Eight Sleep Pod 3 review: The high price of great sleep

I’ve all the time tried to get as a lot sleep as doable, however now that I’ve a one-year-old to take care of, something that may assist maximize what little relaxation I do get is priceless. So after I heard that Eight Sleep was popping out with a brand new model of its good mattress topper that provides higher sleep monitoring and temperature controls, I used to be curious to see how nicely it labored. And whereas the Pod 3 Cowl is expensive, after just a few months of testing, I by no means need to return to an everyday standalone mattress.

The Eight Sleep system

The corporate’s core choices encompass two essential parts: The Pod 3 Mattress and the Pod 3 Cowl. The mattress itself is comparatively easy. Its includes a medium firmness that is a bit stiffer than one thing like the unique Leesa mattress and it consists of varied extra layers for higher warmth distribution.

Then there’s the Eight Sleep Pod 3 cowl, which is each the guts and the brains of the corporate’s two-pronged method. In an effort to ship your good sleep temperature, the duvet options what Eight Sleep calls an Lively Grid, which is actually embedded tubing that carries cool or heat water to your aspect of the mattress. There are additionally sensors constructed into the Lively Grid that may monitor issues like your coronary heart charge, sleeping respiratory charge, how a lot you toss and switch and extra, with Eight Sleep claiming that the Pod 3 provides considerably extra correct monitoring than its earlier choices. After which connected to the Lively Grid is the Hub, which serves each as a reservoir for the water within the Pod Cowl and as a spot to deal with necessary tech like WiFi, which not like earlier fashions now helps 5GHz networks.

Setup

Whereas the considered having to plug wires and hoses into your mattress would possibly look like a bit a lot, getting every little thing working is definitely fairly easy. Like quite a lot of foam mattresses, Eight Sleep’s choice arrived compressed in a field — all you must do is take away the plastic wrapper and provides it a couple of minutes whereas it expands. The great factor is that you just needn’t purchase one from Eight Sleep in any respect, because the Pod Cowl is designed to work just about any mattress as much as 16 inches thick.

That is as a result of whereas the usual Pod Cowl comes with zippers that line up with matching tooth on the corporate’s mattress, you too can order the Pod Cowl with PerfectFit, which incorporates an encasement that accommodates third-party beds. So for those who already like your present mattress, you needn’t toss it to put in the Pod Cowl. Not solely does this decrease the value of entry, it is also a welcome transfer towards normal flexibility. Which is sweet as a result of beginning at $2,045 (for a full), this factor positively ain’t low-cost.

As soon as the Pod Cowl is connected to your mattress, Eight Sleep’s app supplies easy step-by-step directions on the way to join the hose, fill the reservoir and energy it up. Admittedly, there’s not rather a lot to mess up (apart from possibly not leaving sufficient room behind your mattress to forestall the hose from kinking), however the information removes all of the guesswork. And whereas the hub itself does take up slightly area, the hose is lengthy sufficient that it isn’t too tough to discover a spot for it. From there, you possibly can arrange or signal into your account, enter your WiFi data and that is it. All advised, it took me lower than 20 minutes to place every little thing collectively after unboxing it.

The tech

Whereas the Pod 3 Cowl is not an enormous departure from earlier fashions, it does just about every little thing very well. The sensors made simple work of monitoring my sleeping coronary heart and respiratory charges. And due to charts and graphs which are obtainable contained in the app, it is simple to see how varied components influence your sleep. You even have the power so as to add tags for issues like stretching, caffeine consumption and others to higher correlate your daytime actions with the quantity of relaxation you get. And every single day, the app spits out a sleep rating to inform you how you probably did.

The opposite huge a part of the Pod Cowl’s package is its heating and cooling tech. The quilt helps dual-zone controls, so you possibly can set the temp for every half of the mattress independently. That is very nice as a result of whereas I usually want issues on the cool aspect, my spouse is commonly chilly at evening and has her aspect set to heat. Truthfully, even with out all of the sleep monitoring, the Pod Cowl is price it for its cooling and heating alone.

Sam Rutherford/Engadget

At this level, the science is pretty clear, your thermal surroundings has a big impact on how nicely you sleep. Too scorching or too chilly and also you’re virtually actually going to get up feeling much less rested. However with the Pod Cowl, you possibly can choose your good temp and set a schedule for controlling heating and cooling ranges all through the evening. For me, it is like laying on the cool aspect of the pillow, besides on a regular basis and throughout the complete mattress, which makes an enormous distinction in each how briskly I go to sleep and the way I really feel the following morning.

After all, you possibly can change issues as wanted, which actually got here in helpful after I began working a fever. So as a substitute of getting my aspect chilly as regular, I used to be in a position to pump up the warmth to assist fight the chills — one thing that made being sick only a bit extra tolerable. In much less excessive circumstances, the adjustability additionally means you possibly can tailor your temps relying on the season, as I discovered I want issues a bit colder in the summertime and a bit hotter within the fall and winter.

On prime of that, Eight Sleep takes its temperature management and sleep monitoring tech a pair steps additional with its Autopilot and Sleep Perception options. Autopilot makes use of information gathered by its sensors to mechanically make your mattress hotter or colder as wanted. In my case, after noticing in the summertime I used to be tossing and turning extra usually, it instructed a barely cooler temperature schedule, which later resulted in greater sleep scores.

However what could be much more highly effective is Sleep Insights, that are observations based mostly in your metrics that inform you how nicely (or badly) you slept. It is sort of like a robo-coach that kinds by way of your information to supply ideas so you do not have to. Whereas stories usually quantity to notifications about your sleeping coronary heart charge being greater or decrease than regular, I recognize that it calls consideration to issues like consuming late or having a drink or two earlier than mattress which may negatively influence your sleep. Annoyingly, each Autopilot and Sleep Perception are locked behind the corporate’s non-compulsory 8+ Pro subscription that prices $19 a month, which is frankly simply an excessive amount of. I do know firms lately are on the lookout for regular income streams, however these options actually should be free.

Consolation

After all, all the flamboyant tech on this planet does not imply a lot if this factor is uncomfortable, and fortunately it isn’t. It is really fairly the alternative. One among my gripes in regards to the authentic Pod Cowl is that you could possibly really feel the tubing inside. However on the Pod 3, you possibly can solely inform that it is greater than a dumb mattress topper once you contact it along with your arms; laying on it, the tubing is sort of inconceivable to discern. Admittedly, the topper makes your mattress really feel a contact firmer than it could in any other case, however apart from that, it feels rather a lot like a mattress with a skinny foam egg crate pad – simply barely pillowy.

Wrap-up

The factor that made me notice what a big impact the Pod 3 Cowl had on my sleep was how a lot I missed it whereas touring. Even the softest, coziest lodge mattress could not make up for the shortage of temperature controls. Different additions just like the Pod Cowl’s upgraded WiFi make the good topper even simpler to arrange whereas extra exact sleep monitoring helps you higher determine how nicely you’re sleeping and what you are able to do to enhance.

The one actual draw back (and it is sort of a giant one) is that with a beginning value of over $2,100, it’s out of the attain of most individuals. And that does not even embody the non-compulsory 8+ Professional subscription, which seems like an pointless tax required to unlock all of its options. That stated, even with out Autopilot and Sleep Insights, the Pod 3 Cowl has delivered among the greatest sleep I’ve ever had.