Somewhere along the way, mattresses got complicated.

What used to be a simple decision — firm or soft, memory foam or innerspring — has morphed into an overwhelming maze of technology, data tracking, and price tags that look more like they belong on a used car lot.

Enter the “smart mattress,” a product designed to convince you that a good night’s sleep now requires Bluetooth connectivity, AI-powered temperature control, and more sensors than the International Space Station.

Big names like Sleep Number, Eight Sleep, and ReST have taken the old-fashioned mattress and infused it with enough tech to make you think it belongs in Tony Stark’s bedroom. But after putting these high-tech beds to the test, I’ve got one simple piece of advice: do not waste your money.

The Allure of the High-Tech Mattress

At first glance, smart mattresses seem like an incredible innovation. They promise to track your sleep cycles with military precision, adjust firmness and support based on your body’s needs, and regulate temperature to keep you perfectly comfortable all night.

They’re marketed as the future of sleep, promising better rest through technology — because obviously, the one thing keeping you up at night wasn’t stress or caffeine, but the lack of an app-controlled sleep environment.

Sleep Number, for example, boasts air chambers that adjust to your body’s movements in real time. Eight Sleep claims to be able to cool or heat your side of the bed to the exact degree you prefer. ReST brags about five-zone pressure mapping, ensuring every part of your body gets customized support. On paper, this all sounds great.

In reality? It’s just a bloated, overpriced mess of features you don’t need and probably won’t use.

Testing the Smart Mattress Market’s Heavyweights

Sleep Number 360® i8: The Granddaddy of Gimmicks

Sleep Number has been pushing the idea of adjustable firmness for decades, and the 360 i8 Smart Bed is their latest attempt at making you believe you need an algorithm to sleep comfortably. It features dual air chambers that allow you and your partner to customize firmness levels independently, a sleep tracking system called SleepIQ, and automatic adjustments that react to your movements in the night.

Sounds nice, right? Here’s the problem: the sleep tracking wasn’t any more detailed than what I get from my smartwatch, and the auto-adjusting firmness feature felt more like a mild inconvenience than an innovation.

Every so often, the bed would shift slightly in an attempt to “support” me, but more often than not, it just felt like someone was nudging the mattress in the middle of the night.

Oh, and let’s talk price. This thing starts at $3,199 and can go as high as $6,399. That’s a ridiculous amount of money for what is essentially a glorified air mattress with an app.

Our Rating: Do Not Buy

Eight Sleep Pod Pro: An Overpriced Thermostat

Eight Sleep bills itself as the future of sleep technology, focusing heavily on temperature regulation. The Pod Pro boasts dual-zone cooling and heating, heart rate and HRV monitoring, a smart alarm that’s supposed to wake you up at the optimal time, and seamless mobile app integration.

At first, the temperature control felt like a game-changer. Being able to heat one side of the bed while keeping the other cool sounds amazing — until you realize it requires constant tinkering.

The app was frustratingly unreliable, and I found myself having to manually adjust the settings far more often than I should have for something that’s supposed to be “smart.” It’s kind of like the Sonos app but for the thing that you spend a third of your life laying on.

And then there’s the durability issue. A quick look at customer reviews reveals a disturbing trend: technical failures start creeping in around the 1–2 year mark. For a bed that costs between $3,095 and $3,795, you’d expect it to last longer than the average laptop. When you factor in the frequent software updates (which sometimes break features instead of improving them), it’s clear this isn’t a long-term investment — it’s an expensive experiment in frustration.

Our Review: Do Not Buy

ReST Smart Bed: More Sensors, More Problems

ReST takes customization to the extreme, offering five adjustable air zones that promise to provide the most tailored sleep experience ever. It uses pressure mapping to analyze your sleeping position in real time and automatically adjusts to keep you “perfectly aligned.”

While the technology is undeniably impressive, the actual experience was more annoying than life-changing. At first, I enjoyed playing around with the settings, tweaking the pressure zones like a mad scientist. But after a few nights, I realized that I didn’t actually need my bed to make those micro-adjustments — it was just another unnecessary layer of complexity.

And let’s not forget the cost: a ReST Smart Bed will set you back anywhere from $4,999 to $8,999. At that price, I expect my bed to do my taxes, cook me breakfast, and maybe offer stock market tips. Instead, I got a mattress that overcomplicates something as simple as laying down and going to sleep.

Our Review: Do Not Buy

The Common Thread: Mo’ Tech, Mo’ Problems

The biggest issue with smart mattresses isn’t that they don’t work — it’s that they don’t work any better than a high-end traditional mattress. They pack in flashy features that sound groundbreaking in theory but don’t actually provide significant improvements in sleep quality.

And when they inevitably start to glitch, you’re stuck dealing with app malfunctions, sensor failures, and software updates that sometimes break more than they fix.

To make matters worse, these mattresses have a shorter lifespan than their traditional counterparts. A high-quality regular mattress lasts 7–10 years with minimal upkeep.

Smart mattresses, on the other hand, often start having issues around year five — and when they do, you’re not just replacing a worn-out mattress, you’re dealing with malfunctioning electronics, faulty air chambers, and out-of-warranty software issues.

The Real Smart Move: Skip the Hype, Run with My Sleep Kit

If you’re in the market for a better night’s sleep, you don’t need to waste thousands of dollars on an over-engineered smart bed. Instead, invest in a high-end traditional mattress and pair it with a few affordable accessories that actually make a difference:

• A premium mattress from trusted brands. I love my Tuft & Needle 12″ adaptive foam mattress — it, and many like it, are available well under $1,000.
• Quality pillows ($100 — $200) that actually support your neck and spine. Purple makes an amazing pillow for under $200.
• Luxury bedding ($200 — $300) for that “hotel bed” experience.
• A smartwatch or fitness tracker ($200 — $300) for sleep tracking that’s just as good — if not better — than what smart mattresses offer. I’m a big fan of the Apple Watch.

When you add it all up, you still come in well under the cost of a smart mattress, and you get a superior sleeping experience without the technical headaches.

Just Say No to Smart Mattresses

The mattress industry is trying to convince you that sleep needs to be a high-tech endeavor, but the truth is far simpler.

A good mattress, good bedding, and a little common sense will do more for your sleep than any overpriced, app-dependent, firmware-updating monstrosity ever will.

Don’t fall for the gimmick — spend your money on comfort, not complexity.