The Eight Sleep Pod 5 is a (spendy) miracle of a bed setup. But it’s only ideal for some people.
Like it or not, sleep is a non-negotiable aspect of being alive. We human beings require sleep to continue functioning. The problem is, for plenty of people, sleep is an elusive beast. For a gigantic list of reasons, people struggle to get enough high-quality sleep and keep that sleep schedule consistent.
One of the main sleep disruptors is temperature. Some of us can sweat through the sheets in January, while others cannot warm up no matter how many wool duvets they add to the bed. The Eight Sleep Pod 5 aims to remedy temperature as a reason why you cannot get restorative sleep. It does this, primarily, with the Pod’s Cover, which slips over your mattress like a fitted sheet. You get to set your ideal Cover temperature, or you can let the Eight Sleep Autopilot take the wheel, which will make adjustments throughout the night.
Plenty of us have gone to great lengths to find the secret to getting great sleep, but the Eight Sleep Pod 5 has a glaring factor — it’s really, really expensive. We’re talking between $3,000 and $6,000+ for a queen-size setup, depending on how luxurious you want to go. Since that number is not one most people find easy to swallow, I slept on the Eight Sleep Pod 5 for several months to decide if I think it’s worth the price. In the end, I’ve come to love almost everything about the Pod 5, and I miss it when I’m not sleeping at home, but I did find some aspects frustrating. My detailed adventure with the Eight Sleep Pod 5 takes off from here.
Disclaimer: If you deal with chronic sleep issues, please seek out professional medical guidance before turning to any type of physical product for relief.
How does the Eight Sleep Pod 5 system work?
It’s helpful to get the whole overview of how the Pod works before I dive into what my experience was like sleeping on the system. At its core, the Eight Sleep Pod 5 is a cover that slips over your mattress much like a fitted sheet. But this cover contains a network of small tubes that pump either hot or cold water throughout. The aim here is to either warm you up or cool you down, and therefore, help you get better sleep.
The brains of this water system sit in the Eight Sleep Pod Hub, which sits next to your bed and attaches to the cover via a thick cord. Sleepers control the cover’s temperature through the Eight Sleep app or with three buttons located on the side of the cover. There’s also an autopilot mode that hands off temperature control to the app, and it’ll adjust throughout the night to what it thinks will help you sleep best.
Besides heating and cooling, the cover has some serious smarts in the name of sleep metrics. It detects heart rate and breathing patterns, and monitors sleep stages. All of that info gets sent to the app, which then gives a detailed nightly report on sleep quality. It also has a vibration function, allowing you to set an alarm to wake you up via vibration every morning, which is really snazzy and infinitely better than a cellphone alarm.
The blanket
In addition to the cover, sleepers can add the Eight Sleep Pod 5 blanket to the setup. It works in a similar fashion to the cover with small water tubing throughout that sends either warm or cool water through the channels. The blanket connects to the cover via cords to the ports located at the foot of the cover. Conveniently, the cords tuck under your mattress, so there’s little risk of kicking the blanket cords while you sleep.
The temperature for the blanket is also controlled in the app. Since the Hub controls the temperature of both the cover and the blanket, you’ll need to select one temperature for both products.
The base
For an extra luxurious slumber, Eight Sleep sells an adjustable base to pair with your mattress, the Pod’s cover, and the blanket. The adjustable base articulates at the head and the foot, so you’re free to adjust either area to find your perfect combo. In the app, you can move the base into pre-set positions for reading, relaxing, or sleeping, or keep it flat. Getting more particular, you can adjust the head and foot to the specific degree of your liking.
At times during testing, I found the reading position to feel too upright, but the lower relax position to be too close to lying down, so I adjusted the degree of incline, which is super easy to do in the app. The Eight Sleep base also has a built-in speaker that can lull you off to sleep with the soothing sounds of a rainforest and awaken you with soft beach waves. You can also go with pink noise, white noise, or brown noise.
Another major benefit of the base is its snoring mitigation function. When the base detects snoring, it’ll raise the head area slightly. This small adjustment is undetectable, and its aim is to prop sleepers up in a better position to open their air passages, hopefully putting an end to snoring.
Since plenty of us get poor sleep on account of a partner snoring, myself included, this automatic adjustment is a lifesaver. I haven’t noticed my partner snoring in months, aside from the times we’ve been staying at a friend’s house where there was no Eight Sleep Pod provided in the guest room. Sigh.
Surprise! Setting up the Eight Sleep Pod 5 is super easy.
