I didn’t come to zero-gravity sleeping out of need. It was more of a “why not?” My Bedgear adjustable bed frame, which I’ve owned for years, has a “zero gravity” preset. I’d used it occasionally to watch TV but had never actually slept in that position.
Today, sleep has become less about simply getting through the night and more about getting it right. We track it, score it, optimize it—increasingly, posture has come into the conversation. It fits in with alignment quietly becoming a wellness fixation, from ergonomic office chairs that promise to save our spines to Pilates and yoga classes built around neutral pelvis alignment and the much-discussed pelvic floor problem. The message is clear: How you hold your body matters, and that extends to how your bed holds it while you sleep.
One night, as I was researching sleep studies for work, I came across a NASA-published paper describing a “neutral body posture” that astronauts naturally assume in microgravity, which is often cited as an ideal position for rest. Upon further digging, “That’s what it’s for,” I thought, eyeing the ZG button on my bed’s remote.
So I decided to give it a real trial: One full week of sleeping in zero-gravity mode. On night one, I climbed into bed, pressed the button, and prepared for what I thought would be a life-changing night’s sleep. Well … it wasn’t. Here’s what went down.
What Is Zero-Gravity Sleeping?
Photograph: Nicole Kinning
Zero-gravity sleeping is a reclined position where your head and upper body are elevated at about a 40-degree angle, while your knees are bent and raised slightly above the heart. The goal is to distribute body weight more evenly and reduce pressure on the spine.
The term comes from aerospace research. In microgravity, astronauts naturally drift into what NASA calls a neutral body posture: a relaxed, slightly flexed position in which the spine maintains its natural curves and the limbs float up without any effort. It’s a posture that NASA researchers repeatedly observed during shuttle missions, and the one the body seems to choose when gravity isn’t forcing it to lie flat.
That research didn’t stay confined to spaceflight. Over time, the idea of neutral body posture bled into ergonomics and consumer products, mainly adjustable chairs, recliners, and eventually beds. Manufacturers began borrowing the term “zero gravity” to describe preset positions that elevate the head and legs in an attempt to mimic that stress-reducing alignment.