Eight Sleep

I got the new Pod Pro Cover from Eight Sleep.

I’ve used sleep trackers like the Oura Ring in the past. They are an immense help in measuring and changing habits around sleep. The ability to change the quality of my sleep itself was new. The Pod product is a mattress cover and connected floor unit that heats and cools you while you sleep. It also has sensors for tracking your sleep quality across various dimensions. Temperature regulation is not my #1 sleep issue, but it was a common enough issue that I wanted to improve it.

• Temperature Control works as promised. The bed becomes quite cool or quite warm, even without pushing the system to its limits.

• Setup was straightforward. The system comes in 3 boxes, but looks bigger than it is once installed. Encasing the mattress with the cover isn’t difficult, but does require some maneuvering. It took me about 45 minutes solo.

• Comfort is good. The pad does feel different, but in a way I rarely notice.

• Noise from the external unit is very mild. You can barely hear it when it is active. I was going to post an audio recording of the unit, but my recordings sounded like background noise - a good sign!

• Data and Analytics are like those you get from the Oura ring, without any wearable needed. The EightSleep tracks:

  • Heart rate + variability
  • Time in bed + Time Before asleep + Time to get out of bed
  • Tosses and turns
  • Deep + REM + light sleep graph, and more.

  The data is viewable in the Eight Sleep app, and is also optionally written to HealthKit.

It’d be nice if…

I read for about 15 minutes in bed lying down before trying to fall asleep. The Pod counts this as “time in bed before sleep”. This is accurate, but I’m more interested in the duration of the “actively trying to fall asleep” time.

Overall…

Overall, I like the product. My sleep seems qualitatively and quantitatively better with the Pod managing bed temperature.