A major Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage caused an unexpected nightmare for smart bed owners, when their $2,000 Eight Sleep beds overheated and even got stuck in the upright position during the night. The outage occurred on October 20, when AWS suffered a disruption. By mid-morning, millions of outage reports had been logged, affecting everything from apps and banking platforms to gaming services. Eight Sleep’s products rely entirely on cloud connectivity to adjust temperature, track sleep, and control the water-cooled coils that regulate comfort. When AWS went down, the beds lost connection to the app that manages these features, leaving users stuck with their last active settings. As a result, some smart beds overheated, while others became unresponsive altogether. Others reported their beds were stuck in an inclined or upright position, prompting demands for a backup mode that works without Internet access. Eight Sleep’s CEO, Matteo Franceschetti, responded quickly, saying the company would work around the clock to build an outage mode so this problem doesn't happen again. AWS said normal operations were restored around 6 a.m. on October 21, with most affected services coming back online.
