Eight Sleep Pod 3

Eight Sleep review Pod 3 EightSleep discount code cover mattress
Eight Sleep Review

Eight Sleep Pod 3

Updated Version: Eight Sleep Pod 4 Review

Eight Sleep Pod 3 is my favourite product of 2023 and here’s a detailed review of the Pod 3 Cover, warts and all.

The Holy Grail of improved sleep is a temperature-controlled smart bed that separately adjusts to your and your partner’s unique sleep stages throughout the night. Add to that accurate heart rate sleep stats without needing to wear a gadget and you have the Eight Sleep Pod 3.

It’s an excellent yet expensive product, although don’t forget it’s for two people which kinda halves the cost. Plus you can more cheaply get the Eightsleep ‘topper’ which is the cover you add to your existing mattress rather than going the whole hog with a replacement EightSleep mattress – the end benefits are effectively the same either way.

More: Eight Sleep

Eightsleep Discount Code: THE5KRUNNER

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Best smart temperature controlled bed optimises sleep for both of you
  • Price - 80%
    80%
  • Apparent Accuracy - 95%
    95%
  • Build Quality & Design - 93%
    93%
  • Features, Including App - 90%
    90%
  • Openness & Compatability - 80%
    80%
88%

Eight Sleep Review Summary

This is one of my all-time favourite products that I have tested and used. It’s my favourite of 2023 so far. I have experienced better sleep and improved comfort, and as a result, I can confidently recommend it.

The product is well-conceived overall and based on fundamentally accurate sleep data. I am eagerly awaiting Eight Sleep’s upcoming validation against a gold-standard PSG Sleep Stage machine and will provide an update here when it becomes available.

However, like most good tech, it is quite expensive and effectively requires a subscription membership for access to its unique features.

It has several drawbacks. Firstly, there is a slight hum from The Hub, which was too low to bother me but might annoy others. Secondly, much of the smartness relies on accurate Sleep Stage Detection, which is challenging for any technology in 2023. This challenge applies even more to leading wearables from Garmin, Apple, Oura, and Whoop.

I found the app a bit tricky to navigate intuitively for device settings, but the more important sleep statistics were easily accessible, well-presented, and easy to understand. While I loved AUTOPILOT’s temperature regulation feature, which is excellent, there were times when I would have preferred to override the temperature setting using a rudimentary smartwatch app instead of having to find my smartphone and open the app.

Lastly, although Eight Sleep has links to Apple Health and Google Fit, the flow of data in both directions needs improvement. For example, HRV/readiness information should be integrated into Apple Health, and a “wake event” such as an iOS alarm should stop Eight Sleep’s Hub and end the sleep session.

However, these are relatively minor criticisms that do not significantly impact the overall enjoyment and usefulness of Eight Sleep.

It’s a fantastic product concept, almost unique in scope, and very well executed

Q: Is the Eight Sleep Pod/Pad worth it?

A: Yes, Eight Sleep is worth it as one route to improving your sleep quality, comfort and stress recovery.

Q: Why is Eight Sleep so expensive?

A: Eight Sleep is a unique product whose premium price comes from its clever integration of smart sleep regulation technology with excellent sleep monitoring abilities

Q: Does Eight Sleep Work? Is Eight Sleep Accurate?

A: Yes. It’s a fundamentally accurate product in the sense that it is based on highly reliable underlying tech that is superior to that found on Wearables. Its smart temperature regulation is scientifically validated and works well in my experience.

Prices from…

 

 

Pros

  • A medium-firm comfort level for the mattress. The Pod Cover retains your original mattress’s firmness
  • Great for accommodating different sleep environments for you and your partner
  • Perfect temperature control
  • Good sleep stats, well presented in the app
  • Many options to customise sleep schedules and override defaults
  • Very low maintenance
  • Probably one of the most accurate sleep trackers on the market
  • Great trial period and warranty.

Cons

  • Expensive. All quality mattresses are expensive, this is also a smart mattress.
  • Smart features require a subscription.
  • Slight hum from the Hub (I play sleep sounds so that didn’t affect me at all)
  • Dual-side-only solution, not one-side only (though you could turn one side off).

