Local control for Eight Sleep Pods, without the Eight Sleep app or membership.
Nightstand runs on the computer inside an Eight Sleep Pod and gives you temperature control, schedules and optional sleep estimates from a browser on your home network. It's a personal fork of free-sleep (see Credits), and I run it on my own Pod 5, the only model it has been tested on.
Try the demo: every screen of the app with sample data, following the published release.
Nightstand is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or supported by Eight Sleep, Inc. "Eight Sleep" and "Pod" are used only to identify compatible devices.
Nightstand comes with no warranty (see License).
- There is no tested way back to Eight Sleep's software on a Pod 5. Eight Sleep's support page gives a reset for Pod 2 through Pod 5 (steps). I expect it to work, but I haven't tried it after an install and haven't found anyone who has, and I haven't tried the Pod 3 and Pod 4 steps either. If the Pod stops booting, the serial cable gives you a root shell to repair it. That doesn't restore Eight Sleep's software, and neither does switching to free-sleep.
- INSTALLATION.md says what each step changes on the Pod. From 3.6.0 the installer keeps a copy of each original system file it changes, and What installation changes on the Pod says how to put them back. Undoing those changes hasn't been tried on a Pod 5.
- A first install means opening the Pod's case, which Eight Sleep doesn't support and a firmware reset can't undo. It may affect your warranty and conflict with Eight Sleep's terms, so read both before you start.
- While Nightstand is installed, the Eight Sleep app, its membership features and firmware updates don't work on this Pod. Your account and membership continue until you change them with Eight Sleep. Some memberships include warranty coverage, so check yours first.
- Few Pods run Nightstand, so a lack of problem reports means little.
- Update, rollback, reset and boot recovery checks have run on my Pod 5, with gaps noted in the testing guide.
- The web app has no login. Any device that can reach the Pod can control it, read its sleep data, and install, roll back or replace its software.
- Eight Sleep's firmware still runs underneath and can upload raw sensor recordings to Eight Sleep unless you set up the optional firewall rules (installation step 19, which also says when Nightstand adds them or briefly lifts them).
- Alarms are vibration only and ring only while Nightstand is running. Scheduled alarms need the side on; a snoozed alarm rings even if the side was turned off. If Nightstand is stopped, restarting or updating, or the Pod doesn't answer within 3 minutes, the alarm is missed and the app shows which one and why. Away mode and a paused schedule skip alarms without a notice, so keep another alarm until you trust your setup.
- A fresh install gets the newest release, often a beta, and stays on that channel until you choose Stable in Settings > Software.
- Sleep data are estimates from bed sensors, not medical measurements.
The Pod keeps each side at its last temperature and turns it off by itself a few minutes after the scheduled off time. A side using "When I get up" goes off about 15 minutes after its scheduled off time, or within about 15 minutes of Nightstand stopping if it is already being kept on past it (at the latest off time while its schedule is paused). One turned on by hand goes off after 12 hours. Temperature changes and alarms stop until Nightstand is back.
Nightstand restarts itself if it crashes or stops answering. On a Pod 5 it also sets up watchdogs that restart the Pod if its system freezes, or if the stock Wi-Fi driver has crashed and the network stays down (how and how often). Whether a restart brings Wi-Fi back isn't confirmed yet. Other models are left as they are.
Updates and fork switches keep backups and try to restore the previous version when startup fails. After a power loss during an update swap, Nightstand makes one recovery attempt 45 seconds after boot, keeping a healthy live install or trying to restore the marked previous version (details and limits). If the app still loads, you can go back a version in Settings > Software. If automatic recovery fails and the app does not load, recovery needs SSH (step 18) or the serial cable. A failed first install has no earlier version to fall back to, so it needs SSH or the cable too. On a Pod 3 or Pod 4 a firmware reset is the last resort.
Automated tests simulate interrupted updates, slow restarts, full disks and bad downloads. On my Pod 5, a bad checksum was refused, and update, downgrade, rollback and reset-and-restore checks passed. After a power cut a few seconds after the server stopped for an update, it came back healthy on the previous install and cleared the recovery marker. A cut during the tree move itself is covered only by automated tests. Some update requests used the API, as the Install button does. These checks cover one Pod 5, not every simulated failure above.
