Short answer: Sam Nadler says Eight Sleep raised $50 million at a $1.5 billion valuation. Dr. Chadi Nabhan was surprised by the size of the market but notes insomnia caused by anxiety, work or burnout won't be fixed by a mattress.
Watch this answer from Episode 34 (starts at 18:23) · Episode 34 notes and transcript
From Episode 34: AI Is Rebuilding Clinical Trials, starting at 18:23.
Sam Nadler [18:23]: Alright. We wanted to choose something a little bit health focused. Obviously, sleep is really important. I think there's been a lot of recent trends in health care pop culture news about how important sleep is in the last couple years. Maybe it's always been important. Maybe it's always been trending important, but I feel like lately in Eight Sleep, this nothing too familiar about the product, and then this it's really this high end mattress where you can personalize it with cold air, warm air, elevation, etcetera, just raised 50,000,000 at a $1,500,000,000 valuation. So, obviously, doing pretty well, I'm assuming. In a, have you either of you used Eight Sleep? Are you I believe it's a subscription model. Are you subscribers? Have you sat on the bed? Have you tried it? And what do you think in general of this news?
Dr. Chadi Nabhan [19:13]: I am not. I was I read the article, and I was a bit fascinated by the valuation. I'm like, oh my god. But clearly, there's a huge market for this. I need something like this. I don't sleep well at all. Seems like, know, yeah, I mean, I don't know what Jordan thinks. I was a bit fascinated by the technology and more fascinated honestly by the not the market valuation, but more of the there's such a huge market for this. Like, didn't I didn't appreciate that much until I read this.
Jordan Metzner [19:44]: Yeah. So I don't have an Eight Sleep, but I've read both sides kind of like customers that are fanatical about it and saying that's changed the way they sleep, and then also heard like horror stories of like water leakage in their house and kind of not having a great experience. Maybe that's, both are kind of like vocal minorities. But yeah, I mean, I'm not a doctor, so I think that was like it would be interesting to get your take on it. But you know, I think the idea of being able to lower your body temperature while sleeping for people who sleep hot and I guess maybe the same the opposite direction, but you know, in an effort to kind of, improve the quality of sleep for the time that you have it is an interesting idea. I think this is I'm not exactly sure how the subscription aligns, like what happens if you stop paying the subscription, but does your bed stay
Sam Nadler [20:30]: Sleep on your own bed? Yeah. You have to stay hot at night. You have to sleep on the couch. Yeah.
Dr. Chadi Nabhan [20:38]: I mean, sleep is important. I think this would be a perfect infomercial at 2AM on all the channels when you're, like, trying to flip through the TV at 2AM and sleep and you get the infomercial for this.
Sam Nadler [20:48]: Yeah. I wonder if they have a solution for my, anxiety that keeps me up at night. I don't feel it's like a comfort issue. It's more of a mind issue. But, yeah, just a fun article. I need to, like, see a store can you see these in a store, or is it just an ecommerce solution?
Jordan Metzner [21:05]: I don't know if they have a retail location. I don't believe so, but, yeah, it's ecommerce mostly.
Dr. Chadi Nabhan [21:10]: But that actually what's what you said, Sam, is really important. I mean, when people have insomnia or don't sleep, how much of this is really because of the posture and the actual comfort versus whatever? I mean, all of these things, anxiety, work, burnout, there's so many things and that's not gonna be fixed with the mattress. But the market is telling us otherwise.
