I Love to Sleep Hot and My Partner Loves to Sleep Cool—This Innovative Tool Lets Us Both Get Our Way

My screen time is none of my business, but if I were to take a look at the numbers, I'd venture a guess that I spend way too much time on social media, specifically viewing wellness content. I fall victim to optimization year-round, but the urge to overhaul my health habits is especially enticing in January. This year, instead of trying to walk 10,000 steps a day while wearing ankle weights and listening to self-help podcasts, I'm getting back to the basics. My biggest goal is simply to get a better night’s sleep. And our editor in chief, Nikki Ogunnaike, agrees.

"In 2025, I started my sleep hygiene journey, and in 2026, I'm taking it all the more seriously," she says. "That means TV off by 9 p.m., reading a book to wind down, and then hopefully asleep by 10 p.m. I'm also getting married this summer, so I'll be incorporating red light mask usage soon as well. I wouldn’t say my [sleep] hygiene is the greatest (the aforementioned routine is subject to change depending on whether I've got work events to attend in the evening), but when I'm on my square, it's really what I aim for."

Though this goal may seem simple enough, according to The Sleep Foundation, cis women (and trans women taking estrogen) have a harder time clocking quality sleep than men, despite needing more of it to function. This gets worse with age—hormonal shifts during pregnancy, breastfeeding, menstruation, menopause, and perimenopause can cause women to experience cramping, night sweats, restless leg syndrome, obstructive sleep apnea, and more. Throw in sharing a bed with a partner who prefers a different sleep temperature, and I'm regretting saying getting a good night's sleep is "basic."

For women, feeling well-rested clearly requires more than just lying in bed and shutting your eyes—which is why Nikki jumped at the chance to try The Pod by Eight Sleep to see if it helped with her unique sleep needs, as well as her fiancé's.

When Nikki received the Pod, she immediately unboxed and set up the included bed Cover and Hub, AKA the control center. Despite the Pod's futuristic name, Nikki says the setup process was easy: She added the Cover to her mattress like you would a fitted sheet and connected the Pod to her Wi-Fi to navigate the Cover's features. She also found the corresponding Eight Sleep app to be extremely helpful for onboarding everything—and for tracking her sleep stats in general.

The Pod has plenty of exciting benefits (more on that below), but Nikki was most excited for its temperature control features—like the Hot Flash Mode, which allows users to tap for a blast of cool air to help regulate their temperature—because it was designed with women's health in mind.

"Women's health issues are often understudied," says Nikki, "[Marie Claire] really tries to de-stigmatize conversations around perimenopause and menopause through stories that discuss the types of changes your body may be going through during that time [and] by featuring cover stars who have been vocal about what life has been like during this stage in their health."

Though women's health is at the forefront of the Pod's design, other key benefits—including its two temperature zones, which heat and cool each side of your mattress separately—also benefited Nikki's fiancé, Phillippe. "Philippe notoriously runs hot," she says, "while I'm a neutral sleeper, I do like to sleep on the warmer side, so the dual temperature zones helped with regulation."

Nikki also praised the Autopilot feature, an AI-driven tool that uses real-time data to track sleepers' body signals, sleep stages, and environment, and creates a personalized sleep climate. "When I'm stressed, I do experience night sweats (anxiety baby!), so the Autopilot feature helps cool me down and keep me asleep," she says.

Eight Sleep isn't just focused on helping you sleep restfully; it's also dedicated to helping you wake up more organically. Instead of a blaring alarm clock, the Pod has a heating and vibration setting that gently shakes you awake. "It's definitely good to use if you're someone who doesn't like sound in the morning," says Nikki.

As for her resolution to improve her sleep hygiene, Nikki agrees that the Pod is just the tool to get her there, thanks to the app's data tracking. Not only does it show her a sleep fitness score based on deep sleep and REM sleep, but it also shows her resting heart rate, breathing rate, and whether she was snoring or not.

"Because I'm really taking my sleep hygiene seriously this year, it's a tool I can use to A) gather data to help me sleep better and B) make adjustments with ease."

When asked her final thoughts after testing the product this month, Nikki concludes, "Not only am I obsessed, my fiancé loves it as well! The more products like the Eight Sleep Pod that are focused on women’s health and helping women in this life stage, the more conversations open and flow naturally."

Shop the Pod by Eight Sleep