find the right one Bed temperature can be tricky. Being too hot or too cold can make it difficult to calm down and cause you to wake up in the middle of the day. That’s a problem because our physical and mental health depends on sleep. Eight Sleep has the answer. Eight Sleep Pod 4 is a temperature-regulating mattress cover that tracks your body as you snooze, with a hub that pumps cold or hot water into the cover to help you stay in the nod zone for longer.
When I tested its predecessor, the Eight Sleep Pod 3 (7/10, WIRED Recommends), I was wary of the billionaire biohacking buzz but fell in love with it. Aside from increased comfort, the best sleep trackers all tell the same story. My wife and I slept longer and had more deep sleep and REM sleep with Eight Sleep Pods than without them. The Eight Sleep Pod 4 has some welcome improvements, including increased comfort, quieter operation, and convenient tap controls that eliminate the need to reach for your phone at night.
Photo: Simon Hill
Sadly, better sleep doesn’t come cheap. The Pod 4 cover and hub for a queen bed costs $2,599, but also requires a one-year subscription to Autopilot for an additional $199. If you already have a subscription, you can migrate to the new pod, but you will no longer be able to purchase the Eight Sleep Pod without getting an Autopilot subscription. The UK Superking I tested costs £2,699, with one year of Autopilot costing £199. It’s a real investment, but a good night’s sleep can make a big difference.
hit the hay
The Eight Sleep Pod 4 cover and hub come in two large boxes. The mattress cover has a rubber tube inside and a soft, plush dark colored material on top. It’s stretchy to fit snugly over your mattress, and you’ll need to thread a tube through the top to insert it into the hub. The hub is about the size of a desktop PC and has a cloth front with a large 8 logo. The hub is the brain of the operation, cooling or heating the water and pumping it around the cover.
Pod 4’s setup was similar, but much quicker than Pod 3. Pull the cylinder out of the top of the hub and pour water up to the fill line. The priming process has been reduced to approximately 10 minutes, compared to several hours in previous versions. Connect your hub to Wi-Fi using the mobile app. The Pod 4’s cover is much more comfortable than the Pod 3’s, and the hub is much quieter. Even when I measured it, it never went below 30 decibels. I hear a faint hum, similar to white noise sleep sounds.