Have you ever wondered what's inside one of those much-advertised "Sleep Number Beds"? Well, here you have it. The guts of my beloved bed. It cradles me, supports me, and is my haven( for about 10 years now). I really like my bed; I miss it when I travel. It's the bed you long for at 2 am—you can make it softer or firmer with just a touch of a button.
The last couple of months haven't been so great. I sleep fitfully and my back is sore when I wake up. I hit the inflate button, but I don't feel more support. I pondered the problem while in bed the night before last, and wondered in horror if one of the air chambers failed. The next morning, I removed the pillow top and peered inside. It did seem a bit flat. I lay down on the middle and pushed the inflate button. Whoosh. Support. Everywhere. I climbed off and pressed on various chambers. All were functional.
Since I do my best problem solving while prone, I laid down again, in the middle. It felt fine. Scruffdog joined me, and as he has done every night since he came to live with me a couple of months ago, glued himself to my left side. I automatically moved to the right side to give him room.
"Scruffdog." "A couple of months." "To the right side". Uh, oh. I think I see a pattern here.
As you can see, there's not much inflatable support near the edge. In fact, that gray stuff is foam—no inflation there. And apparently, the edge is where I've been sleeping while Scruffdog got the nice, plump middle chambers. Well, he was pretty badly injured when he got here. I wanted to be sure he slept well and didn't get bumped during the night. It worked! He's a feistly little healed-up booger now. I'd better reclaim the middle of the bed, before I become the one who needs special, injured-dog sleeping arrangements.
The last couple of months haven't been so great. I sleep fitfully and my back is sore when I wake up. I hit the inflate button, but I don't feel more support. I pondered the problem while in bed the night before last, and wondered in horror if one of the air chambers failed. The next morning, I removed the pillow top and peered inside. It did seem a bit flat. I lay down on the middle and pushed the inflate button. Whoosh. Support. Everywhere. I climbed off and pressed on various chambers. All were functional.
Since I do my best problem solving while prone, I laid down again, in the middle. It felt fine. Scruffdog joined me, and as he has done every night since he came to live with me a couple of months ago, glued himself to my left side. I automatically moved to the right side to give him room.
"Scruffdog." "A couple of months." "To the right side". Uh, oh. I think I see a pattern here.
As you can see, there's not much inflatable support near the edge. In fact, that gray stuff is foam—no inflation there. And apparently, the edge is where I've been sleeping while Scruffdog got the nice, plump middle chambers. Well, he was pretty badly injured when he got here. I wanted to be sure he slept well and didn't get bumped during the night. It worked! He's a feistly little healed-up booger now. I'd better reclaim the middle of the bed, before I become the one who needs special, injured-dog sleeping arrangements.
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2 comments:
I've always wondered what happens when during a totally sweet night of sleep the a Sleep Number Bed's dial-a-matic feature all of a sudden goes crazy and hits, like, 12,000. Does it launch you like a scud missile into the ceiling fan, or, does it sound an evacuation alarm and auto-dial 911? Things like this scare the bejeebers out of me.
Yep, evacuation alarm and auto-dial 911. That's why they're so expensive!
The truth is actually more boring. The bed can't inflate itself without the button being held down. Supposedly, it can't deflate without a button being held, either. But sometimes it goes into stealth mode, releasing just a little bit of pressure each night. You don't notice it (you've heard of the frog in the cauldron?) until one night you try to get into bed and your protruding bits hit bottom.
Your fear is well-founded, Anonymous. Just keep refusing to try crazy new stuff and you'll never give your bed the power to morph from a soft, welcoming mattress into something resembling a hammock!
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