What Is Eight Sleep Pod 3?

The Eight Sleep Pod 3 is designed to be used either as a cover for your existing mattress or as a replacement mattress, the latter being phased out in 2023. Regardless of the option you choose, it incorporates the same sleep technology that effectively transforms your bed into a comfortable water bed with intelligent temperature regulation for both you and your partner. The Eight Sleep Pod 3 features a highly sensitive built-in motion sensor that detects subtle movements caused by each heartbeat, as well as more significant movements such as restlessness or getting out of bed. It analyzes and presents all your sleep statistics in a user-friendly, consumer-grade app. Moreover, it leverages its understanding of your current sleep stage to continuously adjust and optimize the ideal bed temperature for both you and your partner separately throughout the night. This ensures that you both experience the optimal temperature for every sleep stage, leading to improved sleep quality, better recovery, and waking up feeling refreshed.

The convenient part is that you don’t need to wear any gadgets whatsoever, and it’s also highly accurate.

How Does Eight Sleep Work – In A Nutshell

Eight Sleep fully automates the correct bed temperatures for you and your partner.

Eight Sleep determines the sleep stage each of you is in throughout the night and adjusts the temperature accordingly. For example, it might warm the bed before you get in, cool the bed as you enter deep sleep, and warm you up before you wake. Both you and your partner can make adjustments to how Eight Sleep’s autopilot manages your individual bed temperatures, and it will know, for example, if you are in deep sleep while your partner is in REM sleep and act accordingly on each side of the bed.

In the morning, you can review your sleep stats for the night, observe trends over time, or simply see what changes autopilot deemed necessary for the night.

But it’s all really hands-free and non-intrusive. Once the initial novelty has worn off, all you have to do is lie back and enjoy a better night’s sleep. Finally, you might have to refill The Hub with water once every six months. That’s it.

Eight Sleep – Some Interesting Tidbits & What It Can Do

Further below are some aspects of Eight Sleep you may have already read about (if not, keep going). However, I’ll start with some of the more unusual things it can do to give you the flavour that this is a rich, well-developed product

  • Wakey Wakey! – Eight Sleep can vibrate your side of the bed as an alarm. I didn’t like that feature and turned it off after a week but I really liked how instead the temperature can be raised as an alarm to get me out of bed
  • Night-time loo visits? – The bedside hub has a dimmable light which indicates if Eight Sleep is heating or cooling. This can be entirely disabled but I fully dimmed it down and it’s then great as a 4 am wayfinder back from the loo.
  • It’s IFTTT compatible – Meaning you can set up many automations to control it in weird and wonderful ways. For example to be controlled by Alexa or to work in sync with your bedroom air temperature.
  • Eight Sleep is suitable for menopause temperature regulation. Even if you experience more sweat/heat on one night compared to another, it makes no difference to Eight Sleep as it will adjust to the conditions of the night instead of being based on a pre-defined level that might be perfect for you one night but too cold the next. This “smart” nature is why Eight Sleep is superior to other products like BedJet, which only adapt to an idealized situation rather than the actual one.
  • App Notifications – I find many app notifications to be intrusive but I like Eight Sleep’ notifications telling me that it’s warming up the bed and expecting me in there in 15 minutes.
  • Health & Sleep Insights – Just when you’ve got to grips with the product it starts to drip feed sleep insights in a not-too-intrusive way.
  • According to BedJet, 55% of couples disagree on sleep temperature. Eight Sleep solves that problem.
  • The POD 3 Cover is the sensible product option to go for. The full medium firm, mattress is 50% more expensive and only offers different materials compared to your existing mattress notably being the MaxChill cooling layer and another pressure-relieving layer.

 

Eight Sleep Accuracy & Effectiveness

I want to spend a bit of time convincing you that this kind of technology can be accurate and then share some of my experiences of accuracy compared to some of the many other sleep devices I have.

Gross Movements & Micro Movements

The Ballistocardiograph (BCG) is easily shown to correctly identify gross movements like getting into bed and out of bed. The bedside Hub turns off within a few seconds when you get out of bed….every time.

You might require more convincing that BCG can detect micromovements such as your quick, individual heartbeats and distinguish them from your much slower breaths as your chest expands and presses on the mattress. However, as I mentioned above, this technology is surprisingly old and proven. As the following charts show, the respiration rate measured by BCG aligns excellently with a gold-standard plethysmography belt, demonstrating a near-perfect correlation both statistically and visually.

 

These charts also demonstrate a near-perfect correlation (r² = 0.99) between HR measured by BCG and an ECG. Likewise, the HRV measured by rMSSD shows a correlation of 0.9 with an ECG at a 95% confidence level.

 

IMPORTANT: IMO It’s likely that the raw data from Eight Sleep is more accurate than any other wearable, such as Oura, Garmin, Fitbit, and WHOOP. These wearables have to deal with more significant motion artefacts caused by asymmetrical wrist and hand movements.

I’d also like to bring your attention to Rob, The Quantified Scientist on Youtube. He is a highly competent tester and finds Eight Sleep to be accurate.

However, it’s important to note that accuracy in measuring sleep metrics doesn’t necessarily mean that the derived sleep metrics from Eight Sleep are correct. Many wearable companies have a history of conducting incorrect calculations and misinterpreting the data. Nonetheless, Nicole Moyen (PhD), Eight Sleep’s Director of Research and ex-WHOOP employee, is knowledgeable about the right methods for calculations, such as using appropriate averages and baseline comparisons. However, even with this expertise, it doesn’t guarantee that Eight Sleep’s sleep stage algorithm will be entirely accurate.

It’s worth mentioning that wearables generally cannot achieve more than 80% accuracy when assessing sleep stages compared to polysomnography. A comparison to one of the most accurate sleep wearables, the Oura Ring, reveals visual similarities in the nightly sleep stage plot, but there are noticeable differences when examining the breakdown of the number of minutes spent in each stage. This overall pattern is consistent across many other nights, and I specifically chose this particular night as it appeared to be a closer match.

The comparison is mostly meaningless as there is also a great potential inaccuracy in Oura (at least 20%). So here I would not be comparing it to a gold standard.

 

Effectiveness of Eight Sleep’s Smart Temperature Adjustment

Subjectively my sleep quality has improved with Eight Sleep. I’m pretty sure that I feel more refreshed almost every morning.

The benefits lie deeper than that and Eight Sleep tested 310 subjects to see if its product improved sleep according to an Oura Ring worn for 30 days prior to using Eight Sleep and then a further 30 days with Eight Sleep.

The findings were convincing and are that

  1. Deep sleep increased by 10% on average
  2. Sleeping heart rate variability increased by 6% on average
  3. Sleeping heart rate decreased by 1% on average

However one of the things that attracted me to Eight Sleep in the first place was where I read that HRV could be boosted with better sleep from Eight Sleep.

Better Sleep should boost HRV but as the next chart show, it’s hard to prove this from your own data (n=1)

Here we see my waking HRV (Polar H10) for the first 30 days of Eight Sleep Usage compared to an identically taken HRV reading for the prior 30 days. After the point where I started using Eight Sleep, my HRV did increase (good!) but fell towards the end of the 60-day test period. The second chart shows my training load increased in the mid part of the test period and that WILL have a significant effect on HRV, thus I can’t say that there is causation between Eight Sleep and improved HRV from my data.

 

Eight Sleep review accuracy Pod 3 EightSleep cover mattress discount
60days of waking HRV and load data, 30 with eight Sleep

 

Accuracy & Effectiveness Takout: Considering the overall assessment, including third-party data and vendor information, Eight Sleep appears to be a highly accurate device for capturing nightly sleep data. However, its accuracy may not be fully proven in the area of Sleep Stages. As for its effects on me personally, I can only report subjective improvements and cannot quantitatively measure any specific improvements, although it is certainly possible that improvements occurred.

 

What Technology Is Used by Eightsleep?

The technology used in Eightsleep is Ballistocardiography (BCG), but it’s not well-known or understood. It’s a real thing though, invented over 100 years ago (!) and I’ve used it in another product called EMFIT for 10 years. It’s like an ECG for your heart but based on tiny movement detection rather than tiny electrical signal detection.

BCG can be validated as a highly accurate way to determine heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV).

When you combine heart rate, HRV, movement and other factors you have all the basics that every wearable uses to determine sleep stages and bed ‘events’ like waking up, leaving the bed, going to sleep and getting in bed. Whether or not any of that is accurate depends both on the accuracy of the source data and the quality of the proprietary algorithms.

A Scientific Validation of the Eight Sleep Pod

Eight Sleep Pod 3 has been scientifically validated to increase the time in the key sleep stages and to boost HRV and lower resting HR. As the recently published study of 54 people said…

With the Pod on, men’s deep and light sleep increased by 14 and 23 min, respectively, while women’s REM sleep increased by 9 min.

Sleeping HR (-2%) and HRV (+ 7%) significantly improved with Pod onthis is the first study to show that a continuously temperature-regulated bed surface can significantly 1) modify time spent in sleep stages at specific points in the night, 2) improve thermal comfort and perceived sleep quality, and 3) enhance cardiovascular recovery (HR and HRV) during sleep.

So. There you go. Better sleep. Better readiness.

Eight Sleep – Scientific Validation of HRV & Smart Sleep Benefits -HRV boosted by 7%

 

An Argument For Eight Sleep

Eight Sleep combines mattress materials technology commonly used by many other companies with smart, personalized, and adaptive sleep regulation technology, which is rarely seen in competing products.

The mattress enhances sleep position and airflow, while the Hub’s intelligence adjusts the temperature according to your individual needs, preferences, and sleep cycles. Additionally, you receive comprehensive sleep statistics without the necessity of wearing a sleep-tracking device.

It is challenging to dispute the overall concept of Eight Sleep as a product. Its primary weakness lies in its reliance on sleep stage detection, which is inherently complex. However, all competitors will eventually encounter the same challenge, and Eight Sleep likely possesses the most advanced technology available, making it most able to achieve accuracy.

Eight Sleep Pod 3 – My Review of How it’s made and setup

I’ll keep this brief to provide an overview of the product instead of duplicating the installation manual.

In simple terms, the Eight Sleep Pod 3 Cover is a smart cover that completely envelops your current mattress. It holds approximately one litre of water, which can be heated or cooled separately on each side of the bed. The Hub, a bedside unit similar to a PC, houses intelligent technology and a temperature controller for the water. The heated or cooled water is then circulated through pipes to an “Active Grid” layer within the Eight Sleep system.

 

 

The installation process is relatively straightforward and can be done alone, although having the assistance of a partner can be helpful. For the cover, you simply zip it over your existing mattress, adjust the straps to ensure a snug fit, connect a few pipes, and fill The Hub’s reservoir with either a hydrogen peroxide solution or tap water. The hydrogen peroxide acts as a bleach and helps prevent bacterial growth. It’s worth noting that hydrogen peroxide can be added at a later stage if desired, and I personally did not perform this step during my installation.

 

Eight Sleep Review – More Features

Eight Sleep also adds some relatively standard sleep aids that you may have access to elsewhere. If not then great! Now you have them with Eight Sleep and they include guided breathing, sleep sounds and pre-sleep stretching routines.

 

 

 

Eight Sleep Review – Size Guide

The Eight Sleep cover and mattress are both sold in standard sizes for each region. Measure your existing bed before buying!

 

The Best Sleep Aid for Menopausal Women & Athletes Alike?

Other than supplementation, Eight Sleep is probably one of the very best aids for menopausal women. It will eliminate the dreaded night sweats, or at least the sweaty symptom will be eliminated.

Finding Optimal Sleep Temperature with EightSleep: Empowering Menopausal Women and Enhancing Athletic Recovery

Similarly for athletes who might over train and raise their nightly core body temperature this will have the same effect at reducing workload induced sweat (me!).

Athlete’s Sweaty Sleep – CURED

 

Eight Sleep Review – Takeout

This is one of my all-time favourite products that I have tested and used. It’s my favourite of 2023 so far. I have experienced better sleep and improved comfort, and as a result, I can confidently recommend it.

The product is well-conceived overall and based on fundamentally accurate sleep data. I am eagerly awaiting Eight Sleep’s upcoming validation against a gold-standard PSG Sleep Stage machine and will provide an update here when it becomes available.

However, like most good tech, it is quite expensive and effectively requires a subscription membership for access to its unique features.

It has several drawbacks. Firstly, there is a slight hum from The Hub, which was too low to bother me but might annoy others. Secondly, much of the smartness relies on accurate Sleep Stage Detection, which is challenging for any technology in 2023. This challenge applies even more to leading wearables from Garmin, Apple, Oura, and WHOOP.

I found the app a bit tricky to navigate intuitively for device settings, but the more important sleep statistics were easily accessible, well-presented, and easy to understand. While I loved AUTOPILOT’s temperature regulation feature, which is excellent, there were times when I would have preferred to override the temperature setting using a rudimentary smartwatch app instead of having to find my smartphone and open the app.

Lastly, although Eight Sleep has links to Apple Health and Google Fit, the flow of data in both directions needs improvement. For example, HRV/readiness information should be integrated into Apple Health, and a “wake event” such as an iOS alarm should stop Eight Sleep’s Hub and end the sleep session.

However, these are relatively minor criticisms that do not significantly impact the overall enjoyment and usefulness of Eight Sleep.

It’s a fantastic product concept, almost unique in scope, and very well executed

 

Eight Sleep Discounts & Price

Get a double discount. This link gives the current official discount from Eight Sleep, then add the code THE5KRUNNER at checkout for an additional discount.
Prices vary slightly depending on the size of the mattress and the level of membership you chose.

Prices from…

 

 

Code: THE5KRUNNER gives additional discount – use it !!! The discount will be more when not on sale

Reader-Powered Content

This content is not sponsored. It’s mostly me behind the labour of love which is this site and I appreciate everyone who follows, subscribes or Buys Me A Coffee ❤️ Alternatively please buy the reviewed product from my partners. Thank you! FTC: Affiliate Disclosure: Links pay commission. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

7 thoughts on “Eight Sleep Pod 3

  1. I have been looking at the pod cover myself. For months. 2 things holding me back. Have to use your phone to control it. Some alternatives have a remote control as part of it. Also, they force the subscription for a year with initial purchase. I’ve found 300-400 off from some influencers, but still keep faltering at checkout at the cost.

    1. yes the smartphone app is the only way to manually control it.
      could you let me know the influencers please? it should be the same standard discount from all influencers.

      1. ty

        i tried that code AFF150 and it gives 150 off.
        if youuse my code: THE5KRUNNER it gives the same end price.

        they seem different because they work differently when there is a sale on, like now. mine is applied in addition to the sale discount. i think mine would be a bigger discount if there was no sale on
        i think his ignores the sale discount.
        it also varies between the size of mattress chose and if you go for the pod cover or mattress (mattress only available in USA)

  2. Puncture (cat) resistance? Sensitivity to dogs and cats moving about on the bed? (I’m pretty sure we are not a candidate, if it’s trying to differentiate the breathing, respiration, and gross movements of 3-5 “beings” on the bed at once, LOL).
    Seriously I’ve thought about this product for a few years, but between waking up to a cat playing “find the water source” or a dog kicking and flailing on the bed itching his back, pretty sure this is only going to work reliably for a non-pet(s)-on-the-bed household (we’d prefer they were NOT on the bed, because that also greatly affects sleep quality, but… it is what it is). Plus it’d probably always run cold, trying to cool down the 100-degree body laying on it, LOL.

    1. yes the same points were raised against EMFIT years ago.
      I guess par to fht point is that this is not necessarily gathering and using data all the time. so if the dog affects data quality for 30 minutes then maybe its ignored.
      i believe that there are separate sensors on each side of the bed for you and your partner
      I would imagine, but don’t know, that the HR sensors focus mostly around the chest area (therefore a dog at your feet might have little effect).

      if you have a watch on one hand and the same watch on the other hand under the pillow and sleeping on your side you WILL get different readings. There is not perfect solution.

