – 13″ thickness
The air chamber and mattress cover are approximately the same across all Sleep Number Beds. It’s the thickness of the middle comfort layer that differs among the different models.
7. Choose between Soft, Medium-Soft, Medium-Firm or Firm
The comfort layer is thinnest on the Sleep Number c2 bed. That’s why the c2 is the firmest mattress among its siblings. The comfort layer is thickest on the Sleep Number i10 bed; that’s why the i10 is the softest mattress out of the lot. For now, you can remember the Firmest to Softest Sleep Number beds as c2, c4, pSE, p5, p6, iLE, i8, i7, and i10 in the descending order of firmness
8. From $600 – $5000 upwards
The most basic (and cheapest) bed type is the Classic Series while the most advanced (and priciest) type is the Innovation Series
9. Comes in Twin, Queen, King sizes
All models (c2 – i10) are available in Queen, King, and California King sizes; but not all models are available in Twin, Twin XL, and Full sizes.
10. Air Leaks !!!
This is the MAJOR COMPLAINT against Sleep Number beds by consumers. It won’t happen immediately and it won’t happen to all mattresses… may be it’s your luck… or may be it’s just unavoidable with air mattresses.
Unfortunately, out of 100s of Sleep Number bed reviews we analyzed, as much as 10% of customers complain of air leaks of some nature!
Sleep Number Pros and Cons
This section of our Sleep Number reviews is dedicated to discussing the pros and cons of Sleep Number beds as a whole. You can find individual Sleep Number bed reviews at the end of this section.
4 Major CONS (complaints) of Sleep Number Beds
1. Air Leaks
Based on online Sleep Number Bed Reviews left by Sleep Number consumers, more than 10% of the users complain of air leaks. The most popular causes of air leaks in Sleep Number mattresses are faulty air pumps, malfunctioning controllers, leaks on the air bladders, leaky hoses or loose connections.
The whole concept of adjustable firmness depends on control of air pressure. If air leaks out, that whole concept becomes an utter disaster.
2. Trench Effect
Queen and King-size Sleep Number beds have two independent chambers allowing the two partners to have two different firmness levels on their respective sides.
The downside of this is that a ‘trench’ can form between these two air chambers which is NOT helpful towards cuddling, spooning, or other intimate activities ;(
3. Hammock Effect
This happens if you try to make the bed very soft. For example, a Sleep Number of 40 would be very deflated and therefore, ‘soft’. When you climb on to such a bed, you automatically roll to the middle and ‘sink’ while the air shifts to the periphery of the mattress. This gives rise to a hammock or sagging effect.
You can avoid this to a certain degree by purchasing a Sleep Number bed on the soft side of the spectrum like an i7, i8 or i10. This hammock effect is more likely to happen if you buy a firm mattress like the c2 or c4 and then deflate it to get a soft setting.
4. Expensive
Sleep Number bed prices can go above and beyond $10,000 (for a Sleep Number 360®Split California King i10 Smart Bed on a FlexFit™ 3 adjustable base). As all online Sleep Number reviews will agree, this brand of beds is more expensive than most mattresses in the market.
5 Major Pros (Benefits) of Sleep Number Beds
1. Adjustable Firmness
With a memory foam, inner spring or latex mattress, its firmness stays fixed. Such a mattress does NOT let you increase or decrease the firmness of the bed; your only option is to ditch your current mattress and buy yourself a new mattress.
But with Sleep Number air beds, you can fine-tune the firmness of your mattress by inflating it or deflating it, within a certain range.
2. Responsive Air™ Technology
When you twist and turn in your sleep, the Classic, Performance and Innovation series Sleep Number beds can automagically adjust firmness according to your movements. Built-in pressure sensors on air chambers detect your body movements and make adjustments accordingly. That is as advanced as sleeping technology can get in 2019! These models are known as the Sleep Number 360® series ‘smart’ beds.
3. Dual Air™ Technology
Each partner can choose his or her preferred firmness independent of the other (for Queen or larger sizes that come with two independent air chambers). So for example, the wife can have a firmer setting and the husband can have a softer setting on the same mattress!!
In other words, two people sleeping on the same bed can have very different firmness settings. The only way to do this with a conventional mattress is if you owned a split-king bed like this one.
4. One-Touch Sleep Number Recall
You can give your favorite firmness a ‘Sleep Number’ and recall it instantly with the touch of a button. This is especially useful if you want to have different firmness levels for daytime naps, nighttime sleep, watching TV or for romantic activities 😉
5. SleepIQ™ Technology
A state of the art sleep tracking technology that tracks your heart rate, hours of sleep you get, how much you move, how much you sleep walk (just kidding) etc. and computes a ‘Sleep Score’ accordingly. This feature, seen on Sleep Number 360 smart beds, is mediated via built in biometric sensors.
