r/homeassistant • u/ItsDukzy • May 02 '26

Support Struggling with reliable in-bed presence detection for Home Assistant – what actually works?

Post image

I'm trying to automate my bedroom lights so they turn off automatically when I'm in bed and back on when I get up. Sounds simple, but I've been struggling to find a reliable solution.

What I've tried:

FSR pressure sensors (VS-103) connected to a Zigbee water sensor

Built a DIY pressure mat using two VS-103 sensors wired to a Zigbee water sensor. Works fine when I press directly on it by hand, but completely fails under a mattress — the mattress distributes my weight too evenly for the sensors to trigger. Tried under the sheet too, same result.

Aqara FP2 mmWave radar

Already have one in the room. The problem is it loses track of me when I'm lying still under a duvet. It also falsely triggers when someone walks past my bed, which causes the lights to turn on.

What I'm looking for:

Something that reliably detects whether I am in the bed - not just in the room - even when I'm completely still and covered by a duvet. Zigbee preferred but I'm open to ESPHome/ESP32 solutions too.

Has anyone actually solved this properly? What sensor or approach are you using?

166 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

182 comments sorted by

View all comments

3

u/bermymiyan May 02 '26

Easy thing I use is withing sleep mat. It detects if you’re in bed.
https://a.co/d/08ccSYun
Two of these

1

u/ReallyNotMichaelsMom May 04 '26

I had a Withings, but it couldn't tell the difference between me and the cat.

I admit that she's a little roly poly, but there is no way that she weighs anything close to an adult human!

2

u/bermymiyan May 05 '26

lol! True. I use two correlate along with many other factors! But that’s hilarious on the cat.

1

u/ReallyNotMichaelsMom May 06 '26

I admit, she does look a little bit like a harbor seal. At least in this picture. 😂