My Simple Solution For Getting Better Sleep

Over the last two months, I've been using a device that has surprisingly made me go to sleep faster, get a more quality sleep, and improve the consistency of my sleep schedule. Now, sleep is one of those important factors of your health that you know you're supposed to get more of, but for some reason, it always seems to be a priority that is put on the back burner. Whether it's because you have stress-induced insomnia, you tend to eat dinner late, or even just have a bad habit of staying up late to binge the latest TV show, good sleep just doesn't seem to be something we can find in today's modern age. With 70 million Americans having chronic sleep problems and over 44% of adults across the world reporting that their quality of sleep has worsened over the past five years, there has to be a simple solution to getting a better night's sleep. And as much as I really love using my Oura Ring and my Apple Watch for tracking my sleep, if I'm honest with you, they really don't do anything when it comes to actually improving the quality of your sleep on a nightly basis. On my search to find a useful product that would actually help me sleep better, I came across the topic of smart beds and found the Eight Sleep. Eight Sleep has been on my radar over the past few months, especially after I saw a few of my other health tech YouTuber friends trying out their products. They describe themselves as a sleep fitness company, and I'll be honest, when they first reached out to me, I told them I just spent $1,000 on a Casper mattress, so I wasn't really looking to purchase a new one. But then they introduced me to their Pod 3 Cover, which is basically a high-tech mattress topper that uses water to change your bed's temperature throughout the night. Initially, I was a bit skeptical because in my mind, I was like, And I found out a pretty good bit, actually. I do want to mention up front that Eight Sleep did send me the Pod 3 Mattress Cover for me to try out, but they are definitely not paying me to make this video. I actually just wanted to share an objective point of view about my personal experience as sleep has been a big focus of mine this year, and I think it's important to make an informed and educated decision before buying the bullet on a product like this. Now with the Pod Cover 3, I feel one of the biggest changes I've seen with my sleep is that now I'm able to go to And what I found out is that our body temperature plays a very influential role in how fast we fall asleep and the quality of sleep we experience. Your body naturally has a slight dip in its core temperature in the evening, then continues to lower while you're asleep into the early morning, and then it gradually warms up as the morning progresses until you wake up. These natural body temperature fluctuations of cooling before sleep and warming up before waking are linked to our body's circadian rhythm which, when functionally properly, helps us sustain a regular sleep-wake schedule. And what's cool is that you can either set your bed temperature manually for different times during your sleep, or what I like to do is turn on their autopilot feature which takes into account my nightly temperature preferences, sleep history, bedroom temperature, and average sleep schedule to automatically adjust my bed's temperature, and that works best for me. When I started using that feature, it took a bit of an adjustment because I wasn't used to my body being colder when I went to bed at night. I'm more of that stick my leg out of the covers kind of guy to cool down. But after the first few weeks, I started feeling a difference in the beginning stages of my sleep. I found myself falling asleep a lot quicker than in the past. I also realized that I felt way more energized and refreshed when I woke up in the morning. I didn't feel that grogginess that you typically have after waking up knowing you had a terrible night's sleep. I felt well-rested, and even my oring was showing me that In something that might seem very small, but I know my fiance really appreciated, was the fact that I could actually choose which side of the bed that I wanted to change the temperature on. She is somebody who absolutely hates going to bed cold, so we were able to keep her side of the bed a bit warmer, and I could drop mine down to the lower temperatures that actually worked for me. Now what I realized over time was that this ability to go to sleep faster actually led me to getting on a more consistent sleep schedule, and the Podcover 3 was able to assist me in getting on this more consistent sleep routine with its wake schedules and its gentle rise alarm feature, which basically allows you to set up a specific wake-up time throughout the week, and the Podcover would raise the bed temperature around that time and provide a light vibration pattern to get my body awake. It was just like a natural alarm for convincing my body to wake up without being so abrupt like those typical audible alarms. And similar to what I mentioned earlier, you can set different alarms to separate sides of the bed, which is dope as it lets me get up early in the morning without having to wake up my fiance. Unfortunately, she still uses her 100 phone alarms. Real talk, how many alarms do you set before you go to bed? I'm like max three, and they're spaced out by at least 15 to 20 minutes. Let me know in the comments below. I think what makes me really appreciate this product as a part of my sleep improvement journey is the fact that I can control everything in my phone. Outside of the standard temperature control, there is a lot of tech going on within this mattress cover, as I also get access to advanced sleep monitoring and insights through the dedicated Eight Sleep app. The app shows my daily fitness score, which recaps my quality of sleep, the number of hours I slept, and my sleep consistency to give me an idea of how my sleep was each night. The app also gives me a deeper look into my different sleep stages while also providing key metrics that affect my sleep health, such as my resting heart rate. As long as you have Wi-Fi connectivity, you're good to go, which for me is game-changing because now I can actually go to sleep like a person without 3 or 4 different pieces of tech on my wrist. Now, everything for sure is not perfect with the Pod 3 cover as there were definitely a few things that annoyed me. First, the upfront setup was a bit cumbersome as the cover comes in two boxes and you have to wrap your mattress with both the active grid and the encasement and ensure the straps are holding everything tightly in place so you can get the most accurate sleep tracking readings. You then have to set up a separate hub on the side of your bed, which needs a bit of time to be prepped and primed to regulate the water temperature, and then finally you have to actually download and set up your account in the dedicated 8Sleep app. The second is I wish there were a few tweaks to the form factor. I'm not saying the cover is uncomfortable, but it definitely changed the original feeling of your mattress. The combination of the encasement and the active grid does make the cover a little bit bumpy when you first put on everything together, but after a few days I got pretty used to it and everything felt normal to me. For my fiance, not so much. So if you have an expensive mattress that you got specifically for its comfort, then this is definitely something to keep in mind as you're putting two additional layers of materials on your mattress. One thing to also mention is that the hub is not the sexiest looking contraption to have in your bedroom, so I did wish it was just the cover itself to have a cleaner look in my room. I also noticed that the hub makes a very tiny bit of noise when it kicks on or changes temperature. It doesn't personally wake me up at night or anything, but it is worth mentioning in the case that you're a light sleeper. And look, we can address the elephant in the room. The Pod 3 cover and really the entire line of 8Sleep products are not cheap. The Pod 3 covers retail prices around $2,300, which is a lot more expensive than some high quality mattresses out there. And then if you want to get access to the sleep tracking features and the thermal and vibration alarms, you do have to pay a monthly subscription of $15. And let's be real, our monthly subscriptions are already starting to become annoying. But as I get ready to finish up my 20s and into the next decade, I've started thinking more about how I view spending on the things that help improve and maintain my health. Sleep is crucial for me, especially if I want to keep functioning at a high level on a daily basis. And it's an area of my life that I personally just need to prioritize before it's too late. So I'm not going to say you need to buy the Pod Cover 3. But if you are someone who really struggles with getting better sleep at night and would find it useful to be able to control the temperature of your bed when you sleep, while also being able to get valuable sleep data without needing a physical fitness wearable on your wrist, then this product is probably for you. And if it is an investment that is worth it to you, feel free to use the code NOAH to get an extra $50 discount off of any of 8Sleep's products. On the other hand, if you like your current mattresses comfort level and are fine just adjusting other sleep habits like sticking to a consistent sleep schedule or being more diligent about your bedtime routine, which all play a part in how well you sleep at night, then don't bother. Just grab yourself a wearable to track your sleep performance and you'll be all set. If you want to learn about my favorite fitness wearables when it comes to sleep tracking, then definitely check out this video right here. As always, stay healthy, be happy, and embrace the hype.