Real-time support for your back, neck, and shoulders—no more waking up sore.

The memory-foam pillow has forgotten how you like to nod off and the innerspring mattress has seen better nights. Don’t lose sleep over it: AI technology will help send you to dreamland, and then keep you there.

It’s widely known that AI is being used in attempts to tackle all sorts of health problems. With the development of “smart mattresses”, pioneered by the Heka brand in 2013 and refined over a decade in partnership between Silicon Valley and Stanford University scientists, it is addressing the global problem of insufficient sleep. Heka opened its New Zealand flagship store in Newmarket, Auckland, in August.

How do they work? Normal mattresses are motionless; adjustable mattresses can be raised or lowered to suit your sleep position. AI mattresses take things several steps further, deploying technology and artificial intelligence to track your sleep and improve its quality.

With highly advanced sensors, the Heka mattress monitors your body’s pressure points, alignment and movement, then adjusts support levels in real time. It provides customised spinal alignment and provides optimal pressure relief, especially for the lumbar and cervical areas, by responding to changes in sleep position for continuous comfort and support.

Developers say their algorithms dynamically adjust based on each sleeper’s characteristics, such as height, weight, and body type, to provide a personalised sleep experience. The fine-tuned sensors can even detect snoring and adjust the sleeper’s head position to open airways for easier breathing.

Jamie M. Zeitzer, Heka’s co-founder, is a professor at Stanford’s School of Medicine and co-director of the university’s Center for Sleep and Circadian Sciences. He says that by adjusting to the user’s sleep position, the AI mattress protects the neck, back and waist, effectively improving sleep quality, reducing nerve stimulation and enhancing deep sleep.

Bonus: that minimises the aches and pains when you wake up after sleeping in the wrong position.

“Traditional material mattresses with fixed structures cannot adapt to the different physiological curves of the cervical and lumbar spine in various sleep positions. Studies show that a person’s sleep positions change dozens of times throughout the night, and the body’s curves differ with each position,” Zeitzer says.

“A single pillow and traditional mattress cannot automatically adapt to these changes throughout the night. Moreover, most traditional mattresses are either too soft or too hard, with the former failing to provide sufficient support and the latter potentially causing excessive pressure on certain areas, both of which are detrimental to spinal and sleep health.”

Traditional beds and pillows lack the adaptability of an AI mattress to support the body across different sleep positions. Each shift from back to side requires varied support, but a single, fixed mattress and pillow often can’t adjust overnight to provide that comfort. This can leave certain areas unsupported, contributing to neck and shoulder tension.

“This is where the intelligent adjustment technology of the Heka AI mattress comes into play. It can actively adjust support for the shoulders and back in real time, match the pillow’s height, and provide the right amount of support no matter how the sleep position changes, effectively relieving body pressure and promoting deep sleep.”

Zeitzer says Heka’s AI mattress can recognise body shape and sleep position, compute the best pressure distribution for the current sleep position based on algorithms and sleep science, and make precise adjustments to ensure appropriate support for the body during sleep.

Yes, this gets personal: because it adapts to different body types, weights and sleep positions, the other side of the bed isn’t disturbed.

Collaborating between the university experts and its high-tech designers, Heka has recently developed its sixth-generation AI mattress. This iteration embraces technological innovations and upgrades to enhance intelligence capabilities and user experience, significantly enhancing response speed and strength.

Heka is a global AI life science company with its global research centre in Silicon Valley and high-end design centre in Paris. It has over 630 sleep experience centres from Europe, the US, Asia to the Auckland store.

As you’d expect, an AI mattress showroom experience is a little more high-tech than the old-school “lie on it and see if it’s soft/hard enough” style.

Sally, brand manager for Heka AI Mattress in New Zealand, says when visitors come to the showroom they not only try the mattress; they are offered a personalised sleep analysis.

“We have an app that connects to the mattress via Bluetooth. When a client lies down, the app allows them to see real-time pressure data from various areas of their body, whether they’re lying on their back or side,” says Sally.

“They can also feel the mattress automatically adjust to their body and watch as the pressure values change throughout the adjustment process.

“In the end, the app generates a personalised pressure report tailored to their unique needs.”

She says feedback has been excellent and several mattresses have already found their way into Kiwi bedrooms – some to doctors who are using the mattress at home and have passed on the word to their clients.

Heka products are sold across five continents and have over 200,000 users. The company says its extensive network provides strong support for users and offers convenient, professional sleep consulting services worldwide.

More info: hekasleep.co.nz