TOSS AND TURN

Smart Beds Stuck Upright and Overheating During Outage

“Would be great if my bed wasn’t stuck in an inclined position,” one user complained.

An Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage on Monday caused many popular apps and online services to crash, and even affected services in the bedroom. The company Eight Sleep, which offers “Pod” mattress covers that operate on autopilot via the internet—adjusting temperature, elevating your body, and playing integrated soundscapes to enhance sleep—had to apologize after reports emerged that users experienced problems controlling the bed and setting it to offline mode, causing some beds to overheat or remain in positions that disrupted sleep. “The AWS outage has impacted some of our users since last night, disrupting their sleep. That is not the experience we want to provide, and I want to apologize for it,” posted the CEO of Eight Sleep, Matteo Franceschetti, on Monday. In response, users on X who purchased the “Pod” for $2,000 or more voiced their frustrations. “Would be great if my bed wasn’t stuck in an inclined position due to an AWS outage. Cmon now,” one user posted on X. After 6 p.m. ET on Monday, AWS noted that all services returned to normal operations, yet some Eight Sleep users called for the systems to be modified so beds could work offline in the future.