How To Buy The Best Adjustable Bed
What is an Adjustable Bed?
You can think of adjustable beds almost as the smartphone of beds. They come with an assortment of bells and whistles, options and extras. Here are some of the most in-demand features available on the most popular beds.
- Dual Adjustment: Some beds allow each side to be adjusted independently, allowing both sleepers complete control over their positioning.
- Height Adjustment: Adjusting a bed’s height can make it more accessible, so this is a popular feature for those with limited mobility.
- Zero Gravity: If you ever wanted to sleep like an astronaut, then a zero gravity adjustable bed offers you the chance. Though a bed like this doesn’t literally cancel gravity, it provides an optimal position to simulate the easing of strain on the body that is usually only possible in weightless conditions.
- Memory Position: It can save time and hassle if the bed can remember favored positions.
- Timed Adjustment: Particularly for people with mobility problems or for elderly sleepers, changing sleep positions during the night can be difficult. Yet we naturally change sleep position to ease the strain that a single, prolonged position puts on the body. With a timed adjustment bed, you can set the bed to change at set times during the night, reducing overall strain or otherwise preparing the bed for you.
- Wall Hugging: It can put a damper on an adjustable bed’s luxury to find yourself out of reach of your bedside furniture. Wall hugging beds shift to ensure you remain aligned with the rest of the room.
- Massage Feature: Some adjustable beds provide massage settings, including gentle vibrating alarms. These can help to relieve pressure and pain, creating a relaxing experience.
- Lighting: Some beds provide under-bed lighting, which can be useful for using the storage space beneath.
- USB Ports: USB ports for charging devices like phones and tablets are a popular modern option, making it easier to use said devices in bed without taking up extra power outlets.
- Alarm: For a gentler wake-up call, some adjustable beds feature a vibrating alarm.
- Bluetooth: Controlling devices via an app is a convenient and often-desired feature these days. Many adjustable beds come with Bluetooth connectivity, allowing users to control the bed using a smartphone.
Who Might Want an Adjustable Bed
Adjustable beds are usually a step above what people invest in a bed, but they’re an ideal solution for certain sleepers who may struggle with a traditional bed or could achieve a better night’s sleep with an adjustable one.
Examples of sleepers who may benefit the most from an adjustable bed include the following:
If you snore:
If you snore, an elevated sleeping position can help open up your airways and reduce snoring. This is particularly true for back sleepers, which typically aggravates snoring problems.
If you have sleep apnea: Sleep apnea follows much the same pattern as problematic snoring, being aggravated by back sleeping. Sleepers can ease symptoms with an elevated sleeping position that helps to open up the airways.
If you have poor circulation:
Sleepers who suffer from poor circulation can often struggle with numbness or low temperature in their extremities that can be intensely uncomfortable. Elevating the body’s “chokepoints” like the knees or elevating your feet above the level of your heart.
If you’re pregnant:
Pregnant women can suffer from poor circulation and pain. Adjustable beds can help take some of the strain off, improve circulation, and, with zero gravity positioning, take away the extra weight.
If you have chronic or acute pain:
Chronic or acute pain can make sleeping a chore or almost torture. When your body responds poorly to the usual sleep positions, it can lead to long-term problems with insomnia. Adjustable beds allow you to control the exact position of your body during sleep, so you can find a position that puts the least amount of stress on the body.
Older couples:
Older couples can struggle with limited mobility and many older people are also light sleepers. An adjustable bed can help older couples enter or leave the bed and also find a sleep position that allows for a deeper sleep.
Pros and Cons of Adjustable Beds
- Reduced Snoring: Adjustable beds can relieve snoring by elevating the head, which can be useful for chronic snorers or those with sleep apnea.
- Comfort: Adjustable beds offer an unmatched level of comfort, as you can choose the perfect position for you. Zero gravity beds can provide a near-weightless experience.
- Pain relief: For chronic pain sufferers, an adjustable bed can reduce strain make sleeping less painful.
- Customization: An adjustable bed gives a sleeper complete control over their sleep experience to a level not achievable with an ordinary bed and mattress.
- Convenience: Many adjustable beds come with a variety of convenience features, from USB charging points to lighting.
- Accessibility: Elderly people or those with mobility issues can find it easier to get into and sleep in an adjustable bed.
