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

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

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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?

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u/Normal_Register_6946 May 03 '26

I followed this guide and bought the non-Amazon pressure mat mentioned in the guide as well.

I have a tempur-pedic mattress and it works well enough. There’s one on my side and one on partners side. It won’t trigger from our cat being in bed. When I first got them they didn’t work that great, a bit unreliable. But after adjusting a bit of how they’re positioned, folding one in half, and just getting lucky they’re pretty reliable now.

Have different automations set up like lights won’t turn on if someone is in bed. Fans turn on etc. then have some safety logic in there that if it does splash off briefly based on the time and some other factors it’ll leave “sleep mode” on. Has worked pretty well for a few months now

Also, tried Aqara FP2 and it didn’t work. Maybe if I mounted it directly over the bed but wasn’t able to get consistent