I used to be prepared to like Eight Sleep’s Pod 3.
Truthfully, I used to be bought immediately. I’d heard about utilizing a cooling system to manage your mattress’s temperature from my bodily therapist — who continues to be on workforce Eight Sleep after my “meh” expertise — and I used to be enthusiastic about attempting the Pod 3 sleep cowl on my beloved Casper mattress.
Sadly, I discovered myself getting off the hype practice on the first out there station, however I’m keen to concede that simply because the Pod 3 wasn’t proper for me, it would be just right for you.
What’s the Eight Sleep Pod 3 cowl?
Touted because the “final sleep health machine,” the Pod 3 is the most recent technology of Eight Sleep’s Pod that brings dynamic cooling expertise into the bed room to offer your final sleep expertise and biometric monitoring.
The best way it really works is ridiculously cool. The Pod 3 cowl is, primarily, the fanciest mattress cowl you’ll ever see — and it’s loaded with expertise to make thermoregulation a breeze. With temperatures starting from 55 levels Fahrenheit to 110 levels, the Pod 3 makes use of Temperature Autopilot to set the right temperature for you all through the evening in an effort to assist optimum sleep.
Sounds epic, proper? That’s as a result of it’s. Whereas the Eight Sleep companion app provides suggestions on the optimum temperatures for every part of sleep — together with bedtime, deep sleep, REM, and wakeup — you’re in full management. Which means you may create a very personalized temperature schedule that matches your private preferences, and, with dual-zone heating and cooling, each you and your companion can set your individual temperature preferences on your facet of the mattress.
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Past that, the Pod 3 additionally gives you with a hefty quantity of biometric monitoring. The Pod 3 cowl has discreet sensors that can assist you monitor a complete host of metrics together with sleep phases, disturbances, coronary heart fee, coronary heart fee variability, and even respiratory fee…all and not using a wearable.
So why didn’t I prefer it? Properly, I really did prefer it, however it was extra of a love-hate relationship than the rest.
Organising the Pod 3 cowl was an absolute nightmare
I’m not afraid to confess once I’ve made a mistake, and I undoubtedly made one when it got here to organising the Pod 3 cowl as a result of I used to be woefully unprepared for such a herculean feat. The Pod 3 cowl got here in three separate containers which made the journey from the mailroom to my condominium a exercise by itself. From there, it solely went downhill.
The complete technique of organising the Pod 3 cowl was one frustration after one other. The packaging wasn’t intuitively designed — I couldn’t even get the bulkiest merchandise out of its field — and it shortly changed any pleasure I had about tackling this undertaking with annoyance. And that was solely the containers.
Putting in the Pod 3 cowl was exhausting. Eight Sleep’s web site marketed the duvet as virtually easy, permitting you to “rework your sleep in 5 straightforward steps.” These 5 steps, nevertheless, glossed over the problem of the setup, which — in accordance with the directions — would take round two to 3 hours. First, I slipped the encasement over my mattress. That is primarily an ultra-thick fitted sheet, in all probability designed to guard your mattress, however — regardless of being 5-foot-10-inches with a love of weightlifting — I couldn’t get it over the corners of my mattress unassisted.
Eight Sleep’s web site additionally didn’t point out the three adjustable straps as a part of their Good Match bundle, which concerned sliding the mattress off the body (I undoubtedly cheated and didn’t try this half), hooking two straps to the facet of the mattress — slipping them underneath the mattress and hooking them on the opposite facet — and hooking one other strap from the top to the foot of the mattress. From there, it took each my companion and me to zip on the Pod 3 Energetic Grid — which was answerable for the thermoregulation and biometric monitoring — and pull the three adjustable straps tight across the mattress.
The separate hub is what powers the Pod 3 cowl.
Credit score: RJ Andersen / Mashable
The subsequent step concerned unboxing and connecting the Pod 3 hub, the mind of the operation, boasting a quad-core CPU in addition to 5Ghz WiFi assist. The hub was just a little greater than I anticipated however extremely prime quality. It solely took a couple of minutes to get every thing linked utilizing the Eight Sleep companion app, which seems to solely be out there on iOS, however then I needed to “prime” the Pod 3 cowl twice by filling the water tank within the Hub with a combination of water (Eight Sleep recommends utilizing distilled water) and hydrogen peroxide.
