All I Wanted for Christmas Was Good Sleep—This Tool Granted My Wish

“], “filter”: { “nextExceptions”: “img, blockquote, div”, “nextContainsExceptions”: “img, blockquote, a.btn, a.o-button”} }”>

“I might be lifeless with out the Eight Sleep,” my boyfriend Kyle introduced just lately.

He might have some extent—not less than in relation to us not killing one another from sleep deprivation. Neglect slicing out alcohol, limiting display screen time, taking magic tablets, sacrificing your first born to the serotonin gods, and no matter different sleep hacks you’ve tried. The Eight Sleep Pod 4 has single-handedly turned me from a licensed Horrible Sleeper right into a Sleep Champion. And whereas I’m not one to conflate correlation with causation, working hasn’t felt this good since my early 20s.

Eight Sleep what now? The Eight Sleep Pod 4 is like Silicon Valley waved a magic wand over your Norwegian grandmother’s electrical mattress topper whereas singing “bippity-boppity-boo!” That’s to say, it’s a temperature-regulating mattress cowl with all of the bells and whistles you can ever need after which some. It may warmth or cool all sides of the mattress manually or routinely primarily based on sensible sensors that monitor issues like restlessness, time awake, and loud night breathing.

In our lives, there may be now solely BES (Earlier than Eight Sleep) and AES (After Eight Sleep). And no, I’m not being paid to say that. BES, summer season confirmed up with zero chill, fairly actually, to our hometown of Boulder, Colorado, this yr. The common excessive that month was an unwelcome 88 levels, with the nights barely dipping under 60. Sleeping in our unairconditioned second-story house might have been a patented type of torture.

Going to mattress scorching sprawled out on prime of the covers, I’d get up in the midst of the evening chilly and pull the covers over me—solely to go to sleep and be rewoken from sweat dripping down my again. Sizzling, chilly, scorching, chilly, scorching, chilly, every evening felt like a endless dance to Katie Perry within the interior circle of hell. Temporary moments of unconsciousness had been usually shattered by Kyle restlessly kicking his legs like he was frantically swimming away from Jaws over on the opposite facet of the mattress.

My sleep and well being metrics mirrored this nightly nightmare. It takes multiple hand to rely the variety of June mornings I woke as much as the silent alarm bell of a drenched t-shirt and a splitting headache. In case I couldn’t already inform, my Oura ring additionally instructed me I wasn’t getting the really useful one to 2 hours of deep sleep an evening. I used to be too busy spending not less than an hour (generally many greater than that) restlessly tossing and turning.

Boo hoo, cry me a river little Abby wasn’t sleeping good, I do know. However this can be a overview for a $2,600 mattress cowl, what did you count on? For those who, too, stay with out central air in an apocalyptic area of the world affected by temperamental climate, then you recognize the drill. I longed to get out of city and sleep in an air conditioned resort room, regardless of how exhausting the mattress; get attacked by mosquitoes below the open skies within the mountains; or be smooshed between ear-curdling screaming infants on an airplane—wherever cooler than in our 600-square-foot inferno.

That’s, till our knight in a black case, the Eight Sleep Pod 4, arrived on the finish of June. Like dumping ice water in your head in the midst of a scorching race, the impact was instant. After sleeping on our Eight Sleep for 4 and a half months and thru two seasons, I’m lastly able to let you know whether or not it’s definitely worth the $2,600 price ticket.

Why Eight Sleep?

For those who’ve heard of Eight Sleep, you most likely realize it’s backed by quite a few superstar endorsements. What it’s possible you’ll not know is that it’s been quietly bought by quite a few Olympians—a few of whom went to the lengths of bringing their Eight Sleep with them to the Paris Olympic Video games this summer season. However there are a good variety of temperature-regulating mattresses and mattress toppers in the marketplace. Every thing from reminiscence foam toppers that (theoretically) uniformly cool the mattress because of warmth trapping supplies (these will value you about $200-$300), fan-powered toppers ($1500-$2000), and cooling mattress “methods” like Eight Sleep.

Whereas I run scorching, I don’t run almost as scorching as Kyle. Therefore, I needed an answer that may a) be efficient sufficient to really quiet down the mattress and b) present dual-temperature management so we might each sleep comfortably. That instantly dominated out the primary two classes. And in relation to mattress cooling methods, there aren’t that many choices to select from. However they’re all in the identical worth vary, so when you select: think about this overview extra of a overview of the mattress cooling system idea than the product itself. Eight Sleep additionally provides the Pod 4 Extremely, which for almost double the value ($4,500) comes with a dual-controlled mattress body that may be manually and routinely adjusted up and down. We’re not fairly that fancy.

