The Beds.com Community Powered by the Sleep Number Bed from Select Comfort : Mattress

Recently, we started posting stories from real-life Sleep Number owners from folks all across the country. Our first official post was from one of our newest Sleep Number Insiders, Gregory Brown.

Today, I’d like to share the story of Christopher Klingensmith of Nevada, a long-time and loyal Sleep Number owner of 10 years. Christopher shared his story on our Facebook page recently, and we love his unique journey to quality sleep.

Sleep Number Profile

Name: Christopher Klingensmith
Hometown: Lakes Crossing, Nevada
Occupation: Truck driver when I bought the Sleep Number bed, current business owner
Age: 44 years old
Sleep Number® Setting: 65

Question: You mentioned on the Sleep Number Facebook page that you bought a Sleep Number bed only after trying a Tempur-Pedic bed. Can you talk a little about your thought process and why you chose the Sleep Number bed?

The first mattress I ever bought was when I was just starting life after high school and had very little discretionary income. The entire set included a mattress, box spring, two pillows and a sheet set. As I recall I paid $299 for the whole thing, so you can imagine the quality. To be perfectly frank I think the pillows were made of paper and the sheets were three-count hemp rope that was once used to tie up ships! The mattress was only six inches thick when it was new and over time eventually compressed down to about four inches.

I frequently woke up stiff and not at all rested, so I purposed in my mind to buy a “quality” mattress when I could afford one. When the time came to “upgrade” I was shocked to see the cost for what at the time was considered a “quality” mattress. I figured I can’t live with what I have now so if I’m going to have to spend that much, I might as well see what else is available.

While visiting the Brookstone store in a mall, I was able to try the Tempur-Pedic. The sales associate told me there was a 90-day in-home trial and if I didn’t like it all I had to pay was $50 to ship it back. While I found the Tempur-Pedic to be very comfortable, one issue that presented itself immediately was the fact that it was difficult to turn over during the night because I would “sink” into the bed.  Ultimately, I would wake up without the stiffness from the spring mattress but I was fatigued from having to wake up several times a night to turn over.

After three weeks, I sent the Tempur-Pedic back and purchased a Sleep Number bed.

Question: You also had an interesting process for determining your Sleep Number. Would you mind sharing what you and your partner did? How did you land on that approach?

To be honest I discovered a very simple way of determining our personal preference in terms of Sleep Numbers by goofing around one night. About two or three days after purchasing the Sleep Number bed, my wife and I were reading before going to sleep and just to be funny I let all the air out of my chamber so that I would be sitting in a hole while she remained afloat on her chamber.

After that, I filled my chamber to 100 while lying flat on my back (my primary sleep position) and then ran it back down to zero. As the air chamber was deflating I eventually hit a neutral point of buoyancy where I could no longer feel pressure on any portion of my body and then simply stopped the air from escaping the chamber. Since the Sleep Number bed isn’t rocket science, just simple displacement of pressure, I tell people my “Displacement Number” is 65.

Question: On the same Facebook post I mentioned earlier, you also said you actually get LESS sleep now but feel MORE refreshed. To what do you attribute that switch? And how many hours of sleep are you getting each night?

It wasn’t long after our purchase that we noticed our sleep requirement went from 8 to 8.5 hours a night or more down to an average of 6.5 to 7 hours due to the quality of rest we experienced.

Of the people who have ever taken an interest in our story about the Sleep Number bed, every single one has been concerned about the price. Here’s generally what I tell them (This is my actual response to a post I made on my personal Facebook page regarding the Sleep Number Bed):

M. says “30 year mortgage on it????”

My response:

“LOL… You’re the Greatest M.!  I sure miss your keen wit and gorgeous smile (and D. too). In truth, neither (Tempur / Sleep Number) was inexpensive. Think about it this way, if we were to average the 1 to 1.5 extra waking hours a day that we’ve gained down to just 1 hour a day, that would mean that we’d each have gained 365 extra hours or 15.2 days a year.”

“As it happens, we’ve had it for 10 years now; so cumulatively RK and I have each gained (so far) access to 152.08 extra days of life experiences that normally we would’ve missed by being asleep.  And… this doesn’t include the added health benefits of being well rested.”

“Another way I could look at it is if I were approaching the end of my life (and I knew it), what would the value of an extra 152.08 extra days of living (so far) be vs. the extra dollars we spent? Only time will tell, but as we both know people can justify anything and this is how I choose to look at it .”