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What Are the Problems With Sleep Number Beds?
Sleep Number beds are high-end smart beds with easily adjustable firmness levels. These beds contain two air chambers that allow two sleepers to finely tune their preferred firmness level on their own side of the bed using a remote. Some of the Sleep Number beds also offer temperature control, helping keep a sleeper warm or cool overnight, depending on their needs.
With this amount of technology, there are more potential problems that can arise in a Sleep Number bed compared to the average mattress. We scoured social media like Reddit and Facebook, verified reviews from customers, and Sleep Number’s own troubleshooting articles to understand what problems everyday users are facing. We’ll walk you through the most common problems people have with Sleep Number beds, as well as ways to solve those problems.
Sagging, Body Impressions, or Indentations
Some sleepers who own Sleep Number beds have complained that their mattress began sagging over time. Sagging can refer to body impressions, dips, indentations, and any other ways of describing a mattress surface that is no longer level, even when it’s fully inflated, on a level surface, and has no one sitting or lying on it.
Note that it is normal to see indentations when the Sleep Number bed isn’t fully inflated. It is also normal for a brand new mattress to take a couple days to fully expand. If your mattress isn’t fully inflated, or, if you’ve only had your mattress for a couple of days, you may not have sagging.
To check whether or not your Sleep Number bed is experiencing sagging, inflate both sides of the mattress to 100. Next, remove the bedding from your mattress. Then, look carefully to see if there are any spots where the mattress dips or sags. According to customer complaints, these beds are most likely to experience sagging in the middle where the two air chambers meet, in the spots where people routinely lay, or near the corners or edges.
Sagging on a Sleep Number bed is often due to issues with the foam comfort layer or the mattress cover. The foam comfort layer can be replaced, which should fix the issue if that layer is causing sagging. The cover can be fluffed, which may fix the issue. If fluffing the cover doesn’t help, the cover can also be replaced. Replacement for these parts is covered under Sleep Number’s warranty, which provides free replacements within the first year and replacements at a cost for later years.
Night Sweats
While sleepers can experience night sweats for a variety of reasons, we found multiple complaints, comments, and reviews reporting that Sleep Number beds sleep too hot. The presence of foam is likely the culprit for those who feel increased heat when sleeping on a Sleep Number bed. Many Sleep Number beds contain foam layers, and foam is more likely to trap heat than other mattress materials.
Sleep Number has a support page about what to do if your Sleep Number bed is too hot at night. They frame “sleeping too warm” as a good thing and suggest it’s “a sign that the mattress is doing what it is supposed to; providing proper support!” Sleep Number recommends checking for nearby heat sources, moving the foam comfort pad, and swapping out your bedding if you sleep too hot.
Some Sleep Number beds have an adjustable temperature option that may help you avoid sweating during the night if that’s been an issue for you. The Sleep Number Performance, Innovation, and ClimateCoolTM mattress lines all allow you to control your bed’s temperature to some degree. Experimenting with different temperature settings could be your solution to night sweats, if you have one of these mattress models.
If you have a Sleep Number model that doesn’t have temperature control features, you may need to find other ways to stay cool at night. Turning down the thermostat before bed and sleeping in lightweight pajamas and with lightweight bedding are common options.
Deflation or Air Loss
Since Sleep Number beds contain air chambers, one potential malfunction they can experience is the loss of air. When a Sleep Number bed is losing air, it may be unable to maintain the firmness level you require to stay supported throughout the night. People generally recognize that they have air loss when their Sleep Number bed won’t properly inflate or won’t remain inflated for very long.
According to Sleep Number, when a mattress is experiencing air loss, it generally becomes less firm after sleeping on it for even one night. Other signs of air loss can include the air pump running continuously or taking an unusually long time to fill up the mattress with air.
Sleep Number has a page dedicated to troubleshooting issues with air loss. Instructions vary depending on the type of bed your bed came with, but involve steps like changing settings, checking hose connections, or disconnecting the pump to identify the potential cause of the air loss. If you’re still having trouble after you try all the steps listed for your pump, Sleep Number recommends contacting their customer service team for next steps.
Minor fluctuations between 5 and 15 firmness setting points are normal and do not indicate air loss. Sometimes other factors like your room temperature, when you take an air pressure reading, and how recently you were on the bed can affect firmness setting readings, but these minor fluctuations and discrepancies don’t suggest air loss is occurring.
Noise
When you’re adjusting the firmness of your Sleep Number bed, you may hear a faint sound coming from the air pump or control system. This sound is normal and shouldn’t be loud. If the sound bothers you, putting a floor rug under your bed so the sound isn’t amplified by bouncing off of the floor may help.
However, some people with Sleep Number beds report the bed being noisy in general, even when they aren’t adjusting its firmness. Sleep Number says general mattress noise is usually the result of a loose frame or the mattress base rubbing against a metal bed frame. Tightening a loose frame or attaching legs to the bed base can solve these issues.
