On earth, zero gravity mode isn’t about feeling weightless so much as feeling supported using gentle elevation to nudge your body and legs into a more relaxed alignment. This distinction matters. “Most claims about sleep benefits tend to be exaggerated in the marketing world,” says Erin Flynn-Evans, director of the Fatigue Countermeasures Laboratory at NASA Ames Research Center. “What really matters is whether such claims can stand up to scientific scrutiny.” NASA’s research simply documents posture in space—not how people should sleep on Earth.
Benefits of Zero-Gravity Sleeping
Semantics aside, the claims around zero-gravity sleeping are compelling. “Short-term, people notice less tossing and turning and deeper comfort. Long-term, it supports spinal alignment, reduces inflammation, and helps the nervous system shift into true rest and repair,” says Annie Schlecht, a sleep consultant and occupational therapist who also practices craniosacral therapy.
According to Schlecht, the gentle elevation can ease specific issues like lower back pain, sciatica, hip and joint discomfort, arthritis, and leg swelling. Keeping the upper body slightly raised can also benefit people with reflux, snoring, or mild breathing issues by keeping the airway more open.
How to Sleep in Zero Gravity
If you want to try zero-gravity sleeping, the most straightforward way is with an adjustable bed frame that is able to lift both the head and the legs. Press a button, and let the bed do the work. Of course, adjustable frames aren’t cheap or even standard. You can get pretty close by using pillows: Use a wedge pillow or stacked pillows to elevate your upper body and place another pillow underneath your knees to lift your legs.
Photograph: Julia Forbes
“The biggest mistake is overdoing it,” Schlecht says. “Too much elevation, especially at the head, can strain the neck and disrupt breathing.” She also cautions that changing your sleep position won’t compensate for a bad sleep space. “Alignment helps, but it can’t override too much light exposure, heat, or noise pollution.”
She recommends starting with small adjustments. Give yourself enough knee elevation to relieve your lower back, then gradually lift your head while keeping your airway open. And make sure your neck is supported: “Your spine should feel long and neutral,” she says. “And give your body a few nights to adapt.”
How I Measured
Almost every night, I wear a Garmin Lily 2 smartwatch to bed. It generates a nightly sleep score, which I don’t usually obsess over. I tend to adjust my sleep habits based on how I feel, but for the sake of this experiment, I wanted some data to back up my findings.
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Photograph: Adrienne So
The Garmin Lily 2 automatically tracks sleep as you’re wearing it, calculating a sleep score using data from your heart rate, heart rate variability, respiration rate, and body movement throughout the night. It estimates time spent in each sleep stage, how often I wake up, and how restless I am. All of this info gets condensed into the sleep score, a single number from 0 to 100 that appears in the Garmin Connect app each morning.
For seven consecutive nights, I slept in the zero-gravity position and recorded my sleep score. I didn’t change anything else about my routine: same bedtime, same wake-up times, same presleep habits. The only variable was the position of my bed, which I adjusted when I was ready to fall asleep.