Report problems here, not to free-sleep, which isn't responsible for this
fork. Open an issue with
your Pod model, Nightstand version and what happened. Include
fs-debug output if you can, minus
personal and network details.
| Pod | What to expect |
|---|---|
| Pod 5 | I have used it nightly since July 2026. |
| Pod 3, Pod 4 | Supported by free-sleep, not tested with Nightstand. |
| Pod 1, Pod 2 | Not supported. |
| Pod 6 | Unknown. |
One Pod 3 owner's reports led to three fixes; only the first is confirmed on that Pod. The adjustable base controls are untested, because I have no base. Biometrics has been tested only on one Pod 5 and checked against one public dataset.
I write much of the code with AI coding tools; each change passes the tests below and a separate review before it lands, and I decide what ships. Releases start on the beta channel and run on my own Pod 5 before I mark them stable.
The automated tests run the update, rollback and reset scripts through the simulated failures above. Roughly 2,200 server tests, 1,700 app tests and 800 Biometrics tests, plus more than 200 browser checks against the demo build. CI (GitHub's automatic checks) reruns them on every pull request and push, and its history is public. docs/TESTING.md lists the tests and the known gaps.
Follow INSTALLATION.md. You need a Mac or Linux computer, some comfort with a terminal and, except on a Pod 3 with an SD card, a serial cable (about $70 in parts). On another free-sleep fork already? Coming from free-sleep covers switching without reinstalling, and going back.
Once installed, the app is at http://eight-pod.local:3000 (or
http://<POD_IP>:3000). Keep the Pod on a trusted network and do not expose
it to the internet. For access away from home, see
remote access with Tailscale.
- Temperature in °F, °C or the Eight Sleep app's -10 to +10 scale, plus away mode, LED brightness and adjustable base control (untested)
- Schedules for power, temperature, priming and vibration alarms, with a one-side pause. Rhythms (beta, off by default): named plans per side, a week that assigns one to each day, and single-date changes
- Sleep data (see Biometrics): time in bed (measured); heart rate and, with New sleep tracking, breathing rate (estimates)
- Three themes under Settings > Bed and sides > Theme, saved on each device: lamp (the default), free-sleep classic and jmew. The last two follow the original free-sleep app by throwaway31265 and jmew's fork of it
Presence auto-off is on by default but needs Biometrics, which is off by default. It turns a side off after 45 minutes with nobody on it, outside its scheduled on hours.
With daily priming on, the Pod also restarts an hour before each prime, as free-sleep does (the switch is under Settings > Bed and sides > Priming).
Smart Schedule sets a rhythm's temperatures: comfortable when you lie down, a little cooler once you have settled in bed, and warming gently before your wake time. It doesn't learn from your sleep or change the curve from night to night. With Biometrics on, its only input is whether you are in bed, which starts the cool-down once you have been in bed for 20 minutes, but not before bedtime and never later than two hours after it.
A rhythm can also turn a side off "When I get up": about 10 minutes after you get up, and no later than 3 hours past the scheduled off time.
Both rely on presence, which in a shared bed can mistake the other sleeper for you. The timings are my own estimates, and the studies under "The research behind it" in the app didn't test this curve. It is not medical advice.
Biometrics is off by default. Install it once on the Pod with the command below, then turn it on in Settings > Features.
sh /home/dac/free-sleep/scripts/enable_biometrics.shNightstand keeps its sleep data on the Pod (server/API.md); the firmware's own uploads are covered under Before you install.
Upstream free-sleep compared its heart-rate estimate with reference devices, mostly Apple Watches, over 33 nights from six people (details). Nightstand's estimates have been checked only against a public dataset (Li et al., 2024: 22 healthy young adults sleeping alone on a different under-mattress sensor, with chest straps and breathing belts as the reference). On that dataset (bpm is beats per minute):
| Old tracking (the default) | New sleep tracking | |
|---|---|---|
| Heart rate | off by about 2.8 bpm on average | off by about 1.3 bpm, with a value for fewer minutes |
| Breathing rate | no better than a fixed guess, so hidden | off by about 0.4 breaths per minute |
Nobody has worn a reference device on my Pod, and in a shared bed one side can pick up the partner's heartbeat. HRV (heart rate variability) isn't shown because neither estimate was accurate enough on that dataset, and deep sleep and REM aren't shown because they haven't been compared with any reference, and time asleep isn't shown because the rule for when you fell asleep was wrong on most nights I checked (why). The sleep score isn't shown for now: without an estimate of time asleep it only reflected time in bed and trips out of bed. docs/VALIDATION.md has the details.
With old tracking, the vibration sensor picks up both sleepers, so one person getting in or out can show up on both sides. On a Pod 5 whose cover writes the newer capacitance records, this setting reads the capacitance sensor under each side instead, which responds mainly to the person on it.
I checked it over seven nights on one Pod 5 with two sleepers, against notes each sleeper kept of when they got into and out of bed. Its times were within 9 minutes of the notes on every night but one, a morning the bed was still in use, where they were 27 minutes apart (details).
One of those nights, old tracking against new. The labels come from New sleep tracking, not from the notes.
Elsewhere, including on a Pod 5 with the older records, the setting is experimental and hasn't been checked against anyone's sleep (details).
Use Settings > Software, which also has the channel picker, or fs-update
on the Pod.
From 3.6.0 on, the updater checks each download against the checksum (a fingerprint of the file) published for it in the release list, when one is published, using the installed copy; every release I offer has one. That catches a corrupted or swapped download, but not a compromised GitHub account. The update from 3.5.1 or earlier to 3.6.0 is not checked, because those versions have no checksum step.
Updating from 3.5.1 or earlier also needs more than 1,500 MB free on /
and more than 2,000 MB on /persistent, because those versions' updaters
check for that before they download anything. A Pod with less room can't
take the update through the app or fs-update.
Schedules and alarms pause for up to 5 minutes while Nightstand restarts, so the app asks first if a side is on or an alarm is near (details). The updater's checks after a restart are basic, so try your usual controls afterwards.
Rolling back restores the previous version's code and its firewall rules, which may be looser, but not an earlier database or Eight Sleep's firmware. Installing another release replaces the rollback copy.
- Nightstand has no error reporting or analytics. The app fetches only the release list and changelog from GitHub (a browser test on the demo build checks this).
- Installs and updates download from GitHub and npm, Node through Volta and, for Biometrics, Python packages from PyPI. The installer also reads the time from google.com.
- With the firewall rules on, only time sync, name lookups and update downloads get out (step 19). With Tailscale running, HTTPS, name lookups and UDP to any server are allowed, Eight Sleep's included.
fs-reset on the Pod erases Nightstand's settings, schedules and sleep data
but keeps its backups and the firmware's own raw recordings.
INSTALLATION.md says where, so you
can delete them too.
See CONTRIBUTING.md. Pull requests go to the dev branch.
Nightstand is a fork of jmew/free-sleep,
which builds on the original
throwaway31265/free-sleep
(upstream free-sleep in these docs). Most of the code here is theirs:
upstream built the installer, server, app and biometrics pipeline, and
jmew's fork added presence detection, sleep stages, one-time alarms,
adjustable base control and live screen updates.
Matt Gates (@Geczy) originally wrote
the adjustable base control that jmew's fork carried.
Multiple alarms per night came from
SFenton's fork, and sensorTemps
came from Felix Sommer's Beat2er fork.
@bobobo1618 worked out how the Pod is
controlled through dac.sock. Other contributions are credited in the
changelog.
- sleepypod: local control with a web and iOS app.
- Lunaris: Pod firmware built around Home Assistant and MQTT.
- hass-free-sleep: a Home Assistant integration for free-sleep.
MIT, the same terms as upstream free-sleep. LICENSE.md has the full text and upstream's disclaimer. There is no warranty.