Want to experience the ultimate night’s sleep?
We are happy to inform that Eight Sleep has recently launched a new smart, temperature-regulating mattress, named ‘The Pod’. With its cooling and heating features as well as the active grid on the top layer and thermal alarm, you’ll be perfectly cozy all night long! In addition to that, the mattress has 4 different layers of foam and medium-firm memory design, so you’ll have the optimal support needed for your spine.
Both the Pod and Smart Bed also offer amazing built-in sensors which allow users to regulate the temperature and track critical metrics required for sleep quality and duration. As well as providing you with the ability of smart home integration with devices like Nest, Amazon Alexa, and Philips Hue. Giving you the power to use voice control, for any mattress function.
Let’s break down the differences between the two mattresses, so you can get a better sense of which one is best suited for you.
The Pod vs. Smart Bed — Things in Common
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Sleep Tracking – Similar to the standard Eight Sleep Smart Mattress, the Pod also will track your sleep, among other things. This advanced system will provide you with useful information about your last night’s sleep. Including a detailed sleep quality score, and other more specific information such as the time spent awake, sleep stages, respiratory rate, and more. Allowing you to control your sleep, and pinpoint any reasons as to why you feel so groggy in the morning, and what you can do to improve that.
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Smart Home Integration – In addition to sleep tracking, both the Eight Sleep’s Pod and Smart Bed are also IFTTT enabled. Meaning they’re compatible with other devices like Nest, Philips Hue, and Amazon Alexa. Giving you the power of voice control. With all of these integrations, you can program to have your Hue lights turn on when the smart Alarm goes off, or even turn on the bed warming function when the temperature drops below a certain threshold.
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100 Night Trial – If you aren’t sure if a smart mattress is for you, why don’t you try it for 100 nights? The smart bed/Pod is delivered directly to your door, is easy to set up, and if you aren’t too happy after your trial, it can be returned.
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Shipping – After purchasing, your Smart Bed/Pod will arrive at the door within 2- 4 weeks, so you’ll have your bed in no time, and at no extra cost too! As the shipping costs are included within the cost of each order.
You don’t even have to worry about the installation process if you don’t want to, as there are technicians who are on-call and ready to do it for you.
The Pod vs. Smart Bed — Differences
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Difference #1: Cooling & Heating – The biggest difference between the Pod vs. Smart Bed, is that the Smart Bed doesn’t contain the same cooling features that the Pod has. So, the Pod will cool down so you’ll able to fall asleep faster, and sounder too. It’ll also use biofeedback sensors and AI (artificial intelligence) to determine the best temperature suited for you, (anywhere from 55 to 115 degrees Fahrenheit) throughout the night and will adjust accordingly. This is a great feature to use on those warm summer nights.
Unlike the Pod, the Smart Bed doesn’t offer cooling features.
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Difference #2: The Hub – Because of its advanced cooling features, the Pod uses a much bigger hub, including a water tank, as opposed to the Smart Bed which uses a smaller Hub which comes as part of the mattress cover, and has all the necessary sensors to read sleeping data and to adjust warmth levels. All you have to do is plug in the hub, download the app and follow the instructions to connect the hub to the WiFi router and pair it with your smartphone.
Also, attached to the Pod’s mattress is a spine, which runs from the Hub to the Active Grid cover. This feeds, hot, cold or room temperature water into the cover. You won’t actually feel it, as it’s nothing like a water bed. You might be able to feel small little veins in the cover, but you won’t be able to tell whether they contain water or not.
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Difference #3: Thermal Alarm – Eight Sleep Pod also offers a Thermal Alarm feature, which will cool off your side of the bed to naturally wake you up as your alarm goes off. With the thermal alarm, you’ll feel refreshed by the time you need to get out of bed. It’s a very mindful choice when waking up in the morning.
The Smart Bed, on the other hand, offers a ‘’Smart Alarm’’, meaning that when you’re in light sleep mode, it triggers the alarm when it’s easier for your body to wake up.
