Eight Sleep CEO apologizes to users after AWS outage causes smart beds to go haywire

Eight Sleep, makers of the $3000 Mark Zuckerberg-approved sleep pod, found themselves apologizing to users after Monday's global AWS outage caused some of the pods to go haywire overnight – with non-stop alarms, freezing temperatures, some stuck in random positions, and one user even reporting they were left no choice but to sleep on the floor.

Being woken up in the middle of the night is never any fun, and even less so for those who've come to rely on an ultra-expensive and fully immersive smart bed, guaranteed to improve deep sleep by at least 20%.

Users say the connection outage caused the high-tech sleep pods to malfunction, setting off built-in alarms that wouldn't stop unless they unplugged the entire get-up.

Others reported flashing lights, speakers intermittently playing music, freezing or super hot mattress temperatures, and some pods simply stuck in incline positions.

With multiple comparisons to an episode of Black Mirror, the disruptions were so unnerving for some that they took to X, posting complaints on Eight Sleep CEO Matteo Franceschetti’s profile page, who in turn apologized profusely for the unexpected interruptions and provided play-by-play updates on the fixes throughout the night.

"We’re sorry for the inconvenience this has caused to your sleep," the company wrote on its incident update webpage.

Mine is still not working — it went super haywire and still seems to be turning on and off randomly with the inability to stop or control it. I had to unplug it.
I tried to get it going again and it’s still uncontrollable with the system turning on and off.

undefined Victoria Arlen (@Arlenv1) October 21, 2025

$3000 pod needs the internet to work

First launched in 2019, with the latest Pod 5 released in May, the $3000 Mac Daddy of sleep sets – consisting of a mattress base, topper, blanket, pod pillows, and other random accessories – has been endorsed by Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and other high-profile CEO’s, athletes, and celebrities.

The company’s website boasts “hundreds of thousands of users” who pay an exorbitant $200 monthly subscription to use the pod with a companion app that promises everything from zero-gravity rest and custom bed positions, to full-body climate control and integrated speakers, even the ability to wake users with “gentle vibration.”

However, as many users discovered, that's only if the pod is connected to the internet.

“Imagine a world where you blame AWS for making your mattress dysfunctional,” one X user commented.

“Let me get this straight (checks notes), your customers bought a subscription bed and ended up sleeping on the floor after one internet outage? Mind if I buy your customer list? I've got a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell them,” joked another.

Let me get this straight (checks notes) your customers bought a subscription bed and ended up sleeping on the floor after one internet outage?

Mind if I buy your customer list? I've got a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell them.

undefined Sebastian Stavar (@sebastavar) October 21, 2025

Pod uses a whopping 16GB+ to operate

But wait, there's more. After losing connection and witnessing his pod malfunction, random X user, @zimm3rmann, did some digging into the issue (before the AWS announcement), and somehow discovered that the app itself has been sucking up a ridiculous amount of data – 17.7GB per month to be exact – just to run the thing.

It turns out another user, who thought the X claim was "clickbait," checked their own stats and saw their pod was using up even more data at 28GB per month, or roughly 2GB per day.

“Is 16+gb/mo a normal amount of telemetry?” @zimm3rmann posted, adding, “It’s bad enough that you slapped a $200/yr subscription on things, worse that it doesn’t work at all without internet.”

Thought this was clickbait until I checked mine. pic.twitter.com/OmPBAHpOwg

undefined Adam Weber (@adamweber3) October 21, 2025

CEO promises fix

Amazon Web Services (AWS) experienced issues with its DNS server for more than nine hours starting late Sunday evening and continuing into Monday afternoon. The outage caused worldwide connectivity issues, preventing users from accessing apps, platforms, and websites across the globe to conduct everyday tasks like buying groceries or checking in at airports.

“The AWS outage is a reminder that business continuity planning isn't optional,” Sergiy Balynsky, VP of Engineering at cybersecurity company Spin.AI, tells Cybernews.

As seen in the case of Eight Sleep, Balynsky points out, “Organizations should maintain independent backups and diversify across multiple cloud providers – so a disruption in one platform doesn't bring operations to a halt.”

The unexpected AWS outage impacted at least 1,000 companies worldwide, from Snapchat, Reddit, Roblox, and Venmo, to Coinbase, Amazon Alexa, My Fitness Pal, and Microsoft Office and Teams, that depend on the cloud service provider to run their applications, software, and store data.

“Even the most reliable clouds can fail,” Balynsky explains.

“A strong business continuity plan should include not only reliable backups, but also cross-platform and multi-cloud redundancy to minimize business disruption and maintain access to critical data when one provider experiences downtime,” the VP says.

Meantime, CEO Franceschetti, a self-proclaimed “sleep nerd,” told disgruntled customers on X that moving forward, “We are currently outage-proofing your Pod experience and we will be working tonight-24/7 until that is done.”

Leaving not much else for Cybernews to tell our readers, except sleep well, of course.

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