Contributed by Emma Tracy
At Eight Sleep, we believe sleep is the foundation of human potential. Our mission is to elevate that potential through world-class sleep technology backed by rigorous, human-centered research.
Join us on our mission by becoming a member of our active research community to help shape the future of sleep.
Key Takeaways
- Eight Sleep Labs is our research community of members working alongside us to accelerate innovation in sleep science and its impact on human health.
- Anyone can apply, become a member by filling out this quick survey.
- Members receive monthly invitations to join a variety of studies with different levels of involvement.
Eight Sleep Labs is a community built to understand and improve how humans sleep, recover, and perform
Eight Sleep Labs is the engine behind everything we build, from the Pod to our most experimental ideas. Since forming Eight Sleep Labs, nearly 20,000 members have participated in more than 50 studies, helping us accelerate innovation and deepen the scientific understanding of temperature-based sleep optimization.
As a member of Eight Sleep Labs, you may test early prototypes, contribute to new features, or help us explore entirely new dimensions of sleep science. Some studies involve filling out a survey and take just a few minutes. Others include coming into one of our labs in the United States for a few hours, or testing unreleased technologies overnight from the comfort of your own bed.
Every data point helps refine and elevate the sleep experience for thousands.
Joining Eight Sleep Labs is easy, anyone can apply
Apply to Eight Sleep Labs by filling out this quick survey. Your application will be reviewed, and upon consideration of the requirements, you may be emailed about upcoming participation opportunities:
- Receive an email invitation that includes a summary of an upcoming study. If it interests you, you’ll complete a quick screening survey to confirm eligibility. From there, we sort through eligible participants and invite them to the next stage.
- Review the details. Before you are enrolled, you’ll look over and sign an informed consent form that outlines what the study involves, any requirements, and how your data will be used and protected. Depending on the study, you may also be asked to sign non-disclosure agreements for the protection of confidential business information.
- Meet the research team. Once you’re confirmed for a study, you’ll attend a live onboarding session with a Research Associate who will walk you through setup, any equipment you’ll be using, and how to complete the study tasks.
Each study is new and different, you get to pick the type of study and involvement that interests you
Most studies include brief morning check-ins plus study-specific tasks, like cognitive tests, logs, or lightweight sensors, designed to help us understand how sleep drives human performance. While each study is unique, they usually fall into one of these four goals.
1. Validation Testing
Validation Testing is our most established research workflow. It has a consistent goal to confirm the accuracy of core signals like heart rate, HRV, respiratory rate, and presence detection (when you are in/out of bed). We often run these studies on new Pod versions we’re developing.
What participation may look like:
- You may test a prototype Pod or accessory while wearing a gold-standard reference device such as a Polar heart rate monitor (Figure 1) or a home sleep test system (Figure 2). We compare the two data streams to verify accuracy before any product reaches members. After a few nights with the reference devices and a 6-month observation phase, you may get to keep the prototype depending on the study.
Figure 1. Screenshot from the Polar H10 product listing on Amazon.
Figure 2. Screenshot from the YouTube video “Zmachine Synergy Patient Instructions [OFFICIAL VIDEO]”
2. New Feature/Product Development
From snore mitigation features to pillows to supplement blends, every product development study looks a little different, but the goal is always the same: make it outstanding before it ever reaches you. Every design decision is backed by real member data and feedback.
What participation may look like:
- We put prototypes in your hands and learn from your data. Many studies include something called A/B testing, where you try two versions and tell us which one you prefer and why. It’s how we created our most comfortable pillow, our quietest adjustable base (Ultra), and our most effective supplement formulas.
- For the supplement study that designed Sleep Elixir, participants A/B tested two different blends (Figure 3) over three weeks with the first week as a baseline period (Figure 4). Each day included a quick survey to track caffeine intake and note any abnormal behaviors, plus a cognitive test once a week. We paired sleep data with daily feedback to understand which formulas improve sleep and next-day performance.
Figure 3. Supplement materials provided to participants, including color-coded weekly organizers used during testing.
Figure 4. Example supplement study schedule showing baseline, supplement periods, break days, and cognitive testing checkpoints.
3. Exploratory Studies
During exploratory studies our goal is to understand how the Pod impacts your health in everyday life.
What participation may look like:
- Most of these studies involve comparing how your sleep and cardiovascular recovery are modified by using the Pod’s temperatures. This can mean two things: either participants who are brand new to the Pod complete part of the study before