My husband had been complaining about our mattress for about two years before I finally acquiesced to doing something about it. See I feel the same way about mattress shopping as I do car shopping. I know I’m going to be bombarded by salespeople who aren’t going to listen to me. I’m going to test drive something, but I won’t be driving it the way I drive normally (and there will be someone staring at me and asking me questions while I do it). We’re going to end up “crunching numbers” as an incentive for us to buy. And as an added bonus, there’s no real way to do any price comparison going from mattress store to mattress store. Essentially, mattress shopping is an introvert’s nightmare.So I put it off until we were at the chiropractor’s so much we were inviting them out to dinner like old friends.
When we finally realized the 17-year-old mattress had to go, I texted my brother, instructing him to tell me why he loves his Sleep Number bed. And that weekend my husband and I headed to our local Sleep Number store with more than a little bit of fear and dread. This mattress buying experience was an introvert’s dream. Our salesperson, Matt, was amazing, telling us all the little intricacies of every bed, going into all the details, and then literally leaving us alone to mull over our choices. We had to get his attention to tell him our decision.
The last day of school, the bed was delivered and set up. While it was the best “Welcome to Summer Present” ever, it wasn’t without drama. First, we didn’t get the cat secured, the delivery guys wouldn’t close the slider in the bedroom, we were convinced she got out (she didn’t the terrified cat was hiding behind the gas fireplace), and the delivery guys didn’t share anything about the actual mechanics of the bed. This was going to be a serious problem in the future.
Look closely, and you’ll see her.
Flash-forward to this weekend, approximately one month into bed ownership. My husband was totally happy with the bed. Responsive Air adjusted the mattress perfectly for him every time he got into bed, the cat got over her fear of the noise the bed made and the bed’s movements, and the dog was sleeping a little too peacefully each night (and clearly taking up more room than she should). I, on the other hand, was not so happy. My responsive air had stopped working.
And we didn’t know the mechanics of the bed to attempt to troubleshoot it.
And so, I did what any introvert would do, I went to the live chat feature on the app. Unfortunately, my chat help told me to call the helpline. And with great trepidation, I did. I was going to feel stupid. I was going to break the bed. I was going to blow up the house. Who knew what was going to happen! The myriad of horrible thoughts ran through my head as I touched the number from the chat screen to call.
Luckily, I had amazing help. I wish I could remember her name, but suffice it to say, she didn’t make me feel stupid, and she helped me not only fix the problem but understand the mechanics of the bed.
To make a long story painfully longer, after checking the air hoses for kinks, checking the connection at the pump, which I was able to do by raising the foot section of the bed’s base (something I didn’t think of as I started to crawl around on the floor). Nothing seemed out of whack. We tried one last thing, the connection where the air hose connects to the mattress. There was a smidge too much air hose between the base and the mattress connection. I pulled the air hose through, resecured it with the handy-dandy clips on the base. And then we started to try out different sleep numbers in order to check inflation and deflation.
It seems that if that air hose got a small pinch between mattress and base and the bed tried to adjust to my needs, the air hose would tell the bed there was enough air there. In fact, it was actually letting air out of my side of the bed because it was afraid of overinflation. The bed seems to think it’s smarter than me (and sometimes it might be right).
Responsive Air is working like a dream on both sides of the bed. My sleep has improved. However, the bed has decided to scold me for reading in bed too long before I fall asleep. It will tell me things like, “If you’re not asleep after 20 minutes, get out of bed, go to another room, and do something relaxing in dim light until you feel sleepy.” I’ll give the bed some credit for using the Oxford comma, but seriously, doesn’t the bed know it’s summer vacation?
