As you research home hospital beds, you may come across the term “wall hugger adjustable bed.” Wall hugging is not a common feature on hospital beds designed for domestic use, but it is a beneficial one—especially for people who spend a lot of their day in bed.
This article explains everything you need to know about the best wall hugging adjustable beds, including:
- What are wall hugger adjustable beds?
- The difference between wall-hugging and other adjustable beds.
- The features to look out for in the best wall hugger adjustable beds.
- Whether a wall hugger adjustable bed is the right choice for you.
What is a Wall Hugger Adjustable Bed?
A wall hugger adjustable bed is similar to other adjustable beds, but with the addition of one important feature. When you raise or lower the head adjustment, the bed keeps you close to the wall instead of moving you forward and away from the wall. That might seem like a small change, but it makes a big difference to the bed’s occupant, and it requires some clever engineering.
Consider a regular adjustable bed. You’re lying down, and the bed is in its flat position. Before going to sleep, you put your glasses on the table next to you. Now you want to sit up and watch some TV. You grab the bed’s remote control and use it to raise yourself into a sitting position.
Next, you reach for your glasses. But they aren’t where you expect them to be. When you raised the bed to sit up, its top section pivoted from a fixed point, moving you away from the wall and the table that sits next to it.
The table and your glasses are now behind you. To get your glasses, you have to twist and stretch to reach around the side of the bed or over the top. That’s annoying for someone in good health, but it may be impossible or even dangerous for someone with physical or cognitive limitations.
It’s easy to fall out of bed and injure yourself when reaching behind you. People who struggle to twist and stretch may have to get out of bed, increasing the risk of falling and injury.
Contrast this scenario to a wall-hugging adjustable bed. It works just the same. You use the bed’s remote control to raise the bed’s head and help you to sit up. But this time, the bed moves you backward as it raises you into a sitting position. You stay the same distance from the wall as you were when lying down. When you reach for your glasses, they’re right next to you in easy reach.
Wall Hugger Adjustable Beds vs. Standard Adjustable Beds
To make wall-hugging possible, wall hugger adjustable bed frames are fitted with mechanisms that glide the occupant backward the same amount they are moved forwards as they sit up. Standard adjustable beds don’t have this mechanism, so the occupant is moved away from the wall as they sit up.
For some people, this isn’t an issue. They may not mind repositioning bedside tables or sitting further away from the wall than usual. However, for people who prefer to sit close to the wall or who would struggle to reach behind them, the wall-hugging mechanism can make a big difference to their quality of life.
The wall-hugging feature is more important in a home environment than in a hospital or care facility. Professional care facilities often have tables and other equipment that are easy to move and caregivers who can help physically challenged patients to move them.
However, in the home environment, people often prefer home hospital beds that fit in with their existing possessions in the home environment. They don’t want to replace their furniture with wheeled alternatives designed for medical settings. They need the help an adjustable bed offers, but they want to maintain the comfort and familiarity of their own furniture and decor. A wall-hugging adjustable bed gives them the best of both worlds.
Features to Look For
The wall-hugging ability is just one of the features you should look for in a home hospital bed. Wall hugging is valued by many people, but it isn’t the primary reason they need an adjustable bed at home. Other features to look for include:
- The bed’s adjustments. These depend on the customer’s specific needs, but you should expect your wall hugger adjustable bed to include a Hi-Low adjustment to raise and lower the bed’s height, as well as head and foot adjustments. Before buying an adjustable bed, ensure that the hi-low mechanism has a suitable range of motion to meet your needs.
- Control mechanism. Look for an easy-to-use remote control with full access to all of the bed’s features.
- Hidden mechanisms. Adjustable beds designed for the home should conceal their electrical and mechanical components as much as possible. A well-designed home hospital bed should look good in your home.
Which Adjustable Beds Are Wall Huggers?
The TransferMaster Supernal Hi-Low is a full-featured wall hugger adjustable bed. It includes head and foot adjustments alongside a hi-low height adjustment with a height range of 10.5″-20.5”—perfect for wheelchair transfers.
Additional headline features on the Supernal Hi-Low include a European-style head tilt mechanism, a wireless remote control, and built-in variable massage settings.
The Supernal Hi-Low is available in Twin 80, Full 80, Queen, or Dual King sizes. Read How to Choose the Right Size and Weight Capacity for Your Hospital Bed to learn more about adjustable bed sizes.
How Much Weight Can A Wall Hugger Adjustable Bed Support?
The weight-bearing capacity of wall hugger adjustable beds varies. The Supernal Hi-Low has a weight capacity of 400 lbs or 500 lbs, depending on the model selected. We recommend a bariatric hospital bed if you need an adjustable bed with a higher weight capacity. Bariatric beds have a maximum capacity of 750 lbs.
You can learn more about bariatric beds from Should I Buy a Bariatric Bed? and 7 Bariatric Bed Questions You Were Afraid to Ask.
Will a Wall Hugger Bed Frame Damage Your Mattress?
We recommend using a mattress designed for home hospital beds. A wall hugger bed may not damage your existing mattress, but standard consumer mattresses are not engineered to work well with adjustable beds. Hospital bed mattresses are thinner and more flexible than consumer-grade mattresses. This allows the mattress to conform to the bed’s adjustments more easily without compromising the comfort and safety of the bed’s occupants.
Mattresses suitable for use with the Supernal Hi-Low wall hugger adjustable bed include:
- The Ascent Hospital Bed Mattresses, a progressive laminated foam mattress designed to maintain a healthy skin environment.
- The Soft Touch Memory Foam Mattress, a low-profile memory foam mattress with border-edge protection to prevent slipping.
We wrote more about selecting the best home hospital mattress in How to Choose the Best Hospital Bed Mattress.
Who Benefits from a Wall Hugger Adjustable Bed Base?
Anyone who uses a home hospital bed benefits from the wall-hugging feature, but it is especially helpful to those who spend a long time in bed because of illness or disability. A bed-ridden person’s bed must be as safe, convenient, and comfortable as possible, and a wall hugger adjustable bed can be a considerable quality of life improvement.
If you think a wall-hugging adjustable bed is the right choice for you or someone you care for, visit the Supernal Hi-Low home hospital bed or contact a bed expert for more information.
