Select Comfort Sleep Number Mattress Review

We have the Sleep Number bed, model c4, queen-size, with dual air chambers. The good stuff: As advertised, it's great for two people who have very different ideas of what makes a good mattress. The dual air chambers do allow us to have one side soft and the other firmer.

The bad stuff: It seems like a smaller sleeping area for the size. The outside edge of the bed as well as the middle wall separating the two chambers is a rather wide hard piece of foam. This reduces each sleep chamber area significantly, so that after sleeping fine on a regular queen-size bed we now feel a little cramped and wish we had a king-size.

My husband has back problems and really sleeps no better on this than a regular spring mattress. He's usually fine on it but if his back starts to bother him he tries to fiddle with his number, but usually it doesn't help much and he ends up moving to the other room with the firm spring mattress, where he usually sleeps better when his back acts up. I sleep fine on it myself. I suppose like any other mattress it comes down to what's most comfortable for each person.

If you're considering putting down as much money as these cost you might look into whether any hotels in an area you might travel to have the sleep number bed (the Radisson has them in some of their locations) and give it a try one night. Trying it in the store just isn't the same as sleeping on it for a night or two.