Sleeping on the Pod 3 made me really feel like Goldilocks, however not in a great way
Right here’s the factor. The Pod 3 seems to be, feels, and works nice, however it additionally works just a little too nice for my style. I used to be thrilled to slide into mattress that first evening, particularly feeling how crisp and funky my sheets had been, however — after following the advice of setting the mattress to a cooler temperature to help in deep sleep — I discovered myself waking up in the midst of the evening completely freezing. I shortly adjusted the temperature and fell asleep once more, however it stored occurring.
Each evening, I modified the temperature schedule to one thing new, however I nonetheless discovered myself waking most nights freezing — or sometimes sweating — and I couldn’t appear to search out my “completely happy medium” in between. I used to be exhausted and pissed off, and it solely bought marginally higher the longer I used it. The Eight Sleep app does tout an Autopilot characteristic designed to robotically regulate your physique temperature to cut back wake-ups, however it was solely out there with the 8+ Professional membership. Plus, contemplating the Pod 3 cowl already clocks in at a whopping $2,445, including a $19 monthly cost to get a greater consumer expertise kinda sucked.
What I favored in regards to the Pod 3
Whereas this looks like a harsh overview, there have been issues I actually favored in regards to the Pod 3 cowl. The standard of the product itself was stellar, surprisingly so, and it really felt definitely worth the hefty price ticket. I additionally beloved the GentleRise Alarm characteristic which step by step will increase the temperature in your facet of the mattress whereas vibrating softly to wake you up.
I additionally beloved with the ability to activate my Pod 3 cowl throughout the day if I wanted to heat up or calm down, particularly after a very powerful exercise. Plus — as somebody who tends to sleep hotter than my companion — the flexibility to alter my temperature schedule to swimsuit my preferences was ridiculously cool.
The core performance of the Pod 3 was additionally wonderful. It does warmth and funky your mattress to a stellar diploma, however the extra bells and whistles weren’t value it to me.
What I didn’t like in regards to the Pod 3
Clearly, I wrestled with the Pod 3 set up, however different on-line reviewers didn’t appear to have the identical stage of issue that I did. That being mentioned, the opposite options of the Pod 3 fell flat for my part. The temperature controls had been too finicky — even as soon as I landed on a temperature schedule that labored for me, I nonetheless felt like my total sleep high quality had tanked. Ultimately, I needed to return to my regular mattress out of necessity as a result of I used to be just too exhausted to maintain attempting, and I instantly slept higher.
I additionally felt just like the sleep health parts weren’t nice. My first evening on the Pod 3 advised me my sleep health was 100% — which undoubtedly didn’t math out contemplating the variety of occasions I wakened and the way groggy I felt — and I couldn’t work out how you can get the app to precisely measure my “time to rise up.”
Plus, the sleep reviews didn’t really feel as strong or useful as I’d hoped they’d be, and — whereas they had been actually data-rich — I didn’t like that you just couldn’t get traits or insights with out paying for the 8+ Professional membership. The Eight Sleep companion app additionally hosts a library of sleep instruments together with meditation, guided respiratory practices, nature sounds, and even wake-up/wind-down motion practices. Nonetheless, as soon as once more, these options had been all a part of the 8+ Professional membership.
Is the Eight Sleep Pod 3 cowl value it?
Should you’re somebody who loves optimization, cutting-edge expertise, and all issues biohacking — and when you’ve got extra persistence than I do — then completely. The Pod 3 can be a terrific buy for somebody serious about delving deep into sleep health and enhancing their total sleep high quality. It’s clearly bought some implausible performance and loads of intuitive options to select from.
For most individuals, nevertheless, I simply don’t see the way it might be value it. The training curve of the Pod 3 was far too excessive — very similar to the value tag — and the efficiency, whereas undoubtedly cool, simply wasn’t transformative sufficient for me.