Select Comfort Sleep Number Bed

Bad health can sure separate you from your money.

Folks will try most anything to get better with the least amount of effort. That includes spending huge amounts of money to have surgeries or to try the latest "cure" for whatever ails them.

In my case, I just have a bad back. And in 2003 I screwed up an iffy back quite thoroughly, resulting in two, count 'em, two, back surgeries in 2004.

In desperation, I tried different sleeping arrangements. I've spent more nights in my recliner than I can count. Nights where I would spend a couple of hours in the bed, then the recliner, the couch, the floor.

Whew!

But since 2003, the most consistently amenable sleeping arrangement for me is to make a "pallet" on the floor.

So at night, I roll out a layered set of pads and blankets next to our bed and sleep on that. And have for several years now.

Sometimes I would get optimistic and try sleeping in the bed again but after two or three nights, my back would get worse. So, back on the floor I would go.

We finally decided to try to buy a fine quality bed, but which one to buy?

To make a long story longer, we decided to look at, and ended up ordering a Sleep Number bed, if for no other reason than it gives me an infinite number of beds to try out. If I buy, say, a nice Sealy or Stearns and Foster, well, that bed is what it is. It's a single roll of the dice and if I can't sleep on it, then that's an expensive mistake.

Our choice of the Sleep Number bed was basically to have a great quality bed, but it adjusts, and therefore gives me many different settings to try. And if I can find a setting that allows me to sleep in bed as decent as I do on the floor, then that's money well spent.

But my hope is that I can eventually adjust it so that I can sleep all night, in bed, and sleep well. If I could start getting a decent night's sleep after 3 years, I think it would change my life and then the exorbitant price of the thing will have been justified.

Another good reason for this bed is that each side allows that person to set the firmness level of that side of the bed. Lovely Wife has always much preferred a soft bed, but had just dealt with having rock hard beds because of me.

I also hope that in addition to me finding a better way to sleep, that Lovely Wife can have her side of the bed softer and that she will sleep better too.

Last night was our first night on the bed, and she had her side set at #55. That's the number the person in the Select Comfort store helped her determine by laying on the beds in the showroom.

I slept pretty good. For one thing, I just lay there for a while, luxuriating in the softness of the pillow top and the nice sheets. I'm a simple guy, and clean set of nice sheets is a pleasure. I started out with my side of the bed set at 55, as determined in the store, but I quickly reset it up to 65.

After laying there a while, I still felt as if the bed was still a little too soft and bumped it up to 75, and that's how I spent the night.

One nice thing is that I slept through the night, and didn't have to get up and move to my recliner. That's a common night for me to have to do that.

I was sleeping well enough that I just turned off my alarm and kept sleeping for a little while longer.

Lovely Wife said she slept ok too, when she got up to let the dogs out, but she's still in there sleeping, so I can't give you a detailed report.

So, my first night in the new bed is a big "thumbs up."

I'm optimistic and hopeful that after time, we can dial in a level that will give us better sleep. Something we haven't had in a long, long, long time. Sure did have to write a big check to try this.

If it helps, it will have been worth the price though.

I'll keep y'all posted on any progress (or regress as the case may be).

No. This isn't a pay per post thingy. I was just giving y'all a report on how we slept for the first night in this hideously expensive bed.

It's a big deal to me.