How we rate
Every number on this site traces to one product database, one documented cost rule, and documented weights. This page is the documentation.
Scope: strictly non-medical
SleepGearHQ reviews comfort and bedroom-environment gear only — cooling, sound, light, and wake-up devices. We do not cover supplements, and we make no claims that any product diagnoses, treats, mitigates, or prevents insomnia, sleep apnea, or any other disorder or health condition. RestScore measures how well gear changes your environment, nothing more. If sleep problems persist, talk to a doctor.
The RestScore
RestScore is a 0–100 editorial score across five weighted axes, applied identically to all 12 products in the database:
- Problem efficacy (in class)30%
- Does it actually move the needle on the problem it claims — heat, noise, light, partner disruption, mornings — judged against other gear in its own class, not across classes?
- Comfort25%
- Gear you take off at 2 a.m. fixes nothing. Fit through the night, side-sleeper friendliness, noise and feel of the device itself — comfort failures are efficacy failures in disguise.
- Build & longevity15%
- Materials, mechanical durability, and whether the product keeps working in year three the way it did in week one.
- Subscription honesty15%
- Required memberships cost points heavily; optional subscriptions cost a little if the marketing leans on paywalled features; truly subscription-free gear earns them back. The badge on every card comes from this axis.
- Value15%
- Problem-solving per 3-year dollar — judged against the honest total (sticker + required membership), never the sticker alone.
The honest subscription math
One rule, applied to every price you see on this site:
- Required subscriptions are billed in full. If the gear doesn't do its core job without a plan, the plan IS the price: our year-1 and 3-year figures add the midpoint of the membership range (cheapest annual billing to priciest monthly billing) to the sticker. Those products wear the rose SUB REQUIRED badge.
- Optional subscriptions are disclosed, never billed. If the core function works free and the plan only gates extra content, we keep the sticker as the honest price and flag the upsell on the card. Pretending an optional sub is mandatory would be its own kind of dishonesty.
- No subscription means no subscription. The sage NO SUBSCRIPTION badge means there is no plan at any tier — what you pay at checkout is the whole story.
Problem-first matching
Every product is tagged with the problems it credibly addresses (heat, noise, light, partner, mornings), and every /fix page re-ranks the catalog for one problem only — then lays the same picks out as a price ladder, cheapest fix first. We will always tell you to try the $25 rung before the $2,599 one.
Where the numbers come from
Manufacturer published pricing and plan pages, checked against major-retailer street prices. Prices are typical street-price bands, not live quotes — they drift with sales, and we correct them when they drift materially. Spot a stale number? Tell us — a correction recomputes every ladder, ranking, and verdict automatically.
Commissions and the firewall
SleepGearHQ earns affiliate commissions — including from Amazon — when you buy through our links. Scores and rankings are computed from the database before any link is attached; no brand sees, sponsors, or edits a rating. A product that requires a membership keeps its SUB REQUIRED badge no matter how well its links convert.
Corrections
Pricing and spec corrections get priority over everything else — the database is the product. Contact us.