A widespread Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage on Monday, October 20, disrupted operations across several industries — and left some high-tech sleepers sweating through the night.
Owners of Eight Sleep’s “Pod” smart mattress covers reported that their beds became overheated and stuck in awkward positions after the outage caused the devices to go offline. The smart covers, which use AWS servers to manage temperature and positioning, malfunctioned when the servers went down.
These covers retail for upwards of $2,000 on the Eight Sleep website.
Eight Sleep CEO admits error
“The AWS outage has impacted some of our users since last night, disrupting their sleep. That is not the experience we want to provide and I want to apologise for it,” Eight Sleep CEO Matteo Franceschetti wrote on X.
He added that the team “will work the whole night” to create a system that keeps the Pod functioning even when AWS is down.
“We are taking two main actions: 1) We are restoring all the features as AWS comes back. All devices are currently working, with some experiencing data processing delays. 2) We are currently outage-proofing your Pod experience and we will be working tonight-24/7 until that is done,” Franceschetti said
Eight Sleep users left sweating
The company confirmed to TechHive that a fix is already being rolled out to ensure the beds remain operational during future outages.
{{/usCountry}}The company confirmed to TechHive that a fix is already being rolled out to ensure the beds remain operational during future outages.
{{/usCountry}}Meanwhile, frustrated owners turned to social media to share their nightmarish experiences. “My pod is at +5 [above room temperature] and I am sweating cuz I can’t turn [it] down or off,” one user wrote on Reddit.
“Just woke up at 3 am because I was sweating and realized bed wasn’t cooling and couldn’t login to the app,” another said. “This company is so ridiculous for requiring an internet connection.”
“Would be great if my bed wasn’t stuck in an inclined position due to an AWS outage,” an X user named Brandon tweeted.
What is the Eight Sleep Pod?
The Eight Sleep Pod is a high-tech smart bedding system designed to improve sleep through active temperature control and sleep tracking.
Rather than buying a completely new mattress, users can start with a mattress cover (sometimes the full set includes a mattress or adjustable base) that can be placed over an existing bed.
This cover contains an embedded network of water-tubes (“Active Grid”) which are connected to a control unit (Hub) that heats or cools the water, thereby changing the surface temperature of the bed.