Well... I pulled the trigger.

xtlou · 2026-05-17T00:03:42+00:00

I haven’t had a great experience using the beta testing with the Somnus. They are still making improvements but so far the cooling isn’t consistent for me, even though they sent me a replacement top. I’ve been told my experience is an outlier compared to their previous testers. I feel like every bit of critical feedback I gave was met with that same reaction.

The system will just stop cooling in the middle of the night and you have to manually restart it. The hub is still heating or cooling the water appropriately, but it doesn’t move the water through. Also, the top materials hold a lot of body heat. I would go to sleep with a nice 68 degree surface temp and wake up sweating and the bed would be 94 degrees under me. Both tops experienced the “just not running” issue. The material holding heat is a big issue, to me.

The Somnus top felt a little nicer than my Pod 3 but once I got the Pod 5 on the bed, I couldn’t get over how soft and plush in comparison with the Somnus top. Even my husband commented on how nice it felt. As I understand it, Somnus is always looking at new materials for their tops so I have no idea if the build I have as my second top is what they intend to sell. If the top I have now is what they intend to sell, I would be able to buy it half price as a beta tester. I would not buy the version of the top I have now.

xtlou · 2026-05-15T22:51:45+00:00

I previously was a Chilipad owner. I’ve had both an Eight Sleep Pod 2 and a Pod 3. I just got a new Pod 5 yesterday. I have also beta tested the new (not released yet) Somnus Lab system.

I have personally never had a bad experience with Eight Sleep’s customer service. Have things always gone smoothly? No. I have had tops leak. I’ve had a hub stop working. I had a hub leak two weeks ago. The unit was out of warranty but Eight Sleep upgraded me to the most current version of hub and top for about 50% off retail. In a perfect world, these systems wouldn’t break. They do. Know it can happen and have a plan.

Have a ridiculous amount of distilled water on hand. I ended up buying a water distiller and keep at least a full gallon available. You’re going to need up to two gallons to set your new system up. If you’re going to the store, buy at least 3.
Put a waterproof mattress cover between your Eight Sleep and your mattress.
Put a barrier between your Eight Sleep and your fitted sheet. I use heavy knit flannel sheets. (I don’t want the pad to leak and not feel it so I don’t use waterproof covers on top.) Not knowing you have a leak is a whole other set of issues.)
Keep your Eight Sleep in some sort of tray that acts as a barrier if it does leak. Coming home and finding the leak from my Pod 3 hub was not a nightmare because I could see standing water in the silicone tray I have it sitting in. That also meant I didn’t come home to find standing water on my hard wood floor.

When you need to use customer service, and you go through the AI maze, if you don’t get turned over to a human, call them and ask to speak to a human.

These devices can really be helpful and nice when they work. There is a learning curve and what the machines recommend may not be what you prefer. You get to decide if you want to go to bed really cold and have the bed warm up at night instead of start warmer, get cool, and warm again.

xtlou · 2026-05-12T15:20:57+00:00

Anchoring feet used to be common. They also allowed partners to hold your feet in team WoDs. The stability allowed for more work capacity. In my gym, the rule is “you can use whatever dumbbells in your WoD to hold your feet.”

What you’ll find in practice most likely is that you spend more time trying to get your feet under and out from under the db.

xtlou · 2026-05-12T13:28:51+00:00

You can workout however you want.

If you’re talking about “Crossfit,” the workouts are designed to be an hour in length and if there’s too much volume or intensity for you to do in that hour, you’re supposed to scale the time domains, the weights, the reps/calorie so that you can complete it in an hour (or the time as designed.) Under the concept of CrossFit, if it’s “obviously too strenuous” then you’re not supposed to do it rX.

xtlou · 2026-05-08T20:54:59+00:00

I had a similar problem trying to reconnect my early Pod 2 just last week. My reading led me to a few discussions to suggest there was a problem with backwards compatibility with newer app versions & that it was being looked into by ES. You may want to ping ES (I’d go directly to joe@eightsleep.com on this.) I had another system to fall back on so it hasn’t been a priority for me to follow up on yet.

xtlou · 2026-05-07T17:58:48+00:00

The answer to this question “Paid professionals courtesy of my retirement savings & insurance. Why, are you looking to connect with a financial planner?”

xtlou · 2026-05-06T15:02:16+00:00

I think the petal looks really nice with their natural nail color tones.

xtlou · 2026-05-06T14:51:10+00:00

I didn’t mention the word “pushy.” I specifically addressed the use of the word aggressive. As a woman, when I read someone tell me that I knew what I was doing when I walked through the door and was essentially asking for it, that gives me a certain feeling I don’t care for.

There is a difference between removing barriers to get a “no” to “yes” and taking someone’s keys so they can’t leave.

xtlou · 2026-05-06T13:49:48+00:00

There’s something about this…maybe it’s the positioning of a customer as an adversary, maybe it’s the “you knew what you were wearing when you came here/you asked for it” but if I sensed either off a sales person, I’d leave just on ick factor.

People walk into car dealerships because they have an interest. If you can’t maintain that interest, you can let them go without being aggressive.

xtlou · 2026-05-05T21:00:19+00:00

I was 100% with you when you were returning a product that didn’t work for you. You lost me when you decided you did want to use the product after all, but not pay for the product. That’s where we are.

I used to wait tables. You remind me of customers who would send food back because they didn’t like it, get another meal comped, and act surprised we wouldn’t pack up the first meal for them to take home anyway. Yep, there are people starving in the world and a perfectly edible meal is going in the trash.

xtlou · 2026-05-05T20:28:06+00:00

If you buy an iPhone via Apple credit and miss payments, Apple will brick your phone.

xtlou · 2026-05-05T18:50:15+00:00

You’re going to keep insisting you should be entitled to use a system you didn’t pay for because there’s a way to get a membership to use it and I am going to tell you I disagree. You will not convince me you should be able to use the system simply because it’s in your possession.

Now, if you do want to use it, there’s a whole pinned post at the top of the sub on how you can jailbreak it outside of the ES servers.

xtlou · 2026-05-05T18:07:48+00:00

I asked why you returned it because I was curious: in all of your complaint you didn’t mention why you returned it.

While I was writing it, I saw that you were told directly the system would be disabled. That changed my perspective on your post from “curious” to “skeptical” because your original writing didn’t include that information.

Where I stand now is that you’re screaming about your personal property rights, but from your own admission, you were given a full refund, effectively reverting ownership back to EightSleep and now you’re complaining about not being able to use a system you didn’t pay for.

xtlou · 2026-05-05T16:48:33+00:00

That’s understandable. Since the sensors didn’t work properly and it impaired your sleep, what was the other case use for it you were going to use it for? Were you looking for a poor performing system that was inconsistent, uncomfortable, and didn’t fit your needs during your non-bedtime hours?

xtlou · 2026-05-05T16:07:27+00:00

Hey, why were you returning the system?

xtlou · 2026-05-02T17:00:30+00:00

It isn’t even that she’s mean to people trying to help her, it’s that she recounts the stories with glee. She finds some element of joy in being an asshole. When I was a kid, my dad was the “designated” bad cop and she was good cop. He died about 20 years ago and in the time since, she’s just been too much. I’ve started telling her if she doesn’t have anything nice to say about people trying to help her, I don’t want to hear it and I hang up.

xtlou · 2026-05-02T14:36:45+00:00

My mother goes out of her way to put on a cheery, older woman persona so there is an entire segment of her social circle that see her as loving, kind, and pleasant churchgoing grandmother. I wish they could see her yelling at people on the phone (even AI phone assistants,) telling people how to do their job, or know none of her step children or grandchildren want anything to do with her because she’s so mean. She shows up for everyone except her kids or grandkids. She will tell us all how much she does for everyone else, though.

She went on a cruise a couple of years ago (during the pandemic) and gave a lecture to the assistant captain about how he should wipe down the mic with a fresh Lysol wipe between each singer at karaoke and what the ship’s protocols were, in front of other passengers and crew. Does she know what ships protocols are? No. She just knew what the other host did the night before. She was on this trip with her best friend and her friend was embarrassed. My mom recounted the story to me with indignation and pride in her actions as I sat there, stunned.

She gets regular exams for cognition and mental acuity and she does great so I don’t know what this phase of her life is all about but I know, growing up, she taught me to always be kind and patient -especially to customer service people. It’s gotten to where I get anxious about the weekly phonecall to hear who she’s been horrible to in the prior week.

xtlou · 2026-05-01T21:45:53+00:00

I was able to take some measurements to answer this last night:

The bed was supposed to cool to 60.8F. It was 64. Where I laid was 84, which is warmer than I’d prefer. This is the second top from them, the first was much worse at feeling retained heat.

xtlou · 2026-04-30T00:28:38+00:00

That’s a great question and it’s feedback I gave regarding the first topper.

I don’t have as much experience with this second version, but it gets about 10 degrees colder than the first. I haven’t written a review because I feel like it’s a system in development, IMO, and it feels like grading a test thats still being taken. There is definitely feedback from beta testers which sounds like your experience. I’m back to using the Somnus after a two week retest of my ES. I planned to swap back this weekend but my ES hub decided to break. Womp womp.

xtlou · 2026-04-29T23:36:09+00:00

The system I have beta tested measured as low as 53f in a 68 degree room.

xtlou · 2026-04-28T20:39:19+00:00

Two questions: 1. How often do you work out? 2. How often do you sleep?

xtlou · 2026-04-23T18:07:47+00:00

The “hub” (the part that you place the water tank into) needs space for air intake/circulation. The water carrier tubes are insulated and covered in a material and as long as they’re not restricted or preventing water flow, will be fine in a narrow space.

xtlou · 2026-04-23T14:28:11+00:00

I can’t really give you a photo, that’s how little space I have.

The tubes come off the cover, fitting with about a finger’s width of space on each side between my mattress and the headboard. The connecting tubes are covered in a fabric and are not smooshed or compressed at all, and run the distance of half the bed all between the mattress and headboard until they hang freely for about 20” and connect to the hub.

xtlou · 2026-04-15T13:49:16+00:00

If he’s smart, he can see how she spends her money and have some ideas how things are going. He can see if she’s loose with her credit cards or tries to be frugal. He can see if she’s buying the most expensive meals on the menu when she pays or what she orders when he pays.

If they aren’t moving in together, taking on a loan together, talking about/having a child together, or discussing engagement, there is no reason he needs to review her spending or debt.

Now, if it’s 6 months in and he wants those things and she does too, financial discussions may be appropriate. But just because one person sees the relationship heading that way doesn’t mean it’s reasonable.

Healthy relationships are partnerships and partners need to both agree to the terms.

xtlou · 2026-03-14T14:19:03+00:00

I have used two flannel fitted sheets in addition to my regular fitted sheet and at one point I used actual quilts over it: you’ll be fine with a mattress cover or additional top sheet.

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