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Difference #4: Layers – The Pod comes with four different layers of foam, making it a very comfortable choice. Each of the layers is created with memory foam. Similar to the technology used to provide enough cushioning for the astronauts as they blast off into space.
And on top of all the layers, the Pod contains Premium knit cover which is perfect for relieving pressure points and track biometrics, like temperature, providing you with ultimate comfort and support.
While the Smart Bed offers 3 layers of foam, with Smart Cover in the top where its intuitive sensors are located. Under the smart cover, you’ll find the responsive foam, transition foam and high-density foam. The foam layers work together to provide sufficient back and hip support, helping you get that restful sleep you crave.
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Difference #5: Firmness – Both of these mattresses put a big focus on providing a good amount of spinal support to its sleepers, helping to alleviate any unnecessary discomfort. While the Smart Bed is considered a ‘Medium Firm’ (6.5) making it perfect for back or stomach sleepers weighing at least 130 pounds. Lighter people or side sleepers might find it a little too firm.
While the Pod ‘Medium’ (5.5), conforms closer to the body of the sleeper. As well as improves the spinal alignment, providing you with ultimate comfort. The Pod might be better suited to slightly heavier sleepers between 130 to 230 pounds.
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Difference #6: 8PLUS Membership – For the Pod you’ll have to buy the 8PLUS membership, giving you the opportunity to unlock the full power of the Pod. With its prepaid membership for the first 12 months, you’ll access to everything you need for a great sleep performance via the Eight Sleep App.
This also includes the premium temperature features, historical trends, personalized coaching, challenges, and experiments, as well as access to their expanding library of mindfulness and relaxation and other sleep-related content. After which you’ll pay $4.99/month.
How amazing would it be to have the access to data-driven coaching anytime, directly from your Eight Sleep app? You’ll be able to get personalized tips on what you could do to improve your sleep quality.
The Pod vs. Smart Bed — Comparison Chart
| Eight Sleep The Pod | Eight Sleep Smart Bed | |
|---|---|---|
| Sleep Tracking | Yes | Yes |
| Smart Home Integration | Yes | Yes |
| 100 Night Trial | Yes | Yes |
| Free Shipping | Yes | Yes |
| Cooling | Yes | Yes |
| Heating | Yes | No |
| The Hub | Bigger (because of water tank) | Smaller |
| Thermal Alarm | Yes | No |
| Layers | Four | Three |
| Firmness | Medium | Medium Firm |
| 8PLUS Membership | Pre-paid | No |
The Pod vs. Smart Bed — Accessories
Take a look at some of the accessories from Eight Sleep, to further improve the quality of your sleep.
Have a restful sleep by blocking out harmful blue light waves that can disrupt your circadian rhythm, by using the Blue Wave Glasses.
We all love that ‘cool’ feeling that we try to get from our pillow by constantly turning it over throughout the night. Well, now you don’t have to do that. The Ultimate Pillow is designed to give you the ‘cool side of the pillow’ feeling all night long.
If you prefer a little more foundation for your bed, have a look at the Simple Foundation. Engineered with the strongest spine for long-lasting quality, and it’s also easy to assemble too.
Also, for an added protection for your bed, you can also throw in a waterproof cover for your mattress. Especially if you’re the type of person who may spill liquid accidentally. With the waterproof cover by Eight Sleep, you can keep your Smart Bed in its optimal shape.
The Pod vs. Smart Bed — Our Thoughts
While the Smart Bed does offer a fantastic quality without spending your entire budget, it goes without saying that the Pod is like a dream bed with all those amazing features. Such as cooling, heating, and thermal alarm. Giving you full control of the temperature that you want while also having access to your sleep data, which you can use to pinpoint your sleeping patterns. It does come at a quite expensive price though, so be sure to keep that in mind when choosing your new mattress.