We hope you found our Sleep Number Pros and Cons useful and it helped you decide if Sleep Number is right for you or not. If you decided in favor of purchasing a Sleep Number bed, your next step should be to narrow down on the exact model of Sleep Number bed that would suit you the best. We hope the following section on individual Sleep Number bed reviews will help you doing just that!
Sleep Number Bed Reviews
Under this section, we will be reviewing all 11 Sleep Number beds belonging to the four series of Sleep Number beds. As you already know, the four series are as follows.
1.Value / LegacySeries
There are 2 models to this most basic category of Sleep Number Beds. They are:
- Sleep Number s1 bed
- Sleep Number s3 bed
2.Classic Series
There are 2 models to this category of Sleep Number air beds. They are:
- Sleep Number c2 bed
- Sleep Number c4 bed
3.Performance Series
There are 3 models under the Performance series. They are:
- Sleep Number p5 bed
- Sleep Number p6 bed
- Sleep Number pSE bed
4.Innovation Series
There are 4 models under the Innovation series. They are:
- Sleep Number i7 bed (aka m7)
- Sleep Number i8 bed
- Sleep Number i10 bed
- Sleep Number iLE bed
Sleep Number Beds Overall Review and Comparison
Before we get into details on the four types of Sleep Number series, let us give you an overview of the 11 different mattresses. The 11 mattresses have different thicknesses, different firmness levels and different comfort layer thicknesses. We have illustrated all of that data for you on the following two graphics.
The first graphic below shows the different thicknesses of the comfort layer and the entire mattress of the different types of Sleep Number beds starting from the thinnest C2 to the thickest i10.
Comparison of Comfort Layer Thickness
Comparison of Firmness Levels of Different Sleep Number Beds
The second graphic below shows the different firmness levels of the different beds ranging from the soft i7 to firm c2. Notice that these beds have a range of firmness unlike a regular spring, foam or latex mattress. As an example, depending on how much you inflate or deflate the p6, its firmness can be decreased to a minimum 4 or increased to a maximum of 6. You can’t make it a 3 however much you deflate it or you can’t make it a 7 however much you inflate it!
Now that we have given you a broad idea about the differences on each mattress, we will go on to review each of the 4 different categories of mattresses, namely, the Legacy Series, the Classic Series, the Performance Series and the Innovation Series.
Sleep Number S1 and S3 Value Bed Series Review
The Value-bed Series also known as the Legacy series consists of the s1 and s3 beds. This is the only ‘dumb’ series of beds. This doesn’t get categorized under the Sleep Number 360 Smart Beds. Nevertheless, s1 and s3 are kind of semi-smart because they still have Dual Air and SleepIQ technologies. The only smart technology that it lacks is the Responsive Air technology.
1. Sleep Number s1 Bed Review
Major Features of the s1 bed
- This is the most basic, entry-level Sleep Number bed
- Thickness: it is 10″ thick; that’s 2″ thicker than the 8″ c2 mattress
- Firmness: it is one of the firmest with a 6-7 reading on the firmness scale. This is the same firmness as the Sleep Number c2
- Comfort layer: it is 1.5″ thick and is the thinnest out of all Sleep Number beds. The 5-zoned comfort layer is designed to contour around the body and to reduce stress on pressure points on the 5 zones (i) head, (ii) neck, (iii) lumbar area, (iv) hips, and (v) feet
- Price: $999 for a queen size bed
- Smart technologies: The s1 is a semi-smart bed – it has the SleepIQ technology that measures your heart rate, how long you slept etc. But it doesn’t have the Responsive Air technology that is responsible for automatically changing firmness
- Dual Air technology: yes, the two partners can have their own independent firmnesses/Sleep Numbers on queen and king sized models. However, you get only 1 remote controller for the whole bed.
