STARRY, STARRY NIGHT
In today’s fast-paced world, there is one thing practically everyone can appreciate: a good night’s sleep.
That, however, is not always an easy task. Sometimes the room is too hot or too cold, and those who sleep with a partner often find their sweet dreams interrupted by wall-rattling snores.
But sleepless nights of tossing and turning could become a thing of the past thanks to Leggett & Platt’s new Starry Night Sleep Technology. The bed offers a pioneering combination of technology and bedding that uses sleep analysis tools to moderate temperature, monitor body movements and alleviate snoring.
Creating the perfect sleep environment is only a fraction of what this technologically savvy bed can do. It also connects to home communication systems so that it can operate the television, play movies and music, dock an iPod, access the Internet, open and close draperies, and control the lighting. About the only thing this bed can’t do is kiss you good night — although it can set the stage for romance with just the push of a single button.
“Consumers told us they use their beds for much more than sleeping and having sex,” said Mark Quinn, group executive vice president of sales and marketing for the bedding division of Leggett & Platt and one of the bed’s co-creators. “The bed is a place for reading, watching movies, spending time with the kids, listening to music and even folding laundry.”
At a demonstration during the winter home-furnishings trade show at the World Market Center, Quinn said they hope the bed will change the way people think about sleep.
“Good sleep depends on how the bed feels and the room’s temperature,” Quinn said.
The Starry Night bed addresses both of these issues through its construction. Available in queen or king size, the bed features a dual-mattress system that allows individual adjustments for each sleeper depending on his or her needs and preferences.
The mattress itself is made with the manufacturer’s exclusive Joey coil innerspring system that uses a pocketed coil-within-coil system to create comfort for any size sleeper. The exterior coils respond to body movements while the interior coils are pressure sensitive and increase their firmness in response to the amount of weight applied.
To regulate temperatures, the bed uses a capillary-like liquid-based Peltier technology that can heat or cool the bed from 68 degrees to 117 degrees Fahrenheit.
This also can help reduce energy usage because the temperature in the entire room doesn’t have to be regulated, Quinn added. “It’s good for the sleeper and good for the environment.”
Starry Night uses vibration sensor and load cell technologies to measure how much a sleeper tosses and turns, and how often they get out of bed during the night. The same vibration sensor technology detects and monitors rhythmic breathing patterns that indicate relaxation or snoring. In the case of mild and moderate snoring, the bed is automatically raised in increments of 7 degrees until the vibrations subside, when it returns the bed to its original position.
Sleep patterns can be reviewed each morning on a bedside monitor called the Sleep Intelligence screen. The screen’s fever charts offer a chronology of movements and snoring during the night, and the history screen compares last night’s sleep to previously recorded sleep patterns. After a night of bad sleep, the tips section offers suggestions for improving a person’s energy during the day and getting a better night’s rest the following evening.
Additionally, the bed monitors sleep patterns for a 30-day period, after which it offers recommendations on how to improve sleeping conditions. The sleep report card can be sent to wireless phones and computers across the country, allowing it to become a way to double check on loved ones’ welfare as well, Quinn said.
The touch screen operates the bed’s features, as does the wireless remote. Both feature programmable options for specific activities that control multiple functions in a room.
During the demonstration, for example, the romance button turned off the primary lights, turned on a red accent light on an adjacent side table, lowered the bed to the flat position and played Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On” on the sound system. Another single touch set the stage for watching movies by dimming the lights, closing the curtains and raising the bed to the proper height. It also activated a projector in the headboard that cast a 120-inch screen on the wall.
Because Starry Night can be integrated into the home’s electronic components, it can act as an alarm clock or security system allowing bed occupants to survey other rooms in the home as well as the exterior, Quinn said.
All this technology does come at a price. The bed will retail between $20,000 and $50,000, depending on the features selected.
Unfortunately, those craving this advanced technological sleep system will have to wait a while. It’s not scheduled for public availability until the first part of 2009. Quinn said the first beds will feature just the sleep analysis features; later models will incorporate the entertainment features.
Additional information is available at www.StarryNightBed.com.