What’s the Eight Sleep Pod 4?

The Eight Sleep Pod 4 is bodily proof that darkish magic exists. However actually, it’s a mattress cowl with an online of rubber tubes and sensors coated by a delicate fleece black topper. It’s very comfortable, and also you don’t really feel the tubes or sensors in any respect. Like a fitted sheet, it’s elasticized for a cosy match over your mattress. Kyle put it on the mattress with no snafus whereas I used to be away.

The mattress connects to a black field concerning the measurement of a giant shoe field referred to as the hub, which controls each side of the mattress individually primarily based in your private preferences, sleep stage, and the ambient temperature. To set it up, you merely add water as much as the indicator line within the hub and snap the lid again on. (We’ve got but to expertise a leak or another kind of malfunction, though there’s a five-year guarantee.)

When you’ve set your Eight Sleep up, the enjoyable begins:

Temperature Regulation

You possibly can regulate the temperature of each side of the mattress individually on a sliding scale of -10 to +10 (55 levels to 110 levels Fahrenheit) in one-level (roughly 2.75-degree) increments. That vary is greater than sufficient to allow you to preserve that “chilly sheets” feeling all by means of the evening, to the equal of a bedtime ice bathtub. Even on the most popular, muggiest summer season nights I discovered myself legitimately chilly at -4. (Kyle tolerates -10, however I’m wondering if that’s merely a private problem he’s set for himself.)

Sleep Stage Customization

Your physique temperature fluctuates all through the evening—one thing Eight Sleep has accounted for. The Eight Sleep app permits you to preset 4 temperatures all through the evening: bedtime, early, late, and wake time (which features a thermal and vibrational alarm, when you so select). In summer season I favored to begin off chilly (-4) and work my method as much as barely hotter all through the evening (-3 or -2). Now that it’s virtually winter, I’ve set my facet of the mattress to begin off with a “heat sheets” feeling at +2 or +3, dip right down to -1 as soon as I go to sleep, after which come again as much as +1 or +2 when it’s time to rise up. Sure, I’m formally sleep spoiled.

The sensors on the mattress additionally know whenever you crawl in for the evening, whenever you go to sleep, whenever you get up, and whenever you get off the bed, doing all of the sleep-stage adjusting for you in addition to turning the mattress cowl on and off with out you needing to consider it.

App-and Faucet-Managed

However in fact, these presets are simply the beginning. You possibly can regulate the temperature at any level through the app. However who needs to take a look at a vibrant cellphone display screen in the midst of the evening? Not the great of us at Eight Sleep. The Pod 4 permits you to manually regulate the settings by tapping the facet of the mattress: two faucets for one degree colder, three faucets  for one degree hotter.

The Eight Sleep Pod 4 can be smarter than you, and in my expertise 90 % of the time it does all of the adjusting you want while you’re deep asleep. Let me clarify.

That is Your Autopilot At Your Service

This could not be a tech overview in 2024 with out speaking about Synthetic Intelligence. Whereas I stay an AI skeptic, I’ll admit that Eight Sleep proves AI can truly add worth to our lives, generally. Enter autopilot, Eight Sleep’s “sensible” system that makes use of consumer information equivalent to organic intercourse and age, in addition to biometric information collected from sensors on the mattress itself, together with coronary heart price, respiration price, and chest vibrations, and environmental information like ambient temperature and humidity degree to routinely make micro-adjustments to the mattress temp in your facet of the mattress to maintain you quick asleep.

You possibly can flip autopilot on and off. I attempted sleeping with out it as soon as and I’m sorry to tell you that the distinction was stark—I awoke scorching or chilly a number of occasions all through the evening. Seems these automated micro-adjustments make a giant distinction in regulating your physique temperature whilst you’re asleep.

In Information Eight Sleep Trusts

Along with serving to you fall and keep asleep by means of its sensible temperature regulation, autopilot features a host of sleep and well being monitoring measures, together with coronary heart price variability (HRV), resting coronary heart price, respiratory price, and  time spent in deep sleep, REM sleep, gentle sleep, whole time asleep, and loud night breathing. Cross-referencing this information with my Oura ring, the 2 appear to be in very shut alignment, with Eight Sleep offering barely extra beneficiant sleep metrics (e.g. if Eight Sleep offers me a 98 sleep rating, Oura ring will give a few 92).

