X
CNET logo Why You Can Trust CNET

Our expert, award-winning staff selects the products we cover and rigorously researches and tests our top picks. If you buy through our links, we may get a commission. Reviews ethics statement

Sleep Number 360 review: This $7,600 smart bed isn't smart enough

Sleep Number's pricey 360 Smart Bed tells you how you slept, but it needs to do much more.

Megan Wollerton Former Senior Writer/Editor
8 min read

Let's start with the good stuff. The sensors built into the Sleep Number 360 Smart Bed really do work. They tracked my breathing rate and my heart rate every night for the nearly four months I slept on them, as well as how long I slept and how restful that sleep was. The bed also tracked my husband Kevin's sleep separately via the profile he created in the same SleepIQ app. 

6.9

Sleep Number 360

The Good

Sleep Number's 360 Smart Bed with the king FlexTop P6 mattress, the FlexFit 1 traditional base and two DualTemp mattress pads is highly customizable -- adjust the firmness, incline and temperature of your side of the bed whenever you want. Your partner can do the same on their side.

The Bad

At $7,600, this bed is incredibly expensive (the price includes optional accessories like the DualTemp pads, priced individually and configured exactly as I tested it). It doesn't work with Alexa, Google Assistant or any other major voice platforms. It doesn't automate anything for you; you have to decipher the data it collects and adjust your settings manually.

The Bottom Line

Sleep Number's 360 Smart Bed has genuine appeal, but its limited support for smart home platforms and inability to auto-adjust settings leaves the guess work up to you -- for too much money.

Along with the ability to view your "sleep score" every morning and your sleep averages over time, we could individually adjust each side of the bed to our preferred firmness via the included remote or straight from the free app. Optional accessories, like the motorized base and the DualTemp heating and cooling mattress pads, add extra layers of functionality to an already high-tech bed. 

At the same time, the Sleep Number 360 Smart Bed is missing something major. For all of the data it collects -- you can even pair third-party apps like Nest and Fitbit to gather your temperature and fitness stats -- you don't get much back in return. Where's the Alexa skill? Why can't this bed use the info it gathers to auto-adjust your bed's settings (or even your Nest's set temperature) for you? 

The specific king-size 360 Smart Bed I tested costs a whopping $7,600. It's a comfortable, customizable bed to be sure, but it can't actually do much with the loads of information it gathers about you. That makes it hard to recommend to most. I'd instead suggest the Eight Sleep Tracker. It costs just $419 for a king mattress cover, complete with sleep tracking, an Alexa skill, IFTTT compatibility and a heating function. 

Note: The Sleep Number 360 Smart Bed is only sold in the US. At the current exchange rate, $7,600 coverts to roughly £5,900 and AU$10,310. 

Sleep Number's 360 Smart Bed gives you tons of tools to track your zzz's

See all photos

Inside the Sleep Number 360 Smart Bed

The best part about the Sleep Number 360 Smart Bed is its customizability. That starts with the various configurations available for the bed itself. I tested the $3,800 king FlexTop P6 mattress, the $2,100 FlexFit 1 traditional base and two $850 DualTemp mattress pads. All together, that comes to $7,600. 

Since we're comparing the 360 bed to queen-size competitors from Beautyrest, Eight and Winkbed, I priced out the queen version of the bed I tested -- it comes to $5,500. 

Whether it's a king or a queen bed, the 360 Smart Bed by Sleep Number, with optional accessories like the FlexFit 1 base and the DualTemp pads, is expensive. See how it stacks up against other connected beds in the chart below.

Comparing smart beds


Sleep Number 360 Smart BedBeautyrest SmartMotion Base 3Eight Mars+Winkbed Cool Control Base
Price $7,600 total: $3,800 FlexTop P6 king mattress/$2,100 FlexFit 1 traditional base/$1,700 two DualTemp mattress padsBase $1,499/Sleeptracker $199Mattress: $1,399/Base: $275/Smart cover sleep tracker: $399 Base $2,200 / LUXURY FIRM WinkBed $1,299
Mattress material Foam
Foam
Hybrid spring/foamHybrid spring/foam
Size we tested KingQueenQueenQueen
Motorized base Yes, with optional FlexFit baseYesNoNo, can buy one for $3,000 extra
App YesYesYesYes
Heating Yes, with optional DualTemp mattress padsNoYesYes
Cooling Yes, with optional DualTemp mattress padsNoNoYes
Smart home partners NestAmazon AlexaAmazon Alexa, IFTTT, NestNo
Sleep tracking YesYesYesNo
Heart rate YesYesYesNo
Breathing rate YesYesYesNo
Does it track sides/zones? YesYesYesYes
Remote YesYesNoYes, 2
Massage NoYesNoNo
Other notable features Automatic under-bed nightlight4 USB chargersNoNo

