A major Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage on October 20 exposed the dark side of the so-called “smart home” revolution, after users of Eight Sleep’s luxury smart beds found themselves unable to control their mattresses—resulting in overheated, unresponsive, or even tilted beds in the middle of the night.
Eight Sleep’s “Pod” beds, which retail for over $2,000, rely entirely on cloud connectivity for temperature regulation and biometric tracking. When AWS servers crashed in the early morning hours, the bed’s control app went offline, leaving customers stuck with whatever settings were last active. For many, that meant sleeping in a sweltering bed or losing cooling features entirely.
Dozens of frustrated users reported disrupted sleep and physical discomfort. One viral complaint from user Alex Browne described his bed being stuck nine degrees above room temperature. Others said their beds were frozen in awkward, inclined positions. Users were further outraged to learn the devices lacked any offline mode or manual override, leaving them helpless during the outage.
This isn’t the first time Eight Sleep has come under fire. In 2024, cybersecurity researchers discovered exposed AWS keys tied to the company, potentially allowing hackers to access customer beds remotely. Now, the October 20 outage has sparked new concerns—not just about convenience, but about safety and the growing risks of putting everyday devices under centralized internet control.
Eight Sleep CEO Matteo Franceschetti apologized for the incident and announced that the company is now working to add an offline “outage mode” to prevent similar problems in the future. But the damage may already be done: consumers are increasingly questioning the wisdom of relying on the cloud for basic household comfort.