2. Sleep Number s3 Review
Major Features of the s3 bed
- Thickness: it is 11″ thick (the s1 is 10″ thick)
- Firmness: similar to the c4 with a 5-7 reading on the firmness scale
- Comfort layer: 2” of proprietary PlushFit™ 7-zone comfort layer is designed to contour the body for proper spinal alignmentand and to reduce stress on pressure points on the 7 zones (i) head, (ii) neck, (iii) lumbar area, (iv) hips, (v) knees, (vi) lower legs, and (vii) feet
- It has an additional 2” of quilted hyper-soft foam which enhances mattress plushness. This is why the s3 provides better support and pressure relief compared to the s1
- Price: $1499 for a queen sized bed – that’s $500 more expensive than the s1
- Dual Air and SleepIQ technologies: all that is similar to the s1
Sleep Number Classic Beds Reviews
The Classic Series consist of the c2 and c4 beds. In the good old days, the Classic Series was ‘dumb’. But not anymore! The c2 and c4, together with Performance and Innovation Series, are now considered ‘smart’ under the category of Sleep Number 360 smart beds.
1. Sleep Number c2 Bed Review
Major Features of the c2 bed
- Thickness: it is the thinnest at 8″ thickness
- Firmness: one of the firmest with a 6-7 reading on the firmness scale in par with the s1
- Comfort layer: the 2″ gel-infused comfort layer is only second in ‘thinness’ to the s1 (all others have thicker comfort layers)
- Price: $999 for a queen size bed
- Dual Air, Sleep IQ and Responsive Air Technologies: Yes, yes and yes! Nowadays, even the c2 comes as a ‘smart’ 360 bed!
2. Sleep Number c4 Bed
Major Features of the c4 bed
- Thickness: at 9″, the c4 is 1″ taller than the c2
- Firmness: one of the firmer Sleep Number beds with a 5-7 reading on the firmness scale. Very similar to the s3 in firmness
- Comfort layer: it has a 3″ gel-infused comfort layer
- Price: $1499 for a queen sized Sleep Number c4 bed (same price as s3)
- Dual Air, Sleep IQ and Responsive Air Technologies: Yes, the Sleep Number c4 of 2019 is a 360 smart bed!
- Pressure relief and Support: better than the c2; that’s why the extra $500 cost!
Sleep Number Performance Bed Reviews
The Performance Series consists of three air beds, namely the p5, p6 and pSE beds. All three of them are 360 smart beds, meaning that they have both SleepIQ and Responsive Air technologies, just like the Classic Series.
What sets the Performance Series on top of the Classic Series is the superior support and pressure relief provided by the p5, p6 and pSE. In addition, the p6 and pSE also have a cooling feature where they can absorb your body heat to ensure the you’re not woken up by the excess warmth!
Below you’ll learn that the p6 stands out as the superior-most in the category.
1. Sleep Number p5 Review
Major Features of the Sleep Number p5 bed
- Thickness: at 10″, this is the thinnest of the Performance series beds
- Firmness: with a 5-7 reading on the firmness scale, it is very similar to the c4 and s3 in firmness
- Comfort layer: it has a 4″ gel-infused comfort layer
- Price: $2399 for the queen sized p5 mattress
- Dual Air, Sleep IQ and Responsive Air Technologies: the p5 has all of these
- Pressure relief and Support: very high
2. Sleep Number p6 Bed Review
Noteworthy Features of the p6 bed
- Thickness: at 11″, it is one of the thicker Sleep Number mattresses
- Firmness: with a 4-6 firmness reading its firmness can be adjusted from medium-soft to medium
- Comfort layer: with a 5″ comfort layer it provides superior body support and pressure relief (a step above the p5)
- Price: $2899 for the queen sized p6
- Dual Air, Sleep IQ and Responsive Air Technologies: the p6 is a 360 smart bed that has all of these
- Pressure relief and Support: better than on p5
- Cooling feature: the p6 is designed to absorb excess heat produced by your heat to make sure that you don’t sleep hot. You won’t find this on the p5, classic series or value/legacy series.
3. Sleep Number pSE Mattress
Noteworthy Features of the pSE bed
- pSE: if you haven’t guessed it yet, SE stands for Special Edition!!
- Thickness: at 10″, it has the same thickness as the p5
- Firmness: with a 5-7.5 range of firmness reading its firmness can be adjusted from medium-soft all the way up to firm
- Comfort layer: 4″ for superior pressure relief
- Price: $2799 for the queen sized pSE
- Dual Air, Sleep IQ and Responsive Air Technologies: pSE is equipped with all of these smart features
- Pressure relief and Support: similar to the p6
- Cooling feature: has ‘Temperature Balancing’. Absorbs heat when you get hot and releases it if you get cold. The result is a bed that gets neither too hot nor too cold!
Sleep Number Innovation Series Bed Reviews
The Innovation Series consists of four air beds, namely the i7, i8, i10 and iLE mattresses. They have all the bells and whistles of the Performance Series and MORE.
