Sleep Number

I spent my stimulus check. Well, a little more than it, actually.

The last camping type air mattress I bought in February had started losing air. It was the most expensive one I've got to figure out how to put in a warranty claim on it, see if I can't recover some money or get a replacement to use as an actual camping/guest bed mattress.



I'd already looked into conventional mattresses and discovered that by the time you get to something worth sleeping on, you're well on your way to a thousand bucks. A third of your lifetime and all that rationalization aside, my back isn't young enough or resilient enough for a crappy bed. I already max out my chiropractic benefits on my insurance, and that's to just keep the problems engaged, not entirely solved.

I had a queen sized box from a soft-side waterbed gone bad years ago. That's what my camping mattresses had been resting on. It saved me having to also pay out for a foundation when I went bed shopping.

One of the virtues of those camping mattresses: they're super comfy. So Sleep Number beds make sense to me. Because if I could get an air bed that wouldn't leak in a few months, I'd still use the camping mattresses just for comfort alone.

Still, I worried about leaks. But I've known several people to get these beds and never heard anyone complain of a problem. And it has a twenty year warranty, so they'd have to be built a little stouter, right?

Plus, waking up several times a night to reinflate my Aerobed to get me off the box was getting old, so I pulled the trigger.



The package came to me at work Friday. I had to sign for it, so I couldn't have it shipped to my house. The salesman checked the dimensions of the box and assured me it would fit easily in the back seat of a Honda Accord.

Dude wasn't going to blow his sale, right?

In truth, I had to unpack the larger box and arrange the items in it throughout the car.



Em was excited to help me assemble it. They should label it 'So simple, a 12-year-old can do it.' Because, basically, a 12-year-old did most of it. Places where the instructions puzzled me, she saw the solution right away.

When I was still married to her mother, we'd buy something like an entertainment center, and I'd try to set it up. I might make it ten minutes or an hour, but I never got very far with the actual project. Then my wife would take over and it would be done.

Em apparently got that instruction-reading gene from her Ma.



The verdict? It's a super comfortable bed, but the right side chamber lost pressure in the night and I had to reinflate it. Today I re-fastened the air hose for it. If that doesn't work, there's a plug I'm supposed to try. Then it's call Customer Service and tell them to send me a new bladder, I guess. It sure as hell should still be under warranty, right?

Oh, and that whole 'what's your sleep number?' thing. 70 seems pretty good.