Discomfort or Pain
Many people seek out a Sleep Number mattress in hopes that its adjustable firmness feature will help relieve their sleep-related pain or discomfort. But, some people find that they feel discomfort on a Sleep Number bed or wake up in pain after sleeping on one.
Usually, a person feels discomfort or pain after sleeping on a mattress because the bed isn’t the right firmness level. Because the Sleep Number firmness level can be adjusted, discomfort or pain can usually be remedied by experimenting with different firmness levels and finding the ideal firmness for your body and sleep position. Trying a different type of pillow or sleeping position may also help. Sleep Number offers suggestions for how to adjust firmness settings depending on the type of pain you’re in and your most common sleeping position.
Safety Risks
Like any other household furniture or appliance with mechanical or electrical components, airbeds and adjustable bed bases carry a risk of malfunctioning and causing injury to owners.
In December 2024, a wrongful death lawsuit was filed against the Sleep Number Corporation and Leggett & Pratt Inc., the manufacturer of Sleep Number beds. The complaint alleges that the adjustable base of a Sleep Number bed lowered without warning and trapped an elderly woman between the bed and her wall, where she remained unable to move for two days until first responders freed her. She passed away one month later while in hospice care.
While injuries and deaths of this nature are rare, adjustable bed bases from any manufacturer pose a potential safety risk to owners. If you purchase an adjustable base, be sure to consult the owner’s manual when installing the bed and operating it for the first time. If mechanical or electrical problems occur, contact the manufacturer and avoid using the bed until the issue is resolved.
How to Troubleshoot Sleep Number Mattress Problems
If you’re having a problem with your Sleep Number bed, your best first step might be searching their support website for relevant articles. Sleep Number has a page with all of their mattress’ owner’s manuals, as well as a troubleshooting page with links to how to troubleshoot 16 different problems. If that first step isn’t helpful, you may want to consider using diagnostics or contacting the company.
Use Diagnostics
Sleep Number mattresses are smart mattresses that connect to a Sleep Number app. You can use that app to run diagnostics when you suspect there’s a problem with your mattress or its remote. The app works with many Apple and Android mobile devices. A page on the Sleep Number website describes how to run diagnostics on your bed using the app.
Contact Sleep Number
If you can’t identify how to fix a problem with your Sleep Number mattress using the owner’s manual, an online troubleshooting guide, or diagnostics through the app, it’s likely time to contact the company. You can reach out to their support team through a chat box found in the lower right corner of their website. You can also call them at (888) 411-2188.
How to Use the Sleep Number Mattress Warranty
If you have a significant problem with your Sleep Number mattress, you may want to make a warranty claim.
Sleep Number offers a 15-year warranty on most of their mattresses and bed bases. This offer consists of a 1-year full warranty and a 14-year limited warranty. To file a warranty claim, a person must contact Sleep Number customer service at (800) 472-7185 or contact Sleep Number in writing at Sleep Number Customer Service, 1001 Third Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN, 55404.
To be able to use the warranty, a person must keep their original receipt, only use their mattress on an appropriate foundation, keep the law label on the mattress, and keep the mattress in sanitary condition.
During the first year of the warranty, Sleep Number will repair, replace, or refund the mattress if any “defect in materials or workmanship” has become apparent “under normal use and service.” They will do this at no cost, after troubleshooting potential problems and determining that there isn’t a simpler fix available.
During the remainder of the warranty, Sleep Number will repair, replace, or refund the mattress for the same reason. However, in this case, the customer is responsible for a portion of the cost. The percentage of the cost associated with repairing, replacing, or refunding a mattress that the customer is responsible for ranges from 35% to 85% and depends on what year of the warranty they are in. The customer is also responsible for any related taxes and shipping fees.
How to Return Your Sleep Number Mattress
If your Sleep Number mattress is having problems and you just bought it recently, you may want to return or exchange it. Most Sleep Number mattresses come with a 100-night sleep trial during which you can return or exchange your mattress. This trial begins the day your mattress arrives at your home and gives you time to try out the mattress and decide whether or not it works for you. If you decide to return it, you must pay to ship your mattress back to the company.
Because adjusting to a new mattress can take time, Sleep Number does not allow customers to initiate a return until day 31 of the 100-night trial period. To initiate a return or exchange, contact the Sleep Number customer service at (800) 472-7185. They can share instructions on how to return or exchange your mattress. All returns must be authorized by calling this number. Mattresses that are sent back to Sleep Number without prior authorization will be thrown away and a refund won’t be given.
If a mattress was sold as a “final sale” item, it cannot be returned. Also, you may only return or exchange a mattress once. That means if you return a mattress and buy a different one or exchange your mattress for another one, that second mattress is considered a final sale and cannot be returned.
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Jackson leads editorial product recommendations at Sleep Foundation, transforming the data from our sleep product test lab into real world takeaways for consumers. He has spent over half a decade developing protocol to evaluate and measure the impacts of products on sleep quality. As a cited sleep product expert, Jackson helps guide millions of shoppers to find personalized recommendations for everything from pillows to bedding to mattresses.