In addition to Dual Air, Sleep IQ and Responsive Air technologies, the Innovation Series beds provide superior pressure relief and temperature balancing. The temperature balancing feature makes the mattress absorb your body heat when you’re warm and releases heat when you’re cold. How cool is that?
1. Sleep Number i7 Review
Major Features of the i7 mattress (aka m7 bed)
- It’s kind of the entry-level model of the high-end series of Sleep Number beds. As of 2019, this is referred to as the m7 on the Sleep Number website.
- Thickness: at 11″, it has the same thickness as the p6
- Firmness: with a 3-5 reading on the firmness scale, its the softest Sleep Number bed together with the i10
- Comfort layer: 5″ comfort layer provides a high-level of pressure relief
- Price: $3599 for the queen sized Sleep Number m7
- Dual Air, Sleep IQ and Responsive Air Technologies: absolutely!
- Pressure relief and Support: superior to Classic and Performance series
- Temperature Balancing: by absorbing heat or releasing heat, makes sure that your sleeping temperature stays uniform and ‘balanced’ for an uninterrupted night of sleep
2. Sleep Number i8 Review
Major Features of the i8 mattress
- Thickness: at 12″, it’s only second to the i10 in mattress height
- Firmness: with a reading of 4-6 on the firmness scale, it’s slightly firmer than the i7/m7. Best suited for those looking for ‘Medium’ firmness
- Comfort layer: 6″ comfort layer is only second in thickness to that of the i10
- Price: $3599 for the queen sized Sleep Number i8 (same price as i7)
- Dual Air, Sleep IQ and Responsive Air Technologies: Yes!
- Pressure relief, Support and Temperature Balancing: similar to the i7
3. Sleep Number iLE Review
Major Features of the i8 mattress
- Thickness: same as the i8 at 12″
- Firmness: same as the i8 with a reading of 4-6 on the firmness scale
- Comfort layer: same as the i8 with a 6″ comfort layer is
- Price: $4999 for the queen sized Sleep Number iLE (that’s approx $1500 more expensive than the i8)
- Dual Air, Sleep IQ and Responsive Air Technologies: Yes!
- Pressure relief, Support: better than the i8??
- Temperature Balancing: similar to the i8
4. Sleep Number i10 Review
What you need to know about the i10 mattress
- This is the KING of Sleep Number beds! It’s the most luxurious, most comfortable, most pressure relieving and you guessed right… most expensive Sleep Number mattress
- Thickness: at 13″, this is thicker than all others
- Firmness: similar to the i7 with a firmness score of 3-5. i7 and i10 are the softest Sleep Number mattresses
- Comfort layer: at 7″, it is the thickest of all Sleep Number beds
- Price: $5099 for the queen sized Sleep Number iLE (that’s the most expensive Sleep Number bed out of all four classes)
- Dual Air, Sleep IQ and Responsive Air Technologies: Yes!
- Pressure relief, Support, Temperature Balancing: highest level out of all
8 Additional Benefits of Sleep Number Beds
1. Conforms to your body
Similar to a memory foam mattress, Sleep Number air beds can conform around your body if you don’t set it to too firm a setting
2. Light weight
Sleep Number AIR mattresses are ‘feather weight’ compared to most latex, memory foam and spring mattresses
3. No off gassing
Especially on memory foam mattresses, there can be a slight rubber-like/chemical smell during the first couple of days, but not on Sleep Number mattresses
4. Ready to be used
No need to let the mattresses ‘decompress’ to their original thickness once delivered to your home (unlike with memory foam mattresses). You can sleep on it as soon as it is assembled
5. Great after-sales service
Good customer service, parts readily available and easily repaired. However, it is not uncommon to see people complaining about long waiting times with Sleep Number support.
6. Decent motion isolation
Motions/waves created by your partner’s twisting and turning won’t reach you. The bed kinda ‘absorbs’ the shocks! Not the best motion isolation in the industry, but pretty good.
7. USA Product
Most parts are made in the USA
8. Good therapeutic support
Great for those with back pain
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Sleep Number Really That Good?
If you sleep alone and have a consistent firmness preference, Sleep Number is an overpriced option. However for couples with vastly different tastes in mattress firmness, those adjustable air-filled chambers could be worth it!
What Is The Lifespan Of A Sleep Number Bed?
The average mattress lifespan is 6-8 years, but the expected lifespan of a Performance series airbed from Sleep Number is about seven to eight years.
Can A Sleep Number Bed Sit On The Floor?
If your existing headboard doesn’t have a bed frame, you can set it up directly on the floor with Sleep Number’s sturdy plastic modular bases.
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