Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
One of my own One professional mattress tester for over six years sees the names “adjustable mattress,” “adjustable frame,” and “smart bed” being used interchangeably. Although they are interconnected products that can rely on each other to maximize performance and overall sleep experience, each offers distinct qualities. It doesn’t help that these products consistently appear in the same search results as each other, and are often labeled interchangeably by manufacturers. When that happens, of course, they will be confused. To make matters worse, you may think you have everything you need at checkout, only to discover that you’re adding an extra product that you didn’t plan for.
It’s time to set the record straight and fine-tune your understanding of all types of adjustable mattresses. Under my wings you go to begin this journey.
Updated March 2026: I’ve reworked this story to include information about smart beds, as well as a template I recommend.
Adjustable mattresses
What is an adjustable mattress? Simply put, it is designed to allow users to adjust how soft or firm their bed is. Adjustable mattresses do not follow the same design as adjustable mattresses Regular mattressBecause they have internal air chambers or coil adjustment mechanisms that help you achieve the stiffness you are looking for. While a glorified air mattress may come to mind (and that’s arguably the case for many adjustable mattresses), there’s a lot of physical makeup here. To pump these air chambers, a lot of automation and piping technologies are used. Hence, it is not a budget buy.
Depending on the brand and model you choose, another common feature among adjustable mattresses is the ability to move the head and feet up and down, as in Renewed personal comfort. Some models may not include this, depending on the brand and frequency, but it is also a cost driver. This feature is where frames and adjustable mattresses are likely to get confused, as an adjustable mattress cannot perform this range of motion without the aid of an adjustable frame.
Smart family
This is where things get more nuanced, and in my professional opinion, the industry could become more simplistic in its terminology. In the vast majority of cases (at least with the models I’ve looked at, interacted with, and tested), smart beds offer the same range of motion capabilities as adjustable mattresses. To achieve this, they need an additional adjustable frame. Adjustable mattresses will rely on some degree of technology integration in order to change the overall level of firmness. Smart beds do that too. However, in my book, what truly defines a smart bed is how advanced its extra programming is.
A prime example of this is Bright Balance Pro. This smart bed provides targeted support by adjusting coil zones that automatically adapt to you, even while you sleep. It’s also a sleep tracker in its own right, displaying metrics like heart rate, breathing rate, and sleep stages. The bed is entirely app-controlled, with an AI sleep concierge that can help you tweak your sleep experience. This particular smart bed also offers “massage” settings that move coils in a wave manner to lull you to sleep. The Balance Pro is designed to provide this within the mattress itself, while adjustable bases typically provide a massage feature for other smart beds and adjustable mattresses.