The Sleep Number 360 Smart Bed is by far the priciest product we tested in this roundup. Again, its customizability is what sets it apart. You can adjust the firmness of the FlexTop P6 mattress straight from the app, or from the included remote -- and each side of the bed is individually customizable. I tend to like my mattress a little firmer than Kevin, so we both got what we wanted from the same mattress.

The FlexFit 1 base, combined with the FlexTop P6 mattress lets you adjust the incline of each side of the bed. If Kevin wants to stay up later than me and read, he can use the app, the remote -- or the "favorites" button on his side of the bed (my side has one, too) -- to move the motorized base into an upright position, just on one side. 

This allows for a lot of flexibility, since you can be in bed without having to lie flat or use tons of pillows to prop yourself up. But in order for each side to raise and lower independently, the top section of the mattress is split. That means you can't really sleep in the middle of the mattress, since there's an obvious divide between the two sides that really isn't comfortable. For that reason, I personally wouldn't want this particular style of mattress, but it does work well and isn't very noisy.

The FlexFit 1 base also has a built-in nightlight under the bed that can automatically turn on and off when you get out of bed at night. 

The SleepIQ app also has a setting that's supposed to stop snoring when you have a FlexFit base, but it isn't as neat as it sounds. Sleep Number puts a default option in the app that you can select when you wake up to your partner snoring. The setting slightly raises your partner's head using the motorized base and is supposed to ease their snoring. I expected the bed to "listen" for snoring and automatically adjust the bed ideally before it wakes up anyone else, but it doesn't work that way. So if Kevin woke up to me snoring, he'd have to go into the app and press the "snore" default setting to raise up my side of the bed. Fortunately, neither of us snores, so it didn't become an issue. 

sleep-number-bed-2

Use the DualTemp remote to adjust the mattress pad's heating and cooling settings.

Chris Monroe/CNET

The final component is the two DualTemp mattress pads, one pad per side. The DualTemp pads are essentially plug-in ventilation systems that pump cool or warm air -- or simply circulate room temperature air -- through a hose under your bed into the pad. Each pad sits over your mattress pad and under your fitted sheet. 

DualTemp is a reasonable addition if you regularly feel too warm or cool in bed, but each pad costs $850, so that's an additional $1,700 for a king mattress. In theory, you could add this to any mattress, but it doesn't have a smart component. Each pad is instead controllable from the dedicated DualTemp remote control. Sleep Number should really add DualTemp control to the SleepIQ app, where everything else is accessible. 

Even so, it was ridiculously easy to set up and use. Simply plug in the control unit, stick it under your bed and make sure the hose isn't coiled or otherwise obstructed to allow for full air circulation. From there, you create a profile with the remote and control your side of the bed, as needed. Press the power button on the remote to turn it off. This worked well, but the highest settings that pump out the max amount of cool or warm air is loud, similar to a white noise machine. Kevin liked it; I found it annoying. 

sleepnumber1
Enlarge Image
sleepnumber1

The SleepIQ app is your main point of access to most Sleep Number settings, aside from DualTemp heating and cooling. 

Screenshots by CNET

In the SleepIQ app (see above), you can set goals and see how your last night's sleep compares. For example, last night I got a sleep score of 84. It says, "You slept 56 minutes less than your goal of 8 hours. 6 hours and 25 mins of that time was restful sleep." From there, the app gives you a generic suggestion that could be applicable to you, but isn't personalized, "If it's still light outside at bedtime, use light-blocking curtains or shades on bedroom windows; small amounts of light can disrupt sleep." 

