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Sleeping Sweaty in the Summer Is Worse Than Just Uncomfortable…
It can actually drastically worsen your quality of sleep. Tossing and turning at night can have more than a few negative effects on your circadian rhythm, recovery, and energy levels during the day—and with the increasing demands of modern life, that arrangement doesn’t really fly with staying on your A-game.
But it’s 2023 and, thankfully, we no longer have to sleep on hay stacks. There are plenty of brands out there dishing out the holistic benefits of sleeping cooler for your health and wellbeing… so we decided to parse through them to find our best option for superior sleep when the temperature outside is creeping up to 100º.
Ultimately, our research led us to two: the high-tech and new to the game Eight Sleep Pod Cover, and the leader in the cooling sleep space, Tempur-Pedic®’s Tempur-Breeze®. Cooling technology isn’t cheap, so we did a side-by-side comparison of these two industry leaders to see which one would actually be worth the purchase. We take our sleep seriously, so of course, there must be a winner. But more on that later…
Old School Vs. New School: Here’s How They Stack Up
Old School: Tempur-Pedic® Tempur-Breeze®
Tempur-Pedic® comes highly recommended by thousands of customers. The company has been around for a long time—in fact, they were the first to sell memory foam mattresses back in 1991, and they’ve remained a leader in the space since then. Just hearing that name out loud brings us back to commercials on our childhood couch…
Tempur-Pedic®’s cooling technology is a relatively new development in their long history, but they’ve already found a lot of success and trust in their Breeze Line, which comes in two options: the ProBreeze®, which offers 5° of cooling, and the LuxeBreeze®, which offers 10° of cooling and comes in varying firmness levels.
New School: Eight Sleep Pod Cover
Meet the youngins in the sleep industry. Eight Sleep was founded in 2014 and very quickly made a name for themselves—becoming the go-to sleep solution for countless professional athletes, celebrities, doctors, and even two of the world’s most notorious CEOs, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. (Gotta stay rested for the ongoing war of the social media titans.)
Eight Sleep takes a technology-based approach with an app-connected water-based cooling system that you put over your existing mattress in the form of a cover. The bestselling Pod Cover fits onto any size mattress and can temperature-adjust from 55° to 110°. Their website claims that members report 32% better sleep when using it.
Both products clearly have a lot going for them, but as a wise man once said, “If you ain’t first, you’re last.” We’ll break it down into four main categories to see who comes out on top.
Price: Eight Sleep
We know we said that cooling technology is expensive, but Tempur-Pedic®’s option really takes that to a different level. Their Tempur-Breeze® is basically double the price of Eight Sleep. It starts at around $4K for a Queen-size mattress, and can go up to nearly $10K for the King-size. (You read that right.) They offer 90 day returns and the option to pay in installments with 0% APR.
Alternatively, Eight Sleep’s Pod Cover ranges from $2K to about $2,400 depending on the option you choose. (Who would’ve thought $2K would sound wildly affordable?) Eight Sleep also provides a monthly membership ($15-$24/month) that learns from your sleep history, personal preferences and external factors, and makes automatic temperature adjustments to help you sleep better each night. They have a 30 day return policy and also offer payment in installments with 0% APR, with $0 down as an option.
It is worth noting that Tempur-Pedic® is a full mattress, while Eight Sleep’s Pod Cover is just an addition to the mattress you already have. So, while it depends on what you’re looking for, Eight Sleep remains the much more affordable option with more versatility and portability to boot.
Cooling Technology: Eight Sleep
The cooling tech in the Tempur-Breeze® basically consists in layers of advanced ventilation. There’s a cool-to-the-touch SmartClimate® cover made of cooling fibers, a heat-diffusing layer that dissipates excess heat, and what they call Pure Cool® materials to keep the mattress cool and pressure-relieving. It’s limited by only two cooling options (5° and 10° cooler), despite the many layers.
Eight Sleep actually uses a water-based cooling system that sends water through the cover itself from a re-fillable Hub, which can heat and cool from 55° to 110°. Sometimes less is much, much more. You can control the temperature regulation through the app, and even schedule cooling and heating phases (imagine waking up to a warm bed without having to sleep through one).
If the Tempur-Breeze® makes you feel like we’re long past the age of the feather-bed, Eight Sleep makes you feel like we’re in a totally different universe. It even anticipates your sleep cycles and adaptively makes temperature adjustments as you sleep… like your own personal Jarvis. And with your bump in sleep quality, you’ll probably feel like Iron Man, too.
The “Cozy Factor”: Tempur-Pedic®
Tempur-Pedic® has been synonymous with drift-away comfort for a long time, and their cooling mattresses are no different. The Tempur-Breeze® uses a plushy memory-foam with more pressure-relief and padding because of all the layers, and comes in two different levels of firmness to choose from. It’s a “sink into the bed” kind of mattress, and even absorbs motion so you won’t disturb your sleeping partner getting in and out of bed.
Eight Sleep comes in only one level of firmness, but the catch is that it’s only a mattress cover. It’s so thin, you can throw it over your favorite mattress and preserve the comfort of what you’re already used to. If you really wanna go crazy, you could put an Eight Sleep over a Tempur-Breeze mattress… (We’re kidding. You don’t need to do that.)
If you’re in the market for a whole new mattress and you want to invest in some NASA-developed, body-forming technology, Tempur-Pedic is your best bet. But if you’re just looking for a cooler sleep solution, Eight Sleep makes more sense.
Customization + Setup: Eight Sleep
The Tempur-Breeze® has a white glove delivery service on select mattresses, which is pretty convenient. It’s customizable at the point of purchase but it can be hard to know which option is right for you between the ProBreeze® (5° of cooling) and the LuxeBreeze® (10° of cooling). Plus, the price can really start to rack up with the different mattress sizes and firmnesses, so it’s not as easy as just testing it out.
Eight Sleep’s Pod Cover has a remarkably simple setup, and it’s compatible with any mattress out there. You just fill the Hub up with water and toss the cover on your bed, and you’re ready to roll. And once you’re rolling, the customization is nearly endless. It transforms into a smart-bed instantly and you can manage sleep data, temperature control, a vibrating alarm (that’s right), and even set up dual-temperature zones with your phone.
Because it can heat as well as cool, the Pod Cover is applicable year-round. When you throw in the sleep tracking on top of the cooling, and the fact that some members even mention energy savings from not having to crank the AC… Eight Sleep starts to sound more like the Sandman’s Swiss Army Knife than just a cooling cover.
We Definitely Know Which One We’ll Be Choosing.
If you’re looking for a new mattress, are interested in the advantages of plushy memory foam, and are able and ready to ball out on the much pricier option, the Tempur-Breeze® might be your answer. Tempur-Pedic® is a household name for a good reason.
But if you’re looking for relief from the summer heat with a bed that’s the perfect temperature for you not just every hour of the night but all year long, it’s really a no-brainer. Eight Sleep’s Pod Cover is one of the more awesome products we’ve seen.
It’s more affordable, easily implemented into your current sleep situation, and will completely level up your sleep game. There’s a reason it’s trusted by top athletes, doctors, and scientists (aka the people who take their sleep the most seriously).
