You’re leaving the gym or work after a long stressful day. You just want to crawl into bed as soon as you get home. It’s the middle of summer and your AC unit is shot. But lucky for you that bed of yours is cool as a cucumber all thanks to a temperature control through an app on your phone.
It’s interesting because anytime you talk to a high-level athlete about their routine or priorities, sleep is always at the top of the list. To their credit, most are getting 8-10 hours (have you ever looked at Brooke Wells sleep data? That girl is sleep goals!) but is it good sleep?
For some, probably. For many, probably not. So how can we maximize the time we’re in bed and sleeping? VOILA, The Eight Sleep Mattress.
Was I hesitant to believe that some high-tech mattress could genuinely improve my sleep? Yes, especially as someone who already gets good sleep (do not factor in CrossFit Semifinals month or the week of the CrossFit Games). But my biggest struggle when it comes to sleep is falling asleep. I don’t have a tv in my room, I wear blue-light blockers before bed, I take CBD, you name it and I’ve tried it.
Cooling Down and Heating Up
When I started using The Eight Sleep Mattress, the first thing that piqued my interest was the heating and cooling feature, especially when the mattress can get as crips as 55° and as toasty as 110°F. For someone who lives in the Northeast like me, ironically, I hate being cold. BUT – fitness over everything, right? Which led me to try out the cooling feature.
I crank down the mattress temperature and set my bedtime to 9:30 pm so once I crawl into bed, the mattress is chilly. If I’m being honest, I didn’t love that at first. Like I said, I hate being cold. But apparently, my body thought otherwise as the time it was taking me to fall asleep quickly diminished.
“The combination of a cool mattress with a big warm comforter is like floating down a chilly lazy river on a warm sunny day.”
And now, the combination of a cool mattress with a big warm comforter is like floating down a chilly lazy river on a warm sunny day.
Speaking of being warm – my favorite feature. You can also set your wake-up time to a desired mattress temperature. I cranked that bed up to 10 and by the time I wake up, it feels like I’m cooking in a cozy toaster oven. In the dead of winter when it’s -10 outside, there’s no way I’m going to want to get out of bed, sorry boss!
But whether you’re someone who runs hot or cold, you can adjust those settings to fit your needs right from your phone through the app. Even better – there’s an autopilot feature so that based on how you sleep each night, it will automatically adjust the temperature that is optimal for you.
So what’s optimal for you?
Well — the Eight Sleep Mattress knows based on your biometrics. It will make suggestions to either cool down or warm up the mattress as a way to help improve your sleep. Don’t worry, the suggestions are never drastic, as it’s trying to learn exactly which temperature is best for you. It may only be one setting different, but over time, it will find the perfect degree to keep you sleeping throughout the night.
What’s This Vibrating Feature?
I wasn’t sure what to think about this for a couple of reasons. First, I’ve used a fitness tracker that vibrates my wrist and because I’m such a deep sleeper I slept through the alarm. Second, as much as I hate the good old “Beep! Beep! Beep!” alarm, I don’t know how I feel about shaking to wake up.
So I was definitely skeptical about this one.
“God bless whoever designed this. I don’t know how it’s possible to wake up a deep sleeper in a gentle way, but boy did they nail it!”
God bless whoever designed this. I don’t know how it’s possible to wake up a deep sleeper in a gentle way, but boy did they nail it!
Similar to the cooling and heating feature, you can adjust the intensity of the alarm. I haven’t tried anything lower than 5 because like I said, I’m a deep sleeper, but even putting it all the way up to 10 it certainly wasn’t abrupt. Imagine those nice back massagers that you use at the nail salon. Think of it as waking up at the spa each morning.
A Side For You and Your Partner
I’m a lone wolf (besides my dogs) but if you’re someone who shares your bed, you can personalize each side. The app allows you and your partner to set your preferred mattress temperatures based on your designated sleep sides and even set the vibrating alarm for only half of the mattress if your partner wants to sleep in.
How the Eight Sleep Mattress Determines Your Sleep Fitness
The mattress tracks your HRV (heart rate variability) and resting heart rate – two health metrics that almost every fitness tracker uses. Each night you’ll then receive a Sleep Fitness Score out of 100%. The score takes into account:
Time slept
Wake up consistency
Time to fall asleep
Time to get up
Each morning you can add tags to your previous day to help your mattress learn more about you. Did you work out late? Have extra caffeine? Watch TV before bed? This data will help you recognize trends that positively or negatively affect your sleep score – and then the app will prompt suggestions on how to improve your sleep.
Final Thoughts
As a fitness community, we invest so much into “living the fitness lifestyle.” Working out hard or evening hiring a programmer, hiring a nutritionist, going to the sauna, jumping in the ice bath, getting body work done, the list is endless. While many of us say we’re prioritizing our sleep, are we really? Yes – I was getting 8 solid hours of sleep, but on a very crappy 10+-year-old mattress from college (I can’t believe I just admitted that).
If you’re invested in improving your fitness like me, it needs to start with your sleep. And what better way to do that than with the Eight Sleep Mattress that will lead you to the Mecca of fitness gains.
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