In the second screenshot above you can see how my sleep (the blue line) compares to the temperature in my home (the orange line) via our Nest Thermostat E. According to the data, I got my best night's sleep when it was 73 degrees in our house. Of course, that sleep score could be due to a variety of factors, but the data from the Nest helps introduce one potential variable in your overall sleep score. The final screenshot shows the easy in-app interface for adjusting your side of the bed and setting a "favorite" setting that you can select in the app or with the button on the side of your bed. 

The Sleep Number It Bed I reviewed back in 2016 essentially offers the same features as the 360, including sleep tracking and support for Nest, just without the adjustable base or the DualTemp mattress pads. My complaint then was similar. The It Bed collected a lot of information about me, but didn't use any of it to automatically adjust any bed or third-party device settings. It didn't have Alexa, either. It looks like Sleep Number hasn't changed much in two years. 

sleep-number-bed-3
Enlarge Image
sleep-number-bed-3

Use the favorites button on the side of your bed to adjust the frame to your preferred setting for reading, watching TV and more. 

Chris Monroe/CNET

Getting in bed with the competition

Here's the thing, though. You can get a lot of the same sleep-tracking functionality from a much less expensive product. Eight sells mattresses, but its main smart device is its Sleep Tracker mattress pad. Ashlee Clark Thompson reviewed both the Eight Mars+ mattress and the Sleep Tracker mattress pad. 

For just $419 in a king size and $399 in a queen size, the Eight Sleep Tracker retrofits to existing mattresses and tells you how you slept each night and even has an integrated heating element to keep you warm (it has dual sides, too, so your partner can track their sleep separately). The negative is that you're missing all of that customization with the mattress firmness and the motorized base you get from Sleep Number, but you can use whatever frame and mattress you want with the Eight Sleep Tracker, so you still have tons of options. Eight's Sleep Tracker also works with Alexa, IFTTT and Nest so you can connect your bed to more devices in your home. 

The $199 Beautyrest Sleeptracker works similarly to Eight's version, but it's a device you put under your mattress, rather than a pad you fit over the entire mattress. You need one Beautyrest Sleeptracker per person,and you automatically get two with your $199 purchase (there's no single pack available). Beautyrest's Sleeptracker only works with Alexa, though, and Molly Price said its tracking wasn't as reliable as she expected during testing. 

wink-bed-7
Enlarge Image
wink-bed-7

Unlike Sleep Number and Eight, you have to buy the Winkbed mattress to use the bed's temperature control feature. 

Chris Monroe/CNET

The WinkBed CoolControl Base that Brian Bennett tested was the most disappointing smart bed of the bunch. The Android version of the app was unreliable and the bed didn't track sleep; it only provides heating and cooling to keep you comfortable while you sleep. That's a nice feature, but it isn't enough on its own to make it worthwhile (especially when you consider its hit-or-miss app and high price: $1,299 for the queen Luxury Firm mattress and $2,200 for the corresponding base). And, unlike the Eight and Sleep Number temperature controls, the WinkBed's version is built into the mattress. That means you have to buy the mattress to get that feature, rather than simply buying one Eight Sleep Tracker mattress pad or two Sleep Number DualTemp pads. The WinkBed also doesn't work with any major smart home platforms. 

Four fancy smart beds for a better night's sleep

See all photos

The verdict

The Sleep Number 360 Smart Bed is highly customizable, with optional add-ons, like the FlexFit 1 base and the DualTemp pads that add to its flexibility. That's what you're paying for. If you want those options, this bed could be worth it to you. 

The sleep tracking functions work well, too, but I expect more for the thousands you're throwing down. I want this bed to do a better job intuiting my needs based on the tons of data it collects and automatically adjusting the settings for me. I also want it to work with a major voice platform like Alexa. Given that Eight and Beautyrest have managed it, I'm not sure why Sleep Number hasn't yet.

Overall, the 360 bed is very good as far as comfort, flexibility and app control goes, but it still isn't a great smart bed. Look to the Eight Sleep Tracker if you hate the idea of a wearable on your wrist while you're in bed, but you still want to see how well you're sleeping at night. 

6.9

Sleep Number 360

Score Breakdown

Features 6.5Usability 7Design 7Performance 7