Eight Sleep Pod 3 evaluation: The excessive worth of nice sleep | Engadget

I’ve at all times 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 once I heard that Eight Sleep was popping out with a brand new model of its sensible mattress topper that provides higher sleep monitoring and temperature controls, I used to be curious to see how effectively it labored. And whereas the Pod 3 Cover is expensive, after just a few months of testing, I by no means wish to return to a daily standalone mattress.

The Eight Sleep system

The firm’s core choices encompass two fundamental elements: The Pod 3 Mattress and the Pod 3 Cover. The mattress itself is comparatively easy. Its contains a medium firmness that is a bit stiffer than one thing like the unique Leesa mattress and it contains varied further 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 order to ship your good sleep temperature, the duvet options what Eight Sleep calls an Active Grid, which is actually embedded tubing that carries cool or heat water to your facet of the mattress. There are additionally sensors constructed into the Active Grid that may monitor issues like your coronary heart price, sleeping respiratory price, how a lot you toss and switch and extra, with Eight Sleep claiming that the Pod 3 affords considerably extra correct monitoring than its earlier choices. And then connected to the Active Grid is the Hub, which serves each as a reservoir for the water within the Pod Cover and as a spot to deal with necessary tech like WiFi, which not like earlier fashions now helps 5GHz networks.

Setup

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

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

Once the Pod Cover is connected to your mattress, Eight Sleep’s app supplies easy step-by-step directions on join the hose, fill the reservoir and energy it up. Admittedly, there’s not loads to mess up (other than perhaps 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 just a little house, the hose is lengthy sufficient that it is not too tough to discover a spot for it. From there, you’ll be able to 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 the whole lot collectively after unboxing it.

The tech

While the Pod 3 Cover is not an enormous departure from earlier fashions, it does just about the whole lot very well. The sensors made simple work of monitoring my sleeping coronary heart and respiratory charges. And due to charts and graphs which can be out there contained in the app, it is simple to see how varied elements affect 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 different huge a part of the Pod Cover’s equipment is its heating and cooling tech. The cowl helps dual-zone controls, so you’ll be able to set the temp for every half of the mattress independently. That’s very nice as a result of whereas I sometimes choose issues on the cool facet, my spouse is usually chilly at evening and has her facet set to heat. Honestly, even with out all of the sleep monitoring, the Pod Cover is value it for its cooling and heating alone.

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At this level, the science is pretty clear, your thermal surroundings has a huge effect on how effectively you sleep. Too sizzling or too chilly and also you’re virtually actually going to get up feeling much less rested. But with the Pod Cover, you’ll be able to 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 facet of the pillow, besides on a regular basis and throughout your entire mattress, which makes an enormous distinction in each how briskly I go to sleep and the way I really feel the subsequent morning.

Of course, you’ll be able to change issues as wanted, which actually got here in useful once I began working a fever. So as a substitute of getting my facet chilly as regular, I used to be capable of 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’ll be able to tailor your temps relying on the season, as I discovered I choose issues a bit colder in the summertime and a bit hotter within the fall and winter.

On high of that, Eight Sleep takes its temperature management and sleep monitoring tech a pair steps additional with its Autopilot and Sleep Insight options. Autopilot makes use of knowledge 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 typically, it instructed a barely cooler temperature schedule, which later resulted in larger sleep scores.

But what could be much more highly effective is Sleep Insights, that are observations primarily based in your metrics that inform you how effectively (or badly) you slept. It’s type of like a robo-coach that kinds via your knowledge to offer ideas so you do not have to. While stories usually quantity to notifications about your sleeping coronary heart price being larger or decrease than regular, I admire that it calls consideration to issues like consuming late or having a drink or two earlier than mattress which might negatively affect your sleep. Annoyingly, each Autopilot and Sleep Insight are locked behind the corporate’s optionally available 8+ Pro subscription that prices $19 a month, which is frankly simply an excessive amount of. I do know firms nowadays are searching for regular income streams, however these options actually should be free.

Comfort

Of course, all the flowery tech on the earth doesn’t suggest a lot if this factor is uncomfortable, and fortunately it is not. It’s really fairly the other. One of my gripes in regards to the unique Pod Cover is that you can really feel the tubing inside. But on the Pod 3, you’ll be able to solely inform that it is greater than a dumb mattress topper if you contact it along with your fingers; laying on it, the tubing is sort of unattainable to discern. Admittedly, the topper makes your mattress really feel a contact firmer than it might in any other case, however other than that, it feels loads like a mattress with a skinny foam egg crate pad – simply barely pillowy.

Wrap-up

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

The solely actual draw back (and it is type of an enormous one) is that with a beginning worth of over $2,100, it’s out of the attain of most individuals. And that does not even embrace the optionally available 8+ Pro subscription, which appears like an pointless tax required to unlock all of its options. That mentioned, even with out Autopilot and Sleep Insights, the Pod 3 Cover has delivered a few of the greatest sleep I’ve ever had.