Eight Sleep is famous for water-cooled and heated smart mattresses, which are pretty much the state of the bedtime art. They’re some of the best smart bedroom devices you can get your hands on. And the new Pod 5 is one of the biggest upgrades in years. The latest sleep-improving device comes with new components and better processing behind the scenes.
The standout new feature is a hydro-powered blanket that can heat and cool your entire body, not just the underside. It links up with the cover at the foot of the bed using a web of thin water tubes, turning the whole bed into a climate-controlled cocoon. You can even stuff the blanket into your own duvet cover if you’re fussy about aesthetics.
Pod 5’s base also now includes surround sound speakers, bringing white noise and other bedtime audio into the mix. It’s designed to help you drift off with soundscapes ranging from white noise to guided meditations by Dr Andrew Huberman. Unfortunately, you’re stuck with Eight Sleep’s library – there’s no support for Bluetooth or personal playlists here.
Then there’s also a new cover control panel. The old tap-to-change feature is gone. In its place are three physical buttons on the side of the cover. The middle one can be customised for things like snoozing the alarm or killing the audio. The alarm still uses gentle vibrations and warming rather than blasting you awake with a klaxon, which is always appreciated.
But the cleverest part of the whole thing is the bed’s ability to adjust itself while you sleep. Snoring? It’ll raise your head automatically to help clear the pipes. Inclined so you can read in bed? If it detects you’ve dozed off, it’ll shut itself down and lower you into dreamland. You’ll need the Ultra model with the adjustable base to use these features, however.
Underpinning all of this is Eight Sleep’s Autopilot system, an AI engine fed by nearly 10 million hours of sleep data. It learns from your nightly patterns and makes micro-adjustments to temperature and elevation in real-time. The Health Check feature quietly monitors your heart and respiratory rates and will flag anything dodgy in the app. No wearables required – just sensors doing their thing in the background.
The Pod 5 system is available to order now directly from Eight Sleep. Pricing starts at $2849/£2649, with up to a 30-night trial and free returns if it doesn’t put you to sleep (in a good way).
