The Takeaway: Tempur-Pedic added smart connectivity and sleep-tracking capability to its adjustable power bases. I dug into the data to discover the root cause of a poor night’s slumber and utilized the adjustable base to improve my sleep schedule and the comfort of my sleep environment.
- Easy-to-use app with in-depth insights
- Adjustable base helps you find comfortable positions for lounging or sleeping
- Heavy power base makes moving it difficult
Price: $1,599 (Queen)
Sleep trackers are nothing new; plenty of smartwatches and apps out there aim to optimize your sleep by tracking how many hours you clock each night. But without the right bed, the high tech wrapped around your wrist may be moot. In effort to give you diagnostic data to help solve potential sleep woes, Tempur-Pedic has imbued its power bases with smart sleep-tracking technology in the Ergo Smart Base.
Tempur-Pedic already offers a range of Power Bases with anything from simple reclining features to full-body massagers. These adjustable bases are known to help with back pain, sleep apnea, and acid reflux. On the other hand, the smart sleep technology that Tempur-Pedic has added to their power bases is relatively new to the scene.
According to a 2015 study by the National Sleep Foundation and the Consumer Electronics Association, technology can help improve sleep quality by making users more aware of their sleep patterns and any issues they may have. However, just tracking sleep wasn’t quite enough—the most positive impact was seen with “active” sleep tech that actually guides users on how to change their behaviors to get better Zs. Dr. Michael Breus, aka the Sleep Doctor, claimed that the best technologies “must work to get beneath the symptoms of poor, insufficient sleep to help people address the root causes of their sleep problems, and make concrete, meaningful changes to their sleep-related behaviors.”
I tested the new Ergo Smart Base—with its features like sleep tracking, two-zone massage, adjustable head and foot angles, snore response, and more–to discover if the data and sleep tips it provides could really help me get better, deeper sleep.
To set up the base, I downloaded the Tempur-Pedic Sleeptracker app, paired my phone with the base via Wi-Fi, and then followed the steps on the app. After a straightforward setup of roughly five minutes (thanks to slow Wi-Fi), I was soon able to start messing around with the features.
In terms of adjustability, the base I tested offers head and leg positioning. By clicking a button on the supplied remote or the smartphone app, I was able to adjust from flat to a comfortable reclined position, with the head elevated and the feet up. There are also “Quiet” and “Zero G” settings; Quiet is intended to limit snoring by putting you in a comfortable position with your head slightly raised, and Zero G raises your shoulders and legs, which Tempur-Pedic says promotes wellness and relieves back pain. However, if you want something different, you still have custom control of head and leg tilt via individual up/down buttons on the remote. Dedicated buttons for each of the default positions quickly adjust the base to those.
I had little trouble finding comfortable lounging and sleeping positions, tending to use Zero G for relaxing and recovering from exercise. However, the TV mode was a bit too upright for me, so I typically manually adjusted to a more relaxed head position. For reference, I'm 5'8" and tend to sleep on my side and occasionally on my stomach. I found the default Quiet position quite comfortable and natural-feeling, but most nights I did raise my legs a touch above horizontal and lower the head slightly below the preset elevated position.
Once I found a position I liked for sleeping, I saved it as a favorite by holding down the star button on the remote until it flashes. After doing so, the base will return to that exact position without me having to fine-tune it each time. In most cases though, I just used the individual arrows to move the base around until I felt comfortable for any given moment. These functions are also available on the smartphone app. If you have multiple positions you want to save you can reprogram the Quiet mode and TV mode buttons to your liking.
Admittedly, I was a bit unsure of the usefulness of an adjustable base because I have always slept relatively well on a regular flat mattress. To my pleasant surprise, it turned out to be a major bonus when I was recovering from bike rides and other workouts. I was able to elevate my legs, to help reduce swelling, and prop up my head while watching TV. The massage mode also gently vibrates the mattress, and although I’m unsure if that specific function is strong enough to actually benefit recovery, it does feel good.
In addition, the base also has under-bed lighting. Aside from the unfortunate highlighting of dust bunnies, this turned out to be a useful feature when I was jumping out of bed in the middle of the night. USB ports on the bed frame also allow you to plug in your phone and other accessories for overnight charging, which was handy because the location of my bed blocks access to a few outlets.
Enough about the basic functions like adjustability, let's talk about what really makes this base stand out from the pack—its smart features. While sleep tracking isn’t new, the Ergo offers all of the standard metrics you’d find on devices that log your slumber and then some. The data on the Sleeptracker app is extremely detailed. After waking up, you can open the app and get all sorts of information on how your previous night’s sleep went. These metrics including anything from the air quality and temperature in the room to more personal information such as your heart rate, breath rate, movement, and how many times you woke up. It uses all of this data to determine how much time you spent in various levels of sleep.
The smart base also can make automatic adjustments to improve your sleep. Notably, it will adjust to Quiet mode if it hears you snoring too much. This was unobtrusive enough that I only noticed it happen once, during a particularly light phase of shut-eye, and promptly fell back to sleep. If you’re someone who snores or has a partner that does, it’s quite a useful feature provided you can reliably sleep through it. There’s an option to turn off the automatic snore response, though, if you find it isn’t working out for you. It’s worth noting that, while the mattress and base I tested were not split to allow individual control, if you are sleeping with a partner and want individual adjustments, Tempur-Pedic does offer split versions of its mattresses and bases.
After a few nights, the “AI Sleep Coach” will offer tips to help optimize your sleep. Mine mostly just told me to try to be more consistent with bedtimes, but it did offer other tips such as reminding me to unwind before going to bed so I could fall asleep faster. I found the data to be consistent with how well rested I felt the next morning. For example, if the app showed less deep sleep according to my sleep times and a color-coded chart, then I usually felt less rested the next morning. I also was able to line up poor sleep with other metrics like high humidity and temperature fluctuations in the room. So if you’re trying to figure out why you’re not sleeping well, the smart base provides plenty of data points to try to home in on what could be the cause.
Overall, I found the base to be helpful in terms of getting comfortable, which in my opinion is the most important variable in sleep. Are the extra smart features worth the $1,600 cost for a Queen base? At a $200 premium over the non-smart variety, adding smarts to the Ergo comes in a little cheaper than a year subscription to Whoop strap for sleep tracking. But with that said, there are other, more affordable options to track daily sleep and activity, such as the Garmin Vivosmart 4 at $130. If you were already looking to purchase an adjustable base and have an interest in just tracking your sleep and not your day-to-day activity, the $200 extra might be a solid investment, especially if you have a history of sleep issues. Unlike with some other adjustable base systems, you also don’t necessarily need to purchase a new mattress with this one: Any foam mattress will be compatible, though certain technology like snore response is only tested to work with Tempur-Pedic mattresses.
Smart data aside, the Tempur-Pedic Ergo Smart base does offer a more luxurious sleep experience over simply just having a good mattress on its own. On some nights, a simple raise of the legs or head was all I needed to drift off to a comfortable and restful sleep.
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