Internet Enabled Beds? What fresh hell is this?

As many of us woke up to frustratingly intermittent internet, others woke up wondering how they could sleep while their beds are burning. Okay, the beds weren’t really that hot, but they were uncomfortably warm: https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/internet-down-eight-sleep-amazon-was-b2849606.html.

So, who needs a smart/internet-connected/techno-mage bed? Joe Rogan does, apparently along with Lewis Hamilton and a few other celebrities who can be bought whether or not they were. Oh, and Elon Musk says it’s good too. So, you know it’s expensive.

The marketing sounds pretty good actually. It adjusts your bed to your preferences based on your sleep stage, body temperature, and other metrics. It adjusts the angle of the bed, the temperature, and the sound your bed emits.

Sound? I’ve tried sleeping with a Google Nest connected to Spotify. I had it playing some meditation podcasts while I went to sleep. It woke me up more than once playing some raunchy podcasts of unwanted opinions. That was way worse than my neighbor mowing her lawn at 8am on a Saturday.

So, I’m once bitten, twice shy with internet sounds messing with my sleep, and I’m actually done with Google Nest anyway. The damn thing is useless and people sometimes wonder why vinyl is making a comeback. If I want to listen to music, I’ll play it on something that I know works.

I’m sure the bed company, Eight Sleep, will actually fix their bed so that it can function like a bed if it is not connected to the internet. However, every company needs to be thinking through the implications of their decisions.

Connect the bed to the internet.

Sure, but what happens if the internet falls over or a hacker gets by our security or the bed short circuits or…?

That’ll never happen.

Well, it did. Wake up and start thinking longer term. Starting a business isn’t just about making money as immediately as possible. Running a business (whether you’re the owner, an investor, an employee, or a board member) is also about establishing a legacy. How do you want your business and your place in that business to be remembered?