I’ve Used an Eight Sleep for Perimenopause since 2022… It’s Worth the Money

There's a trend going around social media where folks are sharing five things they think are worth the money. This trend has made me realize a lot of these people have way more disposable income than I or care about things I just do not. But one item keeps being mentioned that I do own, do love, and do truly think is worth the money: Eight Sleep.

I know I am not the only woman who hit her 40s and started struggling to go to sleep. If I did fall asleep, no matter what time my head hit the pillow, I'd wake up at 3am with a start… and often in a pool of sweat. My husband would be a burrito wrapped up in layers of bedding, and I would be miserable under a damp sheet, wishing I could have the comfortable weight of the bedding but unable to be comfortable.

How We Learned About Eight Sleep in 2022

My husband is the one who found out about Eight Sleep. He listens to the Rich Roll podcast and I guess Eight Sleep was a sponsor and Rich Roll would talk about how much he enjoyed it. My husband knew I was dealing with night sweats and had always been a warm sleeper. He invited me to investigate it and see if it may be a solution.

One friend had an Ooler (now called the ChiliPad), another had a Bed Jet, and both didn't sound appealing to me. I liked the idea of no sound, no wind, and with the Eight Sleep it could offer dual-zone cooling but also heating, and scheduled adjustments through the night to keep one comfortably asleep.

This means, when I get into bed at 10pm my side of the bed could be cozy and warm, but by time I am ready to turn off the light, the temperature has gone down to a more neutral level. Then into the night, right around that 3am waking hour, my side of the Eight Sleep would get cooler, keeping me comfortable enough to not get night sweats and not wake up. No breeze, no fan, no noise, and my husband's side of the bed can have a whole other temperature setup.

Eight Sleep for Perimenopause: My Review

This was the summer of 2022, and if you have read my articles about perimenopause, you know I was in it bad at that time. Perimenopause was not only affecting my sleep, but my job, my marriage, my ability to parent, the level of comfort in my body, and most everything.

We decided to try the Eight Sleep Pod 3, which was a mattress cover that offered the temperature regulation. It would wrap around our existing mattress, have a tube going from the center head of the mattress to a almost-silent machine called a hub that is about the size and shape of an old-school desktop computer tower.

At that time, the Eight Sleep mattress pod cost a bit over $2K; not the kind of money we had sitting around to play with, but with Affirm, it was interest-free monthly payments of around $65. That we could handle, and that was cheaper than a lot of the random-ass supplements, pillows, and cooling tools I had been buying to try to find relief.

Gentle reader, to say I was obsessed with our Eight Sleep is to put it mildly. This was such a gamechanger not just for me, but also for my husband.

• For once, we could comfortably share the same bedding.
• I'd snuggle up on his side and be floored at how hot it was, but how I couldn't feel it at all on my side.
• In the winter we kept our bed warm, in the summer kept it cool, and were able to reduce our utility bills because our bedroom didn't have to be as drastic of a temperature difference from the outside.
• We would be in the car heading home from an event and be able to prepare our sides of the bed so it would be the perfect temperature once home.
• Our little dog Oscar gets cold easily; I would set the Eight Sleep on my side up to +10 and he'd burrow under the covers and take the happiest naps.
• When our daughter wasn't feeling well, she'd ask to sleep in our bed and would warm it up to be all cozy and snuggly.
• My husband would use the alarm feature, which would warm up and vibrate his side of the bed to wake him up more gently than a typical sound-based alarm.

The only maintenance needed was to switch out the water tank every few months; we'd keep a gallon of distilled water in the bathroom for that, but Eight Sleep would even email us to let us know it was time to do so.

Upgrading the Eight Sleep Mattress Cover

At the beginning of 2025, with good friends who were both dealing with health issues that affected their temperature regulation, we gave them our old Eight Sleep, and decided to upgrade to the newer Eight Sleep Pod 5.

The newer Eight Sleep was even quieter than the one we had. With the old Eight Sleep hub, there would be a quiet “woosh” when you changed the temperature. With the new one, absolutely no noise. The newer one gets colder and hotter, and can adjust temperatures much more quickly. There is a “hot flash” feature that will quickly make that side of the bed super cold, and a “nap” feature so you can have it keep you comfy for however long you plan to doze.

But one of the best features of the newer Eight Sleep is there are controls on the side of the mattress cover. No need to get out of bed or touch your phone (the Eight Sleep is controlled by an app). Each time you press the bottom button, the temp drops a notch; the top button it rises. The middle button can be either a “snooze” button for the alarm (what my husband has) or a button for “hot flash mode” which instantly cools your side of the bed (my choice). Your side of the mattress cover vibrates once to let you know it is adjusting per your request.

For the newer Eight Sleep, we again went with Affirm so there's a reasonable interest-free monthly payment instead of dropping almost $3K at once.

As for the Eight Sleep app, you don't need to touch it after setting up your device and setting how you want your schedule to be. However, it's a pretty nifty app. It will track the quality of sleep you got your breath rate, resting heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), and even how much and how loud you snored. You can do even more robust metrics if you desire to add in data about your day (workouts, consuming alcohol or caffeine, travel, illness, etc.).

My Eight Sleep app tells me my sleep is high quality (usually high 80s to mid-90s) and when it dips, I see how it's connected to drinking alcohol or being under the weather and no longer related to stress or emotion or perimenopause. My husband used to get up at least once a night to use the bathroom (men over 40, IYKYK). Now he has to maybe once every other week, and it's usually because he drank a lot of water before bed. I'm the same; rarely do I get up anymore to use the bathroom.

Both my husband and I had WHOOP fitness trackers, but when Eight Sleep upgraded the app to have all these metrics, we stopped using them (which saved us money that made the monthly Eight Sleep cost feel less painful).

Is the Eight Sleep Worth The Money?

Over the past several years, we have committed over $5K to Eight Sleep… and I think it's some of the best money we have spent. It truly is worth the cost. We live in a society that celebrates burnout, where we compete for who is more busy, more tired, who got the fewest hours of sleep. And it's literally killing us. Sleep is the most valuable thing for your mind, your body, your spirit.

I have bought so many pillows and cases and supposedly cooling sheets and comforters. My husband had a weighted blanket, grounding sheets, and his own mix of pillows. Now we each sleep with one pillow (he's a Mellow, I'm a Purple), “normal” sheets (we vary between Boll & Branch and Ettitude though we do have Slip pillowcases), and in summer a comforter with a blanket and quilt added in winter.

And my friend with the Ooler? After needing to have it replaced multiple times, she finally got an Eight Sleep and regrets not switching sooner!

A Few Questions I've Received About Our Eight Sleep

Over the years, I have had a lot of questions asked about our Eight Sleep; I hope to answer them here.

I hate to say the Eight Sleep is worth the cost, but it is. So ask me anything, I am happy to share any detail as this is not sponsored (though I do have affiliate links) and each month I see money going out of my account to pay for “just a mattress topper” that is anything but.