Admittedly, I don’t care a ton about this information (regardless of additionally carrying an Oura ring, however that’s as a result of I’m taking this overview significantly!). Stressing about my sleep high quality each evening would stress me the hell out and guarantee I don’t sleep in any respect, good temperature be damned. However I like traits and cross-referencing them with my coaching and life stress to tell my working. I’ve additionally discovered HRV and resting coronary heart price to be fairly good indicators of once I’m getting sick, and flagging that early has helped me dial again my coaching in time to mitigate falling into the deepest of deep holes.

Talking of getting sick, this summer season I bought the reward of Covid-19 shortly adopted by a abdomen bug. Each occasions, my HRV and resting coronary heart price numbers from Eight Sleep had been elevated beforehand, throughout, and as I recovered, and I used these metrics as a free information to tell me when to relaxation and for a way lengthy. (The abdomen bug felt prefer it knocked me out method more durable than Covid, and my HRV, resting coronary heart price, and respiratory price supported that to be true.)

In actual fact, the abdomen bug was the sickest I’ve been in not less than a decade. Flutter out and in of consciousness, overcome with nausea, full-body-burning sick. I didn’t go away my mattress for a number of days. And regardless of a 101 diploma fever, I didn’t sweat by means of my shirt. Each in the course of the day and thru the evening, Eight Sleep stored me as snug as doable when you may’t concrete exhausting sufficient to look at the Olympic marathon taking part in on a display screen 5 inches out of your eyes.

OK However What About Winter?

I used to be over being overheated this summer season, it didn’t even happen to me that our Eight Sleep could be useful throughout winter. That was a gross oversight. Now that nights are dipping under freezing, I’ve began setting my facet of the mattress to be heat (+2 or 3) once I get into mattress—no extra crawling into mattress with fleece socks, sweat pants, a sweatshirt, and a beanie wanted—earlier than cooling the mattress right down to -1 once I go to sleep, after which as much as 0 when it’s time to get up.

Seems, it’s actually useful to your sleep whenever you don’t spend the entire evening peeling off layers one-by-one as you heat up. In the meantime, Kyle can proceed to have his facet of the mattress stubbornly set to -10 with out interfering with my hygge paradise in any respect.

Like in summer season, the temperature vary for cold nights is greater than sufficient: I’ve discovered that something above +4 makes me sweat.

Is the Eight Sleep Pod 4 Definitely worth the Worth Tag?

I’ve no stake within the recreation of promoting you on this factor. All I’ll say is that this: of all of the sleep cures I’ve tried (which, as a persistently unhealthy sleeper since babyhood, is many), Eight Sleep is more practical for me than all of them mixed. Along with Kyle’s verbal endorsement, he’s stopped ripping up the covers and pushing them right into a jumbled pile on my facet of the mattress in the course of the evening, a win-win for us each.

I spent over a month away from Boulder on the finish of the summer season, and the distinction in my sleep high quality was alarming—although I used to be typically sleeping in cooler locations, usually with air con. The impact of getting cooled (or now that it’s fall-bordering-on-winter, warmed) from beneath simply appears to be a lot more practical than from above. You possibly can nonetheless benefit from the consolation, safety, and heat of being cozy within the covers with none of the damaging penalties, equivalent to boiling to dying. And these sensations present very actual results, together with a launch of “feel-good” chemical substances like dopamine and serotonin, which in flip allow you to chill out, decrease stress, and…da da da…allow you to sleep.

At $2,600 plus a $17 month-to-month price for autopilot, the Eight Sleep Pod 4 is clearly a luxurious product. (It might be primary on my marriage ceremony registry, and if I used to be wealthy I might be gifting one to each member of my household for the vacations.) However it’s additionally a luxurious resolution to one of the vital important parts of not solely our working, however our lives. Apart from successfully regulating your temperature, you wouldn’t know you’re sleeping on something apart from your mattress. The unit may be very quiet. In actual fact now that I don’t want an industrial fan blowing on my face to go to sleep, I haven’t loved sleeping in an surroundings that’s this quiet possibly ever. And the automated temperature regulation truly works.

I might make do with out the sleep monitoring information and well being metrics. I might survive with out autopilot, though I would like to not. However I can’t return to dwelling and not using a mattress temperature-regulating sleep system. Kyle and I may very well be spending $2,600 yearly on dietary supplements, followers, fancy sheets, blue-light glasses, hypnosis, central air con, and a complete host of different sleep-saving measures—and so they wouldn’t be half as efficient.

The one draw back, minus the price?

I by no means need to go away the home once more.

Eight Sleep Pod 4

$2,500 at Eight Sleep

RELATED: Kilian Jornet’s Bulletproof Restoration Protocol