I've been sleeping on Eight Sleep's Pod Cover for more than four years and it's still one of my favorite tech purchases. So I was intrigued when Eight Sleep released a blanket add-on that promised cooling from above too.
After sleeping with it for more than a year, the blanket has far more downsides than upsides for me. I love the first five minutes of coming into bed each night, but after that, I have mostly regrets. And to be honest, the only reason I haven't put it in my closet and swapped it for my regular comforter is because of how much I spent on it.
How the Blanket Works
The Eight Sleep blanket connects directly to the side of your Pod 5 cover. Water tubes run through it just like the mattress cover, and it mirrors whatever temperature you set for your side. If your cover is set to -4, the blanket is -4. There's no way to set them independently because there's only a single hub for both.
In theory, this gives you cooling (or heating) from above and below, but in real life, the mattress cover does the majority of the work because your full body weight presses into the cover, which means way more skin contact. The blanket helps, but it's not a game changer. The blanket's 22 lbs pushes the cooling surface against your skin, which makes it more effective than if it were loosely draped over you.
During past summers, with just the Pod 5 cover, I'd sometimes sleep to my back or stomach just to keep more skin on the cool cover. But now with the blanket, I usually stick to my side or whatever feels most natural at the time, without thinking about coolness.
First Impressions vs. Real Life
Sliding under the blanket each night feels incredible. It's like coming into a cool burrito each night. The initial feeling of being surrounded by temperature-controlled fabric on all sides is something the cover alone can't do.
But that feeling doesn't last because after the first few minutes, I just stop noticing it.
Here's where things are strange. If I get up to pee in the middle of the night and come back to bed, the whole bed just feels uncomfortable cold. With just the cover, coming back to bed was never an issue. But the blanket changes things because I find myself wanting to lower the Pod temperature before getting back in, which is annoying when you're half asleep.
My wife noticed something similar. Sometimes she felt like she was getting too hot with the blanket on top. The cover alone was fine for her, but adding the blanket created temperature swings she wasn't expecting.
Because the cover and blanket run at the same temperature, you can't customize them separately. If you want your cover at -3 but the blanket feels too cold at -3, you're stuck.
The $1,200 Problem
The blanket costs $1,000. But realistically, you're spending $1,200 because the $200 duvet cover is basically required.
The blanket itself isn't washable. We actually used it without a duvet for a couple weeks before realizing it couldn't be washed or cleaned in any way. I should've known you can't put all that tech in the washing machine, but the material is so soft it feels like you should be able. Eight Sleep confirmed you can only clean it with a damp cloth. So unless you want to sleep in five years of sweat, drool, and dead skin, you need a duvet cover.
Most duvet covers don't fit perfectly (I tried using Casper's duvet cover unsuccessfully) because of the two hoses exit at the end of the bed. If you have a bottom-zip duvet cover, you can only zip it about 25% of the way. The blanket's outer sheeting also isn't fully attached to itself, and because most duvet covers don't have all eight anchor points, the whole thing often feels misaligned or bunched up inside.
My experience with the blanket was a 3/10 with my own duvet cover. After two months, once I caved and bought Eight Sleep's $200 cover, it improved to a 5/10.
The good news: Eight Sleep's duvet cover is actually great. It's super soft, made with a woven modal fabric that feels similar to the blanket material but in white. It has eight inner ties that keep the blanket perfectly in place. Putting it back on after washing is the easiest duvet cover experience my wife and I have ever had. There's a three-sided zipper that makes removal simple, and the design includes a perfect slot for the two hoses.
It's a great duvet cover, but it brings the total real price to $1,200.
Living With It
The blanket weighs about 22 lbs when filled with water and inside the duvet cover. My old comforter was 8 lbs. That's a big jump. Most people will find it heavy, but I think weighted blanket fans will like it. I land somewhere in between, but the weight is something I notice every time I use a regular blanket at a hotel.
The weight is kind of necessary though. That pressure makes it so you actually feel the temperature. But it's counterintuitive: you want to be cooler, so you get a heavier blanket?
A normal comforter is soft, cozy, and moves freely with you. Eight Sleep's blanket feels more like stiff tech because you can feel the tubing running through it. It's not uncomfortable, but it's not the soft, squishy feeling you usually get from a traditional comforter.
The most annoying part is that the hose attachment also limits how much you can move the blanket. You can't casually toss it to one side or pull it up over your head. With past comforters, I’d hook my feet under the blanket to keep them warm. You can't do that with the Eight Sleep. Ironically, the hose restriction makes it harder for your partner to steal your side of the blanket, which doesn't suck.
Who is this for?
I'll keep mine because I've already spent the money and want to continue testing. But if you asked me whether you should buy it, my honest answer is no.
Eight Sleep's Pod mattress cover is doing the heavy lifting. Cooling from both sides sounds great. But this blanket is heavy, stiff, impossible to wash, and realistically costs $1,200. The extra cooling isn't good enough to justify all of that.
For hot sleepers, I'd pass on the blanket. Just use a normal comforter during the winter. and swap to a lightweight blanket or just a top sheet in the summer. $50 instead of $1,000.
The Eight Sleep cover is one of my favorite tech purchases of all time, but skip the blanket.
Disclosure
I'm an Eight Sleep affiliate, but I buy every product myself and won't change content for their brand. My link saves you $250 on the Pod 5 or $50 on the Blanket. These are the best discounts on the internet, but they're not exclusive. Use whatever link works for you.