Since I tested the entire Eight Sleep Pod 5, which includes the cover, blanket, adjustable base, and legs for the base, I had a total of eight boxes. To say I was intimidated by the setup is an understatement. But to my absolute delight, it was super easy. Yes, it was a lengthy process that took several hours, but it was all straightforward. I had the help of my partner, but none of the elements would have been unmanageable by myself. The adjustable base is split into two sides, which makes it easier to carry into the bedroom. Perhaps best of all, the setup requires zero tools.
All you need to set up any and all elements of the Eight Sleep Pod 5 system is distilled water, a WiFi connection, the app up and running, and some time. I’ve assembled simple platform mattress bases that were far more complicated than the Pod 5. Phew. The app takes you through detailed setup instructions in a way that makes the entire process a cinch.
What I loved about sleeping with the Eight Sleep Pod 5
In truth, I loved a lot about the Eight Sleep Pod 5. Seattle summers have followed the global trend of getting way too hot, and most of us don’t have AC. I sleep hot to begin with, so summers have felt especially evil to me. The Eight Sleep Pod 5 made me forget what it was like to sweat the bed every single night. In my several months of testing, I woke up sweaty exactly once. Just one time I woke up drenched. Before the Pod 5, it was a rare occurrence if I didn’t wake up soaked. The difference was shocking. I also deal with migraines from dehydration, so having a sleep solution that keeps me from sweating a ton and losing a bunch of water at night has been a miracle.
My testing continued into the fall, and once the weather turned rainy and gray, I found comfort and pleasure in crawling into a pre-warmed bed each night. Napping on a pre-warmed bed also felt like I had unearthed some kind of hidden level of enjoyment in life that I didn’t have access to before the Pod 5.
The Pod 5’s base also changed my partner’s proclivity for snoring. In fact, it stopped it entirely. Not once did I wake up to shake him. I have to assume that not only did I sleep way better because of this, but he did, too.
Things I didn't love about the Eight Sleep Pod 5
Sleeping on the Pod 5 for the first two weeks or so was a journey, and I often wanted to get off the Pod train. Some nights, I woke up too cold and had to reach for my phone to bump up the temperature. (My partner preferred to make temperature adjustments with the Cover’s side controls, but I always went into the app.) Other nights, I woke up too hot and had to lower the temperature. All of that disrupted my sleep, probably more than getting sweaty would have.
It took several weeks for me to get acquainted with the Pod 5 and for it to get used to my preferences. On occasion, the bed would decide a toasty +7 was optimal for my bedtime temperature, which felt like I was sleeping on the sun itself. Other nights it went with a more moderate +5. I told it +3 was my preference, but the cover did what it wanted at times. To this day, it still spurts out bedtime temperatures seemingly at random. This, however, is easy to adjust in the app.
Because the Eight Sleep Pod 5’s Blanket has water channels, it’s heavier than your normal duvet insert and cover. Personally, I love a weighted blanket, so the Pod 5’s blanket is heaven for me. My partner, however, does not like weighted blankets and is not in love with the hefty feel of the blanket. The Blanket is an add-on to the Pod’s Cover, so I only recommend going for it if you enjoy the feel of a weighted blanket.
Who might love the Eight Sleep Pod 5
After sleeping on the Pod 5 for months through several seasons, I’ve compiled a list of people who I think would get significant benefit from the Sleep Pod 5 and might be able to justify the price. They include:
Especially hot sleepers who don’t find relief with bedding or a breathable mattress
Cold sleepers who can’t warm up with bedding
Those who live in a warm environment without AC
People with persistent aches and pains
Couples who prefer to sleep at different temperatures
Sleepers who are dealing with hot flashes
Those who are super interested in detailed sleep metrics
In essence, if you want better control of temperature paired with detailed sleep metrics but you don’t want a wearable sleep tracker, the Eight Sleep Pod 5 could be ideal.
Sizing options for the Eight Sleep Pod 5
Eight Sleep offers the Pod 5 in full, queen, king, and California king sizes. All of these sizes are capable of supporting two sleepers, with separate temperature controls on each side. However, if you sleep alone, you can indicate that during the initial setup to have the entire bed set for one sleeper.
The separate sides make the Pod easier for couples to use since temperature preferences tend to vary. It’s also ideal for when one person is napping and the other isn’t, or if your bedtimes vary. But the lack of a twin-size is a miss, in my opinion. After testing the Pod for months, I think older people who deal with pain or lower mobility are great candidates for the Pod 5, but they’ll have to be in a full-size bed or larger. The lack of a twin also means you can’t use the Pod 5 for a split king set-up, which is identical to two twins in a side-by-side arrangement. I love the idea of a split king adjustable base with the Eight Sleep Pod since this would allow each sleeper to choose their ideal base position, in addition to the temperature.
The Autopilot membership is extra
When you buy the Eight Sleep Pod 5, you’ll also need to select your Autopilot plan for the first year of ownership. The options include standard, enhanced, and elite, with varying levels of metrics and functions attached to each plan. These memberships provide access to Pod 5’s Autopilot feature, which enables your Cover to adjust the temperature throughout the night to what it deems most comfortable. Here’s the pricing breakdown for the first year:
Standard: $199
Enhanced: $299
Elite: $399
Each Autopilot membership gives two users access to the plan, so you only need one plan per bed. And here’s what’s included:
Standard: Autopilot temperature adjustments, sleep and health reports, vibrating and thermal alarms, snoring detection, and a two-year warranty
Enhanced: Everything in Standard, but with a five-year warranty
Elite: Everything in Enhanced plus advanced wellbeing monitoring, cardiovascular monitoring, and respiratory monitoring, like abnormal heart rates or breathing patterns.
It’s not possible to purchase the Pod 5 without signing up for one of these plans. However, after your first year, you can bail on the plan. But that means the Pod Cover will not automatically adjust temperature at night, and you’ll need to set it manually. You’ll also lose access to vibrating and thermal alarms, and you won’t get sleep tracking metrics, either. Boiled down, without the Autopilot plan, the Cover is pretty much just a fancy heated or cooling mattress cover. I fail to see much allure in using the Pod 5 Cover without the plan, so I’d factor the annual price into the overall cost of ownership.
An always-improving app that’s hungry for details
I’ll hand it to Eight Sleep — the developers put so much thoughtful design into the Pod 5 that it’s complicated to explain every feature of the bed and the app. Even a month after sleeping on the Pod 5, I would open the app to find a new area with new metrics and controls that I did not know existed.
The app is a complex beast, and I think data-driven folks will love it. Each morning, you get a comprehensive look at how you slept the previous night, including time spent in REM, deep sleep, and overview numbers that include how much time you spent asleep and how long sleep interruptions lasted.
The app also lets you see sleep biometrics, like resting heart rate, heart rate variability, snoring time, and breath rate. In addition to these detailed metrics, the app has some functions I’m pretty smitten with, like nap mode and a jet lag protocol. There’s also a special function that those who are transitioning into menopause will be thrilled about.
Hot Flash Mode
About a month into my testing journey, Eight Sleep launched a new Hot Flash Mode. Once enabled, this mode lets sleepers alert the Cover about a hot flash, which will send the cover into a super quick cooling mode for a set amount of time. You get to choose the temperature drop and the duration. To make this easier than heading into the app when experiencing a hot flash, you can assign Hot Flash Mode to a button on the cover’s side.
I got to chat with Dr. Nicole Moyen, Eight Sleep’s Director of Science & Clinical Research, about Hot Flash Mode. She explained that about 80 percent of people in perimenopause will experience hot flashes, and many will go through several each night. Not only is this uncomfortable temperature spike disruptive to sleep, but Dr. Moyen also said it’s basically impossible to predict when a hot flash will occur.
She said Eight’s Sleep’s own research has shown that simply sleeping on the Pod itself can cut the normal instance rate in half, even without using Hot Flash Mode. “We’re lowering people’s core body temperature and therefore keeping them within a narrow thermostat range that the brain needs,” she explained over our video call. But with Hot Flash Mode, sleepers can access rapid cooling in an attempt to mitigate the hot flash. Plus, the Pod will warm back up after the set time. Dr. Moyen explained that this experience is a stark contrast to how most people experience a hot flash, which involves intense heat, sweating, and getting out of bed to cool down — not to mention this is often followed by chills on account of the now sweaty bed.
I haven’t experienced the joy of hot flashes yet, but I tested out the function, and it does exactly what it should: cools you like you’re on fire. For people who deal with interrupted sleep each night for years on account of hot flashes, I can see how this feature could offer great relief. Plus, it could mean less disruption to a partner.
Away mode
When you head off on vacation or leave for the weekend and won't be around to sleep on the Pod 5, the app has an away mode. It takes you into a calendar to select when you'll be leaving and when you're returning. When setting up this schedule, you can indicate if both sleepers will be gone or just one. This'll put the bed in a dormant mode until your return. If you happen to come back earlier than expected, it's easy to push the "I'm back" option, and the Pod 5 will resume its normal schedule.
A bed that lives on WiFi
We all love WiFi, but the Eight Sleep Pod 5 is really, really in love with that connection. In fact, it hardly works without access to WiFi. That means the AWS outage took every Eight Sleep Pod offline. My bed went cold, but I was fine once I put on warmer pajamas and grabbed an extra blanket. Other users were in worse shape, and some took to the internet to complain of missing work because the bed’s alarm didn’t go off or struggling to sleep because it was too hot or too cold.
The following day, the brand's CEO, Matteo Franceschetti, posted on his X account that Eight Sleep would roll out Backup Mode, making some of the bed’s functions available via Bluetooth, bypassing the need for WiFi. If AWS crashes or your WiFi goes out, you can still adjust temperature and elevation. Some features won’t work, like the bed’s Autopilot adjustments, and the bed won’t turn on automatically at bedtime like it usually does, but you can manually set the temperature.
Eight Sleep said this new feature’s rollout would be “gradual,” and I haven’t seen any update on my Pod. But this update gives potential owners reassurance that their beds will still be able to heat or cool in the event of an outage. Keep in mind you’re still kinda screwed if the power goes out, unless you own a portable power station or have a generator for home backup.
A sad note about cleaning
You’re probably wondering how you’d go about cleaning a mattress cover that includes a network of water tubing. I sure was while I was testing. The answer is a pretty big letdown — you can’t. The Eight Sleep Pod 5 cover is not safe to clean in the washing machine. Instead, you’ll need to spot clean it as necessary with water and a smidge of soap. The Pod’s blanket is also not machine washable, and the tag notes instructions to “spot clean with a damp cloth only.
This brings me to urge caution to anyone who has pets or small kids from investing in the Pod 5. Any accident from pets, kids, or yourself (like spilled coffee or wine) could be near impossible to thoroughly and hygienically clean. Should you sweat at night (hopefully not, thanks to the temperature control), that could also soak into the non-cleanable cover.
Pair this with the premium price of the Eight Sleep Pod 5, and I’m not feeling like this is a wise splurge for those who share a bed with kids or pets. In theory, you could add a waterproof mattress protector over the Pod 5 Cover, but that could also create a barrier between you and the cooling or heating effects that cost top-dollar.
Is the Eight Sleep Pod 5 worth the price?
In a queen-size, the Eight Sleep Pod 5 with Hub and Cover sells for $3,248 with the Standard Autopilot plan. If you add the blanket and adjustable base to the setup and go with the Elite Autopilot plan, the queen-size price shoots up to $6,497. That’s a heavy lift for most people, especially considering you have to bring your own mattress to the party.
But before I say I think the Pod 5 is too expensive, I have to point out that sleep is one of the most important pillars for us human beings. Sacrificing sleep is not smart, and the CDC mentions it's a large player in how our immune system functions and a major player in overall heart health and brain function.
With that in mind, if you cannot sleep because you’re too hot or too cold, the Eight Sleep Pod 5 might very well be worth the high price tag. If the Pod 5 allows you to get better sleep even for just one year, it works out to about $8 per night in the queen size. If we up the time frame to five years, it works out to just $1.67 per night. That’s not much for an investment in wellbeing and health.
I don’t think the Eight Sleep Pod 5 is a good investment for all sleepers, but it could be a life-changer for some. Considering some people drop more than the price of the entire Eight Sleep Pod 5 setup to spend one week on a cruise ship with Mickey Mouse (no shade — those Disney cruises look incredible), I don’t think the $3,049 price tag or even the $6,395 price for the cover, blanket, and base is all that wild.
Sleep has the power to make a dramatic difference in almost every aspect of our waking hours, and if the Eight Sleep Pod 5 helps you get better sleep, I think it’s well worth the price. Keep in mind, Eight Sleep offers a 30-day trial, so you have some reassurance knowing you have a month of sleeping on the Pod 5 to decide if it’s a worthwhile investment.
It took me a while to fall in love with the Pod 5, but now that we’ve gotten to know each other better, I’m a big fan.
A parting note: You deserve an adjustable base
When testing the entire Eight Sleep Pod 5 setup with the temperature-regulating cover and blanket with the adjustable base, something stuck out to me: an adjustable base is a next-level sleep accessory that you need. Adding an adjustable base to your bedroom setup makes it feel like you splurged to book the first-class suite every single night. The pleasure of hanging out in bed to watch shows, read, or reply to emails while cozy in an elevated position is something I underestimated.
Sleeping with the head slightly elevated is great for those who deal with light snoring, and raising the feet is optimal for athletes or those who work on their feet all day, since it can help with blood flow. But the simple luxury of reading in bed while sitting up on a stable surface (instead of an unstable pillow pile) is a life upgrade I wholeheartedly recommend. Temperature-adjusting Eight Sleep Pod or not, an adjustable base is a life changer.