- Short Lifespan: Due to their complexity, adjustable beds have more points of failure than a typical bed. Motorized and electrical components often give out much earlier than the bed frame.
- Expense: Adjustable beds are expensive and the price only goes up the more features they have.
- Finding the right mattress: Purchasing an adjustable bed may mean spending extra for a suitable mattress, and finding the right one isn’t always easy.
- Heavy: Mechanical and robust, adjustable beds are heavy, which can make installation or later removal difficult.
- Incorrect usage: If you’re not a physiotherapist, you could unknowingly make problems worse by choosing an unsuitable sleeping position.
- Cost: Really good adjustable beds arent exactly very cheap – they are an investment.
Considerations When Choosing an Adjustable Beds
Not all adjustable beds are the same, so it’s important to take a few key points into consideration when choosing a bed. Here are a few things to consider:
Does it offer dual adjustment?
Some adjustable beds offer dual adjustment, which allows sleepers to adjust the two sides of the bed independently. This will be a must-have for many sleepers, as those who shop for an adjustable bed often have specific needs in mind that their partner may not share.
A single person buying an adjustable bed will typically consider this less of a core feature—though it can be nice to have the two sides set up for different preferences!
What features do I need?
We’ve already covered the list of features commonly offered in adjustable beds. When shopping, you’ll need to think about which of those features are important to you. For shoppers with a budget, you’ll further need to sort your features into must-haves, like-to-haves, and optional luxuries.
Couples, for example, are more likely to need a bed with dual adjustment. For older sleepers, modern features like USB ports or Bluetooth connectivity may be less important.
What type of mattress will I need?
The model of your adjustable bed isn’t the only thing you’ll need to think about. To get the maximum benefit, you’ll need to pair it with a suitable mattress. The ideal mattress for an adjustable bed is pliable and lightweight.
- Innerspring mattresses: Innerspring mattresses are the most classic kind of mattress and are often the cheapest, but they have notable problems when paired with an adjustable bed. They have poor malleability and are often heavy, so their lower price comes at the cost of reduced performance.
- Hybrid mattresses: Hybrid mattresses suffer many of the same problems as innerspring mattresses when paired with adjustable beds. While they may use adjustment-friendly materials like latex or memory foam, they can remain limited by their coil base layers.
- Latex mattresses: Latex mattresses make excellent partners for adjustable beds, though it’s often beneficial to go with a thinner mattress to offset some of the rigidity of a latex mattress.
- Memory foam mattresses: Like latex mattresses, memory foam is lightweight and can conform to the surface of an adjustable bed. This makes memory foam mattresses one of the best partners for an adjustable bed.
What is the weight limit?
For heavier sleepers, paying attention to the bed’s weight limit will be vital to ensure you get its full benefits. A typical adjustable bed rates between 500 and 1000 pounds. Placing too much weight on an adjustable bed can wear out its motors. Take care that when purchasing a bed, you consider your weight, the weight of your partner, and the weight of your mattress.
What is the return policy and warranty?
Adjustable beds are expensive and so represent a serious investment. Before you make a purchase, pay close attention to the return policy and warranty to ensure you have coverage that will last a long time. Pay particular attention to the warranty, as some may only cover certain elements of the bed.
Key Categories To Rate An Adjustable Bed
There are many qualities to consider when choosing an adjustable bed. To make our top choices, we looked at a few key categories to decide how a bed performs. Here are some of the criteria we used to evaluate them:
Durability
Adjustable beds can be expensive and they’re complicated devices. In other words, an adjustable bed with poor durability will be prone to failure and end up costing a lot of money. We looked at durability to get a good idea of how long the bed will last.
Price
With the price point of adjustable beds being relatively high, it’s important to know when you’re getting good value. We compare a bed’s features and performance to its cost to analyze whether the bed represents a good investment.
Features
Adjustable beds usually come with a mix of several common features, such as dual adjustment, wall-hugging, and other convenience features like USB charging ports. We weighed which features rated as must-haves and which we considered the icing on the cake to evaluate the overall performance of the bed.
Warranty
Good warranty terms help secure your investment in an adjustable bed. To ensure you get the maximum possible value, we focus on beds with good warranty. Adjustable bed warranty can be quite complex, due to the multiple elements that make up an adjustable bed, so it’s important to read the small print to discover what the warranty covers.
