Smart sleep is worth the cost

A better night’s sleep, every night, and you don’t have to do anything to make it happen. Sounds like the, ahem, dream, right? Also sounds like a line you might hear from some infomercial salesman at 4 in the morning when you can’t sleep and are willing to try anything. Turns out, the promise is real. It’s just really, really, really expensive.

On this episode of The Vergecast, The Verge’s Victoria Song tells us about her adventures in sleep gadgets. We talk for a while about the Eight Sleep Pod 4 Ultra, a mattress pad that costs $4,700 and requires a subscription. And might just be worth it, if a better night’s sleep is worth it to you. We also talk about the Oura Ring 4, the whole sleepmaxxing trend, the Ozlo Sleepbuds, and other ways you can use tech to improve your shut-eye. Most of it doesn’t count five grand, we promise.

After that, The Verge’s Allison Johnson comes on the show to make the case for human DJs. After spending some time with Spotify’s AI DJ, she discovered that a near-infinite playlist of songs she loves, curated by a near-human DJ that knows her name, is still not what she’s looking for. We talk about why, and what it says about how we should be mixing the human and the artificial in our day-to-day lives.

Finally, we answer a question on the Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11, or email vergecast@theverge.com!) about Samsung’s Frame TV. Nilay Patel takes us through the pros and cons of this odd screen and its many imitators, and we talk about what to do when you feel like you need a TV but maybe you don’t particularly want one.

For more on everything discussed in this episode, here are some links to get you started, beginning with sleep gadgets:

And on Spotify’s AI DJ:

And on the Frame TV: