Find the right thing The temperature in bed can be difficult. Feeling too hot or too cold makes it difficult to lie down and may cause you to wake up prematurely. Since our mental and physical health depends on sleep, this is a problem. Eight Sleep has the answer. The Eight Sleep Pod 4 is a temperature-regulating mattress cover that follows your body as you sleep, with a hub that pumps cooled or heated water into the cover to help you stay asleep longer.
When I tested its predecessor, the Eight Sleep Pod 3 (7/10, WIRED recommends), I was wary of the billionaire biohacking buzz, but it won me over. Apart from the increased comfort, the best sleep trackers Everyone told the same story: My wife and I slept longer and got more deep sleep and REM with the Eight Sleep Pod than without it. The Eight Sleep Pod 4 offers some welcome improvements, including increased comfort, quieter operation, and convenient tap controls so you don’t have to pick up your phone at night.
Photo: Simon Hill
Unfortunately, better sleep doesn’t come cheap. A Pod 4 cover and hub for a queen bed costs $2,599, but you also need to get an annual subscription to Autopilot for an additional $199. If you already have a subscription, you can transfer it to a new pod, but you will no longer be able to purchase an Eight Sleep Pod without purchasing the Autopilot subscription. The UK Super King I tested costs £2,699, or £199 with a year of Autopilot. It’s a real investment, but a good night’s sleep can be transformative.
Hitting the hay
The Eight Sleep Pod 4 case and hub come in two large boxes. The mattress cover has a rubber tube on the inside and a soft, plush, dark material on the top. It’s elasticated to fit snugly against your mattress, and the tube needs to be fed from the top to fit into the hub. The hub is about the size of a desktop PC, has a fabric front and a large 8 logo. The hub is the brains of the operation, cooling or heating water and pumping it around the cover.
The setup with Pod 4 was similar, but much quicker than with Pod 3. You pull the cylinder out of the top of the hub and pour water up to the fill line. The preparation process has been shortened from a few hours in the previous version to about 10 minutes. You connect the hub to your WiFi via the mobile app. The Pod 4’s case is much more comfortable than the Pod 3’s and the hub is much quieter. The measurement never exceeded 30 decibels. It makes a subtle hum, like a White noise sleep sound.