      The temperature regulation was a big thing for me. I turned it off for a while and REALLY noticed the negative difference , more so than when i got it and that was when i just noticed i slept ‘better’ .

      edit: i mean its got water in it #catownersbeware. you could put a topper over the top i suppose.

  3. I purchased the 8sleep two weeks ago. I did a pretty in depth review and definitely it cam out as the best and the most expensive. Lately I have taken the perspective that if we spend 25-30% of our lives in bed we should invest accordingly! So I went the premium. Unfortunately, when I make these decision i hold the brand to this level of expectations. You don’t get to then compare yourself to the other guys as you are twice the cost….you just have to perform.
    My review has two parts: 1. the product, installation and support. 2. The performance of the product.
    Product, installation, and service
    1. The product was delayed seven days. Bummer but I could live with it. Second, when it came it referenced an “activation code.” The two emails sent to me had a blank space for the activation code but no code. I called. I sent emails. They said this would be handled that day (it does seem like an easy fix). I left my bed and the 8sleep set-up (bed cover, pump, heater and hoses) expecting to hear back. I heard nothing and left another email. then I took apart the 8sleep and remade my bed with sheets and went to sleep. 3 hours into this (outside of the two hours of research).
    2. The next day I followed up with a phone call. (i give 8sleep credit. They do answer the phone). this time the customer care rep said this was a more in depth problem and they would need the engineering team to bypass the activation on my account. The promise was again…by end of day. Nothing.
    3. I sent another email and phone call the next day. They sent over an email that suggested I clear the app and download it again. the engineering team had bypassed the account. It did not work. I deleted and retried four times. I tried a different email. Nothing worked. five hours in.
    4. The next day…they sent an email saying that I should not try a new email. Only the email that I used when I purchased the product was active in their system. I requested an explanation for this and essentially it comes down to them owning the information that comes from the membership. Essentially, all of the sleep data that will be generated by using the app. they need control of the accounts and who is using it to get this very valuable information (this is probably directly associated with the business model that they have represented to their venture capital backers) Key note here: I have already purchased the product but being forced to buy the membership, then share the data, and now know that they associate the data specifically to me (it is not anonymous) might make me reconsider the purchase and certainly will make the bar high not to return this product at the 30 day mark (from here on out it will all have to be perfect). Of course, at the end of the first year (required length of time for the subscription) I will then cancel the membership.
    5. AHHHH….i got a rep on the phone and then made them stay on until i could get a fix. Lengthy call here but in the end this forced them to make sure an engineer had completed the set-up and bypassed the activation code. Retried the set-up in the app and then completed the install (water, priming and cooling). seven hours in (as the priming and setup is actually more than two hours although you can take breaks when 8sleep is priming.)
    6. After all of this I was offered a $50 coupon to use on my next purchase. Not a credit, a coupon. This is what young start-ups do when they don’t understand their customer. Not one person who has purchased the 8sleep makes decisions based on $50. Every one of their customers are in the top 40% of the US income brackets…and offering to pay that custom $7 per hour for their time is an insult not a benefit. Better to just remain quiet. And don’t apologize. Not one person who purchases a car wants to hear from Mercedes Benz that they are very sorry and can’t find the key to your new car.
    The product.
    1. So far so good. It has been easy to use. It does have some excellent sleep metrics. I have only three days so far under my belt. I can’t yet say it is the holy grail as i am “tuning the temperature and nightly cycle” to meet my specific needs. My wife has her side and I think she is getting her customized cycle tuned in more quicky than I am.
    2. The metrics really are solid. I need to learn a bit more about the stages of sleep but it does have some cool learning and recommendations for “best in class” and explanations of why the HRV, the pulse, or stage of sleep is important.
    Overall. A 2/10 for the service support and install. So far, a 7/10 for the product. I think they have something in the long run…but I believe that what they have is not unique nor does it have a strong sustainable advantage. A competitor will come that executes better than them and does not force the subscription model…that is a sign of someone that thinks they will never have a competitor.

Comments are closed.

wp_footer()