If there’s one thing I’ve always neglected, it’s been sleep. A perennial coffee drinker who doesn’t get enough sleep, when the opportunity to try out an elaborate temperature-controlled mattress topper, boasting a similarly exorbitant price, came along, my skepticism was sky-high.
Eight Sleep is launching in the UAE, and its Pod 4 is the latest in a line of sleeping products designed to improve sleep, with the brand featuring celebrity endorsements from everyone from Lewis Hamilton to Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk.
A good night’s sleep can be elusive, especially dealing with temperatures as wild as those found in the UAE. I’m happy to report that the temperature control, which for me is the main function of the Pod 4, works wonderfully.
The Pod 4 offers a wide range of temperature on a scale of -10 (for cold) to +10 (for warm). For those of us in the UAE, I imagine the cooling function will get a lot more work than warming. It is a strange feeling the first time, but definitely offers a comfortable night’s sleep under the covers.
However, it doesn’t end there. What makes the Pod different from any generic mattress heater is its AI integration to dynamically alter the temperature of the bed in order to improve the quality of a night’s sleep, a feature Eight Sleep calls ‘Autopilot’.
Autopilot uses over a dozen sensors measuring biometric, presence, and environmental data across the cover and its associated hub to run a collection of complex algorithms. Through this, Autopilot calculates each individual user’s need, such as how much deep sleep you might need one night based on your last night’s sleep, changes in temperature in the room, or the current sleep stage you are in.
In reality, what this looks like is the mattress will change its temperature through the night as it seeks to improve the quality of your sleep, before giving you a score out of 100 in the morning. Over the past month of testing, I have found the quality of my sleep consistently increasing, with the score-based metrics putting me into a better routine and improving my own sleep cycle. Indeed, my wife now competes with me to see who can get a better sleep score.
Speaking of partners, there is a clear potential downside here – two people do not likely want the same temperature when they sleep. However, this is a problem that Eight Sleep have already solved from the outset, with both sides of the bed individually allowing for their own temperature control and sleep cycles, meaning that the mattress will respond to each person’s needs individually.
Setting up the mattress cover and base is a relatively simple affair, and mostly involves following the clear step-by-step instructions outlined in the app. Once the mattress cover is on the bed, the base then needs filling with water. All together the setup process took me around 45 minutes, although most of that time was spent sitting and waiting while it pumped water into the mattress.
After that, setting up your profile and temperatures throughout the night is an easy process. I would advise caution in setting the temperature. The extremes of the scale really are quite cold and warm – my first night with the mattress, I set it to -10, which was positively icy.
One more feature that the Pod offers is a novel alarm clock. Once set, the silent alarm will wake you up using gentle vibrations throughout your side of the bed and warming the temperature – this is the most unique alarm I’ve ever used, and actually has become my favourite feature, especially for someone that has always struggled with mornings prior to that first coffee. Once the alarm goes off, it can either be dismissed through the app, or, more helpfully, by double-tapping a textured portion of the side of the mattress. Incidentally, this same textured area can also be used to control the temperature of the mattress in the night, meaning there is no need to look at your phone to move the temperature up or down.
So, clearly we have a product that excels at its job, fulfills a need I didn’t know I had, and has changed my entire pattern of sleep, so what’s the downside here? Well, the most obvious and clear one is that of price. There’s no two ways about it, the Pod is incredibly expensive. The Pod 4 entry price is over $2,500, and then in order to get Autopilot features, which are really the standout features of the Pod, you’ll need an annual subscription which costs an additional $199. All told, you have an incredibly expensive solution to something which I imagine most users may not be willing to fork over for, but for those that do, this is certainly a product worth your time.
Follow us on
