This ‘smart’ mattress tracks my sleep so I can troubleshoot and wake up more well-rested — it also wakes me up during the right sleep cycle so I start the day more refreshed

• Smart mattresses are the latest way to track your sleep, which can lead to a more restful night overall.
• Eight’s Smart Bed not only tracks your sleep habits with a full report but also wakes you up at the optimal time according to your circadian rhythm, and the temperature of your bed can be adjusted to your needs too.
• When I was training for a 10K a year and a half ago, Eight’s smart hybrid mattress helped relieve some of the pressure off my sore muscles and tracked my sleeping habits so I could improve it for better, deeper sleep.
• At $1,095 for a Queen, it’s a steep investment for a mattress, but those who are looking to hack their sleeping habits can be assured that it’s money well spent.
• Read more: The best mattresses

I’ve never really been someone who has been all that interested in hacking their sleep.

Aside from not drinking coffee past 4 p.m., there isn’t a whole lot that I’ve ever attempted to do to make my sleeping better – mostly because I figured I slept just fine.

I rarely woke up tired, was pretty diligent about getting my eight hours, and, aside from the occasional midnight bathroom break, I almost never got up in the middle of the night.

About a year and a half ago, I started training for my first race as a runner and my body started to rebel against me. My limbs started aching, my back was killing me, and I felt it harder to fall asleep than ever before. So when I was given the chance to test-drive a smart mattress that tracks your sleep habits, I was immediately on board.

What is Eight and what mattresses does it offer?

Eight is a smart mattress company with three mattresses that come tricked out with a sleep technology in the form of a smart mattress cover.

The cover tracks everything from the bed temperature to how often you toss and turn to when you’re in deep sleep versus light sleep. It also comes with a built-in heating system for those who prefer a toasty mattress. (I’m someone who likes my mattress to be ice-cold, thank you very much.)

After chatting with some of the folks over at Eight, they decided I’d likely do best with the Original Smart Bed mattress. Unlike others from the brand, the Smart Bed is a hybrid mattress. That means it’s a mix of coils and foam, which gives it medium-to-soft firmness and good bounce. The coils are wrapped in foam, so you never feel them poking into your back, but they allow the mattress to breathe better than a solid foam design. That sounded like music to my ears, because of the aforementioned arctic sleeping preference.

The pieces arrived in two separate shipments – the cover first, followed by the mattress a few days later. The setup was extremely easy.

In fact, the hardest part was wrangling my old mattress out the door. My Smart Bed came vacuum-sealed, so all I had to do was pull it out of the bag, remove the seal, and let it inflate. Then you just pop the smart cover on, connect the hub to it in one easy snap, and plug it into the wall. I was able to do the whole set up, including putting my own sheets on the bed, in the amount of time it takes Karen and Georgia to get through one murder on “My Favorite Murder.” So about 20 minutes, give or take.

The mattress itself was extremely comfortable and I loved how it had the bounce of an innerspring mattress but contoured to my body like a foam mattress

I’m both a side and stomach sleeper, and the mattress gave me support where I needed it. The aches and pains from my running schedule were nixed almost immediately, and I found myself waking up less and less sore every morning – even the mornings after my long runs or workouts.

The smart cover connects to an app on your phone, which allows you to adjust the temperature. The app is also where you’ll find your daily sleep report, guided meditation, soothing sounds to fall asleep to, and a smart alarm. It’s basically your guide to sleep and how to do it well.

The Smart Bed tracks when you fall asleep, and how often you’re in and out of deep sleep, and you get a report each morning

The mattress smartly tracks your tosses and turns, when you get out of bed, and the temperature of your mattress. The report gives you a sleep score for the night before, which is your time slept multiplied by the number of tosses and turns. The report will also break down your entire night, letting you know the exact times of everything that went down during your sleep.

What I quickly learned is that I toss and turn a lot during my sleep. My average number of toss and turns is 28, and according to Eight’s website, the ideal number is five or less. Even though I sleep the recommended amount every night, my sleep score rarely cracked 75, which is just a “good” night’s sleep – not great.

Knowing this information helped me to troubleshoot my sleep

I tried going to bed earlier, going to sleep later, working out in the morning, then working out at night. What eventually seemed to help move the needle on my tossing and turning was the temperature of my apartment.

Even though my mattress was cool, my environment was warm, and that temperature discrepancy can lead to a restless night’s sleep. My fix? I started sleeping naked. Once that happened, I found myself tossing and turning less – and waking up more well-rested.

In addition to the sleep report, I’ve also come to rely on Eight’s smart alarm

Since the smart cover tracks when you’re in and out of light sleep, its smart alarm can help to wake you up when you’re in that moment of light sleep. This helps to ensure you’ll wake up more rested and refreshed. All you’ve got to do is set your alarm in the app, and then switch over to “smart alarm.” The app will then wake you up within a 30-minute range of your desired wake-up time or whenever you’re in a light sleep. So if you know you’ve got to wake up by 8 a.m., that’s the time you should set your alarm. The alarm may just be triggered at 7:45 if that’s when you’re in a light sleep.

Working with the smart alarm has meant that I wake up much more refreshed.

The bottom line

At $1,095 for a queen, the Eight Smart Bed mattress is a little pricey. But you’re getting so much more than a mattress.

You’re getting the promise of a better understanding of your sleep, which is a total blessing. I was able to see the quality of sleep I was getting and adjust it to suit my lifestyle better, which led to better and deeper sleep, and the cycle continues.

And if you don’t love it? Eight has a 100-day return policy, so you can send it back – no questions asked.

As for me, I will continue to track my sleep and utilize the smart alarm. I’ve hacked my sleep, and there’s no going back for me.