A widespread Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage on October 20 caused unexpected chaos far from the world of cloud computing in American bedrooms. Owners of Eight Sleep’s $2,000+ smart ‘Pod’ mattress covers woke up sweating or stranded in awkward positions after the internet-connected beds lost control during the disruption.
The outage began around 3 a.m. ET, when AWS reported “increased error rates and latencies” in its US-EAST-1 region, one of its most critical data centers. The ripple effect was massive, with Downdetector logging over eight million reports of disruptions across apps, games, and financial platforms. But for Eight Sleep customers, the impact was personal and very uncomfortable.
Eight Sleep’s Pod mattresses use cloud-based systems to manage temperature through water-cooled coils and monitor biometric data. When AWS went offline, so did the app controlling the beds, leaving users stuck at whatever settings were active at the time. Some beds overheated, others stopped cooling entirely, and a few refused to respond at all.
One viral post from tech enthusiast Alex Browne captured the frustration after his Pod locked itself nine degrees above room temperature. “Backend outage means I’m sleeping in a sauna,” he wrote. “Eight Sleep confirmed there’s no offline mode yet, but they’re working on it.” Another user complained that their smart bed froze in an inclined position, unable to flatten out.
As complaints spread across social media, some customers accused Eight Sleep of poor design, arguing that an expensive sleep device should have a local fallback system independent of internet connectivity. The company has already faced criticism over security vulnerabilities, including a 2024 report revealing exposed AWS keys that could have allowed hackers remote access to user devices.
AWS restored normal operations around 6 a.m. ET, and most connected services resumed shortly afterward. Eight Sleep CEO Matteo Franceschetti addressed the backlash directly, saying the company was moving quickly to implement an “outage mode” that would allow beds to function even when the cloud goes down.
“We will work the whole night + 24/7 to build an outage mode so the problem will be fixed extremely quickly,” Franceschetti promised.
 outage on October 20 caused unexpected chaos far from the world of cloud computing in American bedrooms. Owners of Eight Sleep’s $2,000+ smart ‘Pod’ mattress covers woke up sweating or stranded in awkward positions after the internet-connected beds lost control during the disruption. The outage began around 3 a.m. […]&media=https://wonderfulengineering.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-151.png){kind=link}