$2,000 Smart Beds Overheat During AWS Outage, Leaving Owners Sweating Through the Night

ILLINOIS — A widespread Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage on Monday, October 20, caused chaos across industries — but some of the most frustrated users weren’t in offices or data centers. They were at home, sweating through the night in their $2,000 smart beds.

Owners of the high-tech Eight Sleep “Pod” mattress covers reported that their beds overheated and locked in awkward positions during the outage, leaving many unable to adjust temperature settings or turn the system off.

Smart Beds Go Offline Overnight

The Eight Sleep Pod uses AWS servers to manage functions such as temperature regulation, position control, and sleep tracking. When the servers went offline, users suddenly lost access to all app-based controls.

The result: overheating beds, stuck positions, and sleepless nights.

“My pod is at +5 [above room temperature] and I am sweating cuz I can’t turn [it] down or off,” one Reddit user wrote.
Another added, “Just woke up at 3 a.m. because I was sweating and realized bed wasn’t cooling and couldn’t login to the app. This company is so ridiculous for requiring an internet connection.”

CEO Issues Public Apology

Eight Sleep CEO Matteo Franceschetti addressed the issue on X (formerly Twitter), confirming that the AWS outage had affected customers around the world.

“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,” Franceschetti wrote.

He added that the company was “working through the night” to ensure future reliability.

“We are taking two main actions: 1) We are restoring all the features as AWS comes back. All devices are currently working, with some experiencing data processing delays. 2) We are currently outage-proofing your Pod experience and we will be working tonight — 24/7 until that is done,” he said.

Users Share Their Frustration

As AWS services slowly came back online, Eight Sleep confirmed to TechHive that a permanent fix was being rolled out to prevent future failures. But for users, the damage — and the sweat — had already set in.

One user on X named Brandon summed up the frustration perfectly:

“Would be great if my bed wasn’t stuck in an inclined position due to an AWS outage.”

How the Eight Sleep Pod Works

The Eight Sleep Pod is a smart bedding system that uses an “Active Grid” — a network of water tubes embedded in the mattress cover — to regulate temperature through a connected control unit called “The Hub.”

Instead of replacing an entire mattress, users can place the Pod over their existing bed. The Hub circulates warm or cool water through the cover, adjusting the surface temperature based on personal settings and sleep data.

However, as the outage proved, the system’s dependence on cloud connectivity means that without internet access, users lose nearly all control over the device — including the ability to stop it from overheating.

Tech Meets Comfort — With Risks

The AWS outage highlighted a growing concern among consumers: smart home products that fail when internet access is lost.

While Eight Sleep has pledged to create an offline backup system, the incident serves as a cautionary tale for tech-dependent comfort devices — especially those involving safety and health.

For now, Eight Sleep users are back to their regular rest — but many say they’ll think twice before trusting the cloud to keep them cool.

Have you had issues with smart home devices during outages? Share your story with us at NapervilleLocal.com and join the conversation on modern tech reliability.