Sleep Number Beds

Russell Bateman
October 2023
last update:


Sleep Number bed products are gimmicks. Unless you really have to go up and down, you may as well (and more cheaply) find a traditional mattress. Personally, I keep mine at 100 and I never lower it.


When the pump no longer fills the mattress(es)

If you disassemble a Sleep Number bed inflated to 100 (for sure, maybe smaller numbers too), reassembling it will result in making you think that the pump no longer works.

Symptomatically, when you plug the pump back in, you'll hear a clunking sound.

If you have experience with the bed, you'll quickly associate the clunking sound with the soun it makes whenever you use the remote control to fill the bed when it's already at 100%.

So, what's going on is that the mattress(es) deflated at disassembly and no longer match what the remotes think. So, they tell the pump not to fill (or, that the mattress(es) is(are) already full and the pump shuts down.

The trick to getting back into working order is to fix the remote so that it thinks the bed is empty. Then it won't tell the pump to stop. You may find this discussion useful, particularly the bit about "Re-sync the pump and the remote."

Don't walk down deep into the battery-checking, disassembly of the remotes, etc. before simply trying to change the remote's mind about how full the bed is. Also, these instructions do not necessarily jive with your bed model. None of mine have an 'R' on their remotes for example.