Why the bedroom is the new living room for these busy Sleep Number^® bed owners.

Mike and Jennifer Kalata work together closely, in very different roles. Mike is a cardiologist with a private practice in Michigan, often on call all night. Jennifer “does everything else”: bookkeeping and accounting for Mike, managing a household with two busy kids, one a freshman in high school and the other a senior. “You know, people think stay-at-home moms don’t work, but it’s not easy—there’s a lot,” Jennifer says. “I serve as a mentor for the robotics program, I’m a cheer mom, a crew mom, I do fundraising stuff …” she goes through a long list, which culminates in managing the three-year-long process of renovating their house, which was just completed. “Really, I haven’t had a whole lot of time for myself.”

The night before she spoke to Sleep Number^®, Jennifer had been up late cleaning, getting to bed around midnight. Usually, she says, she sleeps on her side, with a Sleep Number^® setting around 55, but this time, she was exhausted, and simply slept on her back, leaving the setting at a full 100. In the morning, she was surprised to make the discovery, but, she reports, “I slept just fine—it was very supportive. It did what I needed it to do.” 

The Kalatas have five Sleep Number^® beds, although it took years of hesitation before they even had one. They first heard about Sleep Number around 2000, from neighbors who had one of the beds and loved it. But Jennifer resisted the hype: too gimmicky, not for her. But in 2012, more than a decade later and after trying other mattresses, Jennifer finally decided to give Sleep Number^® a shot. At the time, with the mattress she was using, her back was hurting every single morning: “I’d wake up and feel like my body was being folded in half. So I thought, ‘Let’s try a Sleep Number^®.’” And it took a couple of days, she says, to get used to the new bed—but soon she was sold. 

Today, Jennifer and Mike have five Sleep Number^® beds: one for the guestroom, one for each of their two kids, one for Jennifer, and one for Mike’s “call room,” where he sleeps when he’s on-call, which is often (he keeps his setting at 100). There are a couple of iLE beds, a couple of i8s, and excellent sleep throughout the house. Jennifer’s current bed has a FlexFit 3 adjustable base. Once again, she started with a bit of skepticism, but it soon faded: “I really did not expect to love it this much, but I do.” She’ll often put the bed in Zero G mode and watch television or work on her laptop, and when it’s time to sleep, she’s noticed that when she keeps her head elevated, she feels better in the morning. 

There’s been a similar reaction across her family: everyone is so happy with their beds that they’ve become the preferred places to lounge—“the bedroom is the new living room,” Jennifer says with a laugh. 

When her kids were young, Jennifer says, the days seemed so long, but now everything goes so fast. “It seems like my son just started high school and now it’s like, ‘Wait, you’re almost done, you’re leaving?’ Time does funny things, and it’s really more about what happens in that time. And sleep helps.” 

Jennifer’s Sleep Number setting is 55 (usually!) and Mike’s is 100. 

Want even better sleep? Sleepers who routinely use their Sleep Number 360^® smart bed features and SleepIQ^® technology get almost 100 hours more proven quality sleep per year.*

Like diet and exercise, quality sleep has a profound impact on our physical, emotional and mental wellbeing. Because no two people sleep the same, Sleep Number 360^® smart beds, with SleepIQ^® technology, sense your movements and automatically adjust firmness, comfort and support to keep you both sleeping comfortably and provide proven quality sleep. Find your Sleep Number^® setting for your best possible night's sleep, and if you own a Sleep Number^® bed, log in to your InnerCircle℠ Rewards account to see your exclusive offers, refer friends and more.

*Based on internal analysis of sleep sessions assessing sleepers who use multiple features of Sleep Number^® products. Claim based on sleepers achieving over 15 more minutes of restful sleep